Calder Materials develops the cathode material for sodium-ion batteries, which store energy without lithium. It has 58 people, with labs and a pilot line in Abingdon, and Helen Oduya is its Head of Research. Each team sets the questions it will answer this quarter as climbs in Headwater, and checks in on them every Monday.
- Decide whether the coated material goes to the pilot lineSSOn track
- Build the first full-size test cellsEPOn track
- 1Cycler channels 17 and 18 stop overnightAQ9 days
- 2Glovebox 2 takes an hour to purge after each useEP5 days
A climb is something a person or a team will finish this quarter. The result of an experiment can’t be promised in advance, so Calder writes each research climb as a question the team will answer by the end of the quarter.
Signe’s first draft for October to December was “Get the coated material to 90% after 500 cycles”. If the cells kept 88%, the climb would fail, even though the team had done all the work. Her climb is now “Decide whether the coated material goes to the pilot line”. In the done when line, Signe wrote what the team needs to have finished, and the milestones are the steps of the test.
Without a coating, the material keeps 85% of its capacity after 500 cycles, and the pilot line needs 90%. Whatever the result in December, the team will have its answer and the climb will be done. Calder uses the result to choose next quarter’s climb.
Choose a result to see the climb close, and the climb proposed for next quarter.
Done when Twelve pouch cells have run 500 cycles, and the leadership team has decided whether the coated material goes to the pilot line.
- Make three coated batches2 Oct
- Build 12 pouch cells16 Oct
- Start cycling the cells19 Oct
- Reach 300 cycles20 Nov
- Reach 500 cycles4 Dec
- Show the results at the leadership huddle8 Dec
Calder’s plan for this year has an initiative to cut the cost of the material by a third. An initiative is a project that runs from the start of one period to the end of another, and each one belongs to one of the plan’s pillars, which are its few main goals. This one runs from April 2026 to March 2027.
From April to September, Idris had a climb each quarter to test recipes without nickel, the most expensive raw material Calder uses. He tried nine recipes. The best reached 118 mAh/g, and Calder needs 140.
Idris closed his climb with the answer at his Monday check-in. At the Materials huddle that afternoon, Kofi raised an issue about stopping the work and moved it to the Leadership list, because stopping it changes the plan for the year. The leadership team solved the issue on Tuesday and recorded the outcome as a decision, with the reason. Anyone at Calder can look up the decision later to see why the work stopped.
Step through September, from Idris’s check-in to the plan as it is now.
- Choose three dopants to try17 Jul
- Make five doped recipes7 Aug
- Build coin cells from each21 Aug
- Measure each recipe’s capacity28 Aug
- Cycle the best recipe to 200 cycles4 Sep
Book a demo and we’ll show you how Headwater would run your week, from the vision down to Monday morning.