Every defect opened as a case, every work instruction learning from the outcome: BattWISE for those who assemble battery packs
For SMEs producing batteries and storage systems that must reach the 2027 digital passport without stopping the line. A European proposal scored 12.3 out of 15, built on a MES already in production.
Do you recognise at least two of these?
- Work instructions are PDFs on a notice board: the same for someone on their first day and for someone with ten years on the line.
- A defect at end of line is explained verbally, fixed, and reappears a month later at the same workstation.
- Onboarding a new operator takes weeks and depends on who mentors them.
- The 2027 digital battery passport is a deadline people talk about, without knowing which data is really needed.
- Functional tests, end of line and workstation photos sit in three systems that do not talk to each other.
If you said yes at least twice, the problem is not the line: it is that what the line learns does not come back to the people working on it.
What does a recurring defect cost?
The reference numbers come from a real battery pack line, 7,500 packs a year, with a custom MES in production: serial-number traceability, structured defect events, statistics per workstation and per phase.
- A recurring defect costs twice the fix plus the scrap, and nobody counts it because the second time "it just happened".
- A scrapped assembled pack carries cells, BMS and assembly hours: it is the most expensive item in the plant to throw away.
- A new operator working with instructions written for an expert produces defects the expert would not, and vice versa: one instruction for all costs both.
What changes with BattWISE: the four differences
- Outcome-grounded recommendations, not generated ones: the suggestion to the operator comes from what really happened at that workstation (open defects, successful fixes), not from text produced by a language model. No hallucinations on the shop floor.
- Instructions adaptive to competence: the same phase shows different steps, photos and checks to someone on day one and to an expert, and the level rises with results.
- Digital battery passport: every pack is born with the data Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 requires from 18 February 2027, collected while producing, not reconstructed afterwards.
- Causal graph between workstation, phase, material and outcome: when a defect recurs, you see where it comes from and which instruction to change.
The measurable targets written in the proposal
The proposal was submitted to the European AID4SME call (challenge C3.3, digital work instructions and skills capture) and scored 12.3 out of 15, with technology readiness from TRL 6 to TRL 8. The targets, all measurable on the line:
- 100% of defects opened as cases, with cause and fix.
- −30% recurring defects.
- −40% time from report to fix.
- −20% scrap.
- −30% onboarding time for a new operator.
These are targets, not results already measured: the page will be updated with the line's numbers when the project runs. The client stays anonymous for confidentiality.
How does it work on the shop floor, without stopping anything?
BattWISE sits on the existing MES: workstations, phases, functional tests and end of line stay as they are. The operator sees the instruction on the workstation tablet and confirms they have read it; a defect opened at test becomes a case with photo, workstation and phase; the successful fix comes back as a recommendation to the same workstation. AI proposes the instruction update, the production manager confirms, and it stays on record who did. No automatic evaluation of people: the AI Act (art. 4 and annex III) and Italian workers' rights law (art. 4 of the Workers' Statute) are design constraints, not footnotes.
Does it apply outside batteries?
Yes: digital work instructions with acknowledgement, non-conformities with corrective actions, digital product passport and a metrics alarm engine are modules already in production in six sectors, from Veneto to Abruzzo (waste, wood, batteries, metalworking, industrial mechanics, solar energy). Batteries have the 2027 deadline; the method applies to any assembly line.
How much does it cost, and where do we start?
We start from the custom MES: serial traceability and defect events are the base. Then a clickable mockup from 1,500 to 3,000 € deducted from the total, a written quote paid in stages, a working demo every two weeks; by the day, from 850 to 1,100 € a day. Grants and incentives are matched to the company's profile.
The next step is small: 30 free minutes with ten documents or one month of real data. If it makes sense, a clickable mockup you see before investing. Starts are scheduled one at a time.