New 'Tent' Assembly Line Is 'Way Better' Than Conventional Factory, Says Tesla CEO (arstechnica.com)

A few days ago, Elon Musk announced a "new general assembly line" made with "minimal resources." As Ars Technica reports, this new tented facility "is seemingly the first phase of an entirely new building, dubbed 'Factory 2.0.'" From the report: The tent is easily visible from the nearby Warm Springs BART station platform. When Ars visited on Monday afternoon, there appeared to be cranes and forklifts moving around the site. We could not easily see inside the long white temporary structure, but there did not appear to be any newly completed vehicles rolling off the lines in the adjacent parking lot. Still, one automotive expert that Ars spoke with said that a new temporary manufacturing facility on the same site as conventional automotive factories was unprecedented in the industry. Dave Sullivan, an analyst with Auto Pacific, told Ars that he wondered what was wrong with Tesla's existing facilities, if Musk decided the company needed more capacity. "It's almost a sign of desperation," he said. "It's a sprint to be profitable in the third quarter." Ars notes that "each tent is 53-feet-high by 150-feet-long -- there seem to be several connected in a long line, mounted with aluminum framing." In a tweet, Musk said: "It's actually way better than the factory building. More comfortable & a great view of the mountains."

Comments

There's a lot to be said for agility

[Bruce Perens]

So, Elon Musk and his company just built in 5 weeks, literally from the ground up, what GM might spend 10 years architecting and designing, getting the EIR, hiring the right unions and negotiating their contracts, contracting for an acquiring equipment, actually assembling it, staffing it, and starting it running.

This race for profitability is actually viewed with contempt by a commentator of the conventional auto industry.

There is a lot to be said for agility, as any manager or investor in a start-up will tell you. This is simply another difference between Silicon Valley business and the conventional auto business. The same sort of difference that allowed Tesla to make electric cars that could actually compete with gasoline cars on their own turf.

I hear Ferrari is just starting to introduce one that might compete, after Tesla has had theirs on the market since 2007, with three new models since. But that's it so far. Ferrari is pretty agile as auto manufacturers go, but at the cost of low manufacturing volume. Ferrari won't be selling its cars at even 5000/month. Tesla is trying to get both the volume and the innovation.

Re:There's a lot to be said for agility

[Bruce Perens]

The German folks who disassembled a Tesla showed that the parts costs would allow Tesla to make a nice profit. I'm sure that when they're building an assembly line in 5 weeks they're not making money, but that assembly line is going to keep running, even if they eventually move it into a permanent building. Let' also remember that they are selling a whole lot of electricity storage, solar panels, cars don't even have to be their main income stream.

Re:Check back after the first run

[vtcodger]

I've never been in a modern auto factory, but I've spent a lot of time in places where complex weapons systems were assembled. Temperature and humidity control wasn't an issue. In California, there wasn't any of either although the sheer mass of the facility tended to moderate temperature swings. In colder areas elsewhere there was some heating.

We're not talking a semiconductor fab facility here.

Tents

[AlanObject]

Have you guys ever been in Denver International Airport main terminal? It's a tent. It gets as hot in Denver as it does in Fremont.

Snark all you want but just because something is a quote TENT unquote doesn't mean it isn't a robust and practical structure.