Industry Directions Reviews Six Keys to Solar Cell Production Success

Industry Directions Inc. today published a new paper on what photovoltaics (PV) or solar cell manufacturers must do to succeed and grow as the market changes, revealing six keys to profitable growth that PV manufacturers must use to achieve a leadership position in this rapidly growing industry.

(PRWEB) February 26, 2008 -- Industry Directions Inc. today published a new paper on what photovoltaics (PV) or solar cell manufacturers must do to succeed and grow as the market changes. This paper reveals six keys to profitable growth that PV manufacturers must use to achieve a leadership position in this industry, which is already growing at 25% a year or more.

As the need for renewable energy grows, manufacturers of solar cells have tremendous opportunities to prosper. However, PV has been a niche market with enormous price elasticity among enthusiast buyers. As solar becomes a mainstream market, manufacturers must transform their operations to lower costs, increase consistency, and ramp up to take a leading market position. The six keys lay out some crucial aspects of production as PV grows and evolves.

The paper highlights the need for software to support production best practices throughout the life cycle of a PV company and its production operations. Leveraging data from the 2006 MESA International Metrics that Matter study, the paper shows that companies using plant wide systems such as manufacturing execution systems (MES) are more likely to have improved significantly on key business metrics such as net operating profit, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and return on (net) assets (ROA/RONA).

This paper, Six Keys to Profitable Growth in Solar Cells and Production Software's Role, is available on the Industry Directions Inc. web site for free download by interested parties. The work was underwritten by Camstar Systems, a leading provider of MES for solar cell manufacturers, medical device makers, semiconductor, and electronics companies.

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