A method for laser scribing of thin-films for the manufacture of solar cell panels comprises loading a workpiece with the transparent substrate facing downwards in an input station of a first machine; biasing a reference edge of the workpiece against a front and rear stopper associated with a linear drive; translating the workpiece back and forth between the input station and output station and firing two or more laser beams at a first frequency substantially vertically through a space between the input and output stations to pass through the transparent substrate of the workpiece to scribe parallel lines on the front electrodes with reference to the edge of the workpiece in contact with the front and rear stoppers; and indexing the two or more laser sources and repeating the back and forth translation of the work piece between the input and output stations.