Build better batteries: Part 3 Don’t just do it. Do it right.

You only need six numbers to win the lottery. But in delivering a battery project, thousands must be correct.

Execution isn’t just construction—it’s a disciplined process that determines whether your battery project thrives or fails. Explore in more detail in Part 3 of the Build better batteries video series.

That’s the difference between luck and precision. Yet across the industry, companies are gambling with timelines, skipping critical steps, and hoping their projects hold together.

This laissez-faire attitude has led to a graveyard of failed projects, resulting in multi-billion-dollar facilities that sit idle, underperform, or fail altogether. In a sector where even a 15% cost overrun can erase profitability, chaos isn’t just expensive. It’s existential.

And still, many projects proceed with a “just do it” mentality. But batteries aren’t made in a vacuum—they’re built through thousands of coordinated actions, systems, and decisions. Doing it right means knowing the risks, understanding the consequences, and planning for what’s coming.

Successful execution starts with planning

Success requires rigor. Systems. Cross-functional planning. Scenario modeling. Risk scoring. Battery projects aren’t lotteries, and you can’t afford to gamble.

For a project to succeed, it must be properly planned, but too often, teams set milestones and create schedules that assume certainty in uncertain conditions. Engineering sequences and dependencies are misunderstood or forgotten altogether. Permits get delayed. Product requirements shift. Equipment takes longer to arrive, and inter-facility connections are often more complex than anticipated.

Amid policy-driven pressure to localize supply chains, a race to secure funding, and volatile demand forecasts, many projects prioritize speed over strategy. But when building the energy infrastructure of the future, cutting corners isn’t efficient. It’s risk accumulation.

The materials may be advanced, but the fundamentals of project delivery remain rooted in something timeless: disciplined planning, informed integration, and execution control. In other words, sound execution is about doing the right work in the right sequence, at the right time.

Define the work. Sequence with precision. Time it right.

• Clarify deliverables. Identify the exact outputs required for handoff of every phase: FEL1–4, detailed design, construction, and commissioning.
• Set technical gates. What validation must be complete before you move from lab to pilot, pilot to semi-works, and semi-works to full scale? Skip a gate, and you’re building on uncertainty.
• Document assumptions. Every decision—in chemistry, equipment selection, or vendor choice—rests on assumptions. Record them and revisit and test them later. It’s okay to take on some risk when you can understand and manage it.
• Map dependencies. Visualize every task as a node in a network. Miss one node, and the chain breaks.
• Apply chess-style foresight. If you only plan for the next move, you’ll be navigating blind in an evolving environment.
• Build in review points. At each sequence milestone, pause to confirm data, tools, and personnel are ready. If the answer is “not yet,” you’ve caught a risk before it becomes a crisis.
• Align resources. Don’t send an installation crew before engineering drawings are final or order long-lead equipment without validated specifications. Even a one-week gap in alignment can cascade into months of costly delay.
• Anticipate curveballs. Permits, supplier quality issues, manufacturing process tweaks: plan for them. Give your schedule and execution method slack where uncertainty is highest.
• Maintain operational readiness. Commissioning isn’t the end—operations begin at startup. Part 4 of this series will explore scheduled operator training, SOP roll-out, and system hand-over in lockstep with mechanical completion.

The illusion of momentum

It’s easy to mistake motion for progress. When unforeseen challenges arise—delays in permit approvals, lead-time increases on long-lead equipment, changes in upstream material specifications—teams often fall into “just do it” mode. Action replaces analysis. Movement replaces strategy. But in a system this complex, reacting without recalibrating only deepens the chaos.

Imagine walking blindfolded through a forest, focused only on the step in front of you. You won’t notice the cliff until it’s too late. That’s how reactive project management works. You execute the current task, but without understanding how it fits into the larger system, or what the next move requires.

Planning is your drone view. It gives you sight lines beyond your current position to effectively navigate a robust execution model.

You’re not guessing six numbers—you’re solving for thousands.

Smart execution requires sequencing, systems, and sustained control. It’s about building better batteries that go beyond making the right technical choices. It’s about ensuring those choices are carried forward through design, construction, and operations without losing sight of the broader vision.

Contact us to learn how to reduce chaos, increase readiness, and deliver projects that perform.