Towards Predictive Quality Control in Large-Scale Battery Cell Finalization: A Pillar-Based Framework

Cell finalization, including End-of-Line (EoL) testing and quality control (QC), constitutes a critical bottleneck in lithium-ion battery manufacturing. These processes dominate production time and impose substantial demands on energy, capital investment, and factory floor space. Despite their high resource intensity, prevailing QC methods fail to reliably assure long-term performance or effectively mitigate cell-to-cell variability, making QC a decisive cost and risk factor. This paper gives insight into common QC practices in battery cell finalization, derives key limitations, and discusses recent approaches for improving cell characterization, with a focus on predictive quality control (PQC). An overview of recent advances in PQC research is given, distinguishing between approaches for immediate quality assessment and cycle life prediction. To bridge the gap between academic research and industrial application, four essential pillars for industrially viable PQC systems are derived from industrial QC practices, big data quality management, and standardization efforts: Functionality, Scalability, Integrability and Adaptability. These pillars form a research agenda aimed at implementing PQC in large-scale battery manufacturing and advancing QC capabilities toward industrial deployment.