Renewable energy equipment: three trades in one product, and one boundary to hold

Products here typically split three ways: the electronics follow **electronics assembly**, the frames and mounting structures follow **sheet metal fabrication**, and putting it together follows **machine build**.

Read those three; between them they cover the manufacturing entirely. This guide adds only two things.

Stop the cost sheet at the factory gate

Many orders in this sector include installation at the customer site. That work is **not part of the product cost** — it is a service with its own cost, it depends on the location, and it differs between two orders for the same product.

Merge the two and the sheet loses its meaning: you no longer know whether your product is expensive or cheap, only what that order cost.

Freight: bulky and fragile at once

The product is large and needs protection, so the truck **fills on space before payload** — like furniture, unlike steel fabrication. Enter cost per load and units per load, and record the distance assumed.

Transit damage is not negligible in this sector and it is a real cost. If you carry it, enter it as scrap with the cause noted as transport — because it leads to a packaging improvement, not a manufacturing one.

The ten categories

Roll up from the three parent guides using the machine build method: split parts into made, bought and subcontracted, and watch the double count when you supply material to a subcontractor.

Two additions to that method: the transit-damage scrap line above, and keeping site installation outside the sheet entirely.