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Tesla Relied On Too Many Robots To Build the Model 3, Elon Musk Says (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Elon Musk says Tesla relied on too many robots to build the Model 3, which is partly to blame for the delays in manufacturing the crucial mass-market electric car. In an interview with CBS Good Morning, Musk agreed with Tesla's critics that there was over-reliance on automation and too few human assembly line workers building the Model 3. Earlier this month, Tesla announced that it had officially missed its goal of making 2,500 Model 3 vehicles a week by the end of the first financial quarter of this year. It will start the second quarter making just 2,000 Model 3s per week, but the company says it still believes it can get to a rate of 5,000 Model 3s per week at the midway point of 2018. Previously, Tesla has blamed bottlenecks in the production of the Model 3's batteries at the company's Gigafactory for the delays. But in a wide-ranging (and largely positive) interview with CBS's Gayle King, Musk also admits it was Tesla's over-reliance on robots in the production. Musk then said the company needs more people working in the factory and that automation slowed the Model 3 production process. He alluded to a "crazy, complex network of conveyor belts" the company had previously used and said the company eliminated it after it became clear it wasn't working.
Exactly. They have no experience so they tried to use too many robots.
And industrial robots currently suck at doing their own QA.
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If he really wants to build 5000 cars a month, there will HAVE to be some crazy network of conveyors, they'll be making about 250 cars a day.
You don't push those around on carts by hand!
Everything must come together in a continuous process, an uninterrupted flow of parts in, cars out.
They're not there yet, and that's why they can't make it work. Running at 10 percent capacity with parts missing (or incorrect) everywhere along the line. Piles of sub-assemblies sitting everywhere that can't be completed. Ok this part is in, these 20 pieces can be completed up to the next screwed up part of the process.
I've seen that happen. It sucks!
The robots do EXACTLY what they are programmed to do.
Either their process hasn't been ironed out completely, or there was an incompetent automation setup. Possibly the setup was done too quickly.
THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
If only there was a state out there that was full of people that knew how to make cars. Perhaps if such a place existed, it may have been a better place for Tesla to HQ than silicon valley was.
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Henry Ford had those production numbers one hundred years ago.
I would recommend the tried and true industrial production method: Locate and hire a guy who's been a keystone at a competitor's assembly line.
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Tesla bought its factory super cheap: $42 million. That price is so cheap that essentially Toyota was investing in Tesla. That factory is in California, not Michigan.
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tesla-paid-only-42-million-for-Nummi-plant-3187254.php
Tesla's big cars have been extremely successful (they simply took market share away from other luxury car makers). The Model 3 is selling as many as they can make, and they are selling only the most expensive options for it right now. A year from now I expect there will be almost 200 thousand Model 3 cars out on the road. So overall I'd say that things are working out pretty well for Tesla.
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Depends on what QA needs to be done. Surface finish, dimensional inspections, color, electrical checks, etc are all relatively easy to have automated QA. The problem is that you may not know what parts of your process will have issues, and many of these checks must be custom-setup for each model. Setting up these processes and ironing out all the issues takes a lot of time. Much more time than Tesla had budgeted apparently.
Not only that, but what do you do with all the products that come off the line with a defect while you are in the tuning process? In most cases, these can't be fixed by running them through the line again, so you need time and people to fix them.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
On the flip side, Musk appears to be able to admit when he makes mistakes (and change direction accordingly).
When was the last time you saw that?
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