Tesla’s Musk Takes Charge of Model 3 Production as Problems Persist
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"About a year ago, I asked Doug to manage both engineering & production. He agreed that Tesla needed eng & prod better aligned, so we don’t design cars that are crazy hard to build. Right now, tho, better to divide & conquer, so I’m back to sleeping at factory. Car biz is hell …"
Edit: Downvotes on this comment? Really? What, do you think you're able to imagine the amount of experience he's getting? Do you think the top execs at other manufacturers have the same experience and hands-on approach?
But I just happened to catch the bulk of an hour long interview with its author, Tom Peters, today.
https://the1a.org/shows/2018-04-02/excellence-explained
And the parent comment reminds me of what he had to say about MBWA -- Management By Wandering Around.
It doesn't exactly fit what it appears Musk is currently doing. But as for the experience gained and benefit of being down on the floor, on the front line. Well, Peters' enthusiasm and description of same, seemed on point, to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_by_wandering_around
If there are problems, at least Musk is not sitting in his office, learning of them and trying to deal with them through layers of reports (both people and paper/electrons/photons).
P.S. As a possible counter-balance to this, I'll mention the complaints that have been reported about worker welfare on those same production lines. To the extent those are true, they would be in opposition to the practices Peters espouses.
Also liked from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemba#Gemba_walk
If I had to pick two tools from Lean production methods that everyone at every level of any company should use, it would be Go and See (Genchi Genbutsu) and Ask Why 5 Times.
and
"Mr. Krüger joined BMW in April 1992 and served as Director of its Production Strategy, Control and Planning Division. He managed BMW Group's engine plant at Hams Hall in the UK and served a number of positions within the Human Resources division. He served as the Chairman and Director of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. from May 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013. Mr. Krüger serves as a Director of BMW Manufacturing Co. LLC."
Yep, quite a fair bet that any of those two know far more about auto-making than Musk ever will.
Or how sustainable "double yoy" sales are.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/502208/tesla-quarterly-v...
Say what you want about how long it is taking them to get going, Tesla make excellent cars and the longer they make them the better they will be.
One of those things doesn't sound much like the other.
Most people who ordered a Tesla realy want one so they are just going to wait.
Maybe some shareholderd might see it as a problem because they could have sold more Teslas in the same amount of time. But it's not that they are cheap and everyone can afford one.
The second issue is that of competition. Model S didn't have any meaningful EV competition. Model 3 competition is still comparably low but this will look different in 2-3 years. If they produce enough cars until then, prospective buyers will eventually switch to another brand.
As soon as you become large, they look up at you and can't wait to see you fall, overly negative.
Who thought making cars was difficult? And mass production? And electrical cars, pushing the boundaries or batteries.
The light are still on in the factory, so the company's doing well.
This isn't just a press bias, but a seemingly-universal human bias.
[1] https://undark.org/article/why-we-root-for-the-underdog/
Show me somebody in this comment thread that remotely matches this.
Of course he messes it up and he is late. He is not creating a twitter clone.
Tesla seems to be having some severe growing pains, but I have learned not to count Elon or any of his ventures out. Self-landing reusable rockets were impossible too according to pretty much the entire aerospace industry. If it comes down to it Tesla could still raise quite a bit of money almost overnight, albeit probably with more dilution than they would prefer. I have little doubt that they will eventually scale up. Question is how much blood they will have to spill in the form of liquidity and market cap before they get there.
I guess they didn't ask the people who designed and built the Apollo lunar landing modules in the 1960s?
It never becomes mathematically impossible to achieve escape, but it can become engineering-impossible, ie the propellant fraction becomes so high that it’s impossible to build a structure that can contain the propellant and maintain mechanical stability. Just for reference, modern rockets are 90+ percent propellant by mass.
For more, see https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/exped...
The lunar module was navigated and landed by a human pilot (with computer assistance).
The descent stage stayed on the Moon, and wasn't reused (except as a launch platform for the ascent stage). The ascent stage also wasn't reused - after the astronauts exited from the ascent stage into the command module, the ascent stage was jettisoned to crash into the lunar surface (or sent into solar orbit). Only the command module returned to Earth.
Only if they have forgotten the DC-X, which I doubt they have done.
Still waiting on the self-driving vaporware that thousands paid advance for...
1. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/823727035088416768 3 months maybe, 6 months definitely 23 Jan 2017
The production issues are a whole different can of worms but the autonomous driving accidents are what the public sees.
People need to understand that Tesla is not the only company that can deliver self driving hardware nor are they the only manufacturer of EVs. They are currently the maker of the more desired EV but with some of the old school automakers joining the fray they will see their high end model profit vanish.
finally, I am still not convinced they ever plan to actually sell a base model.
downvote edit Please see an owner recreation using the same version AP with the same condition zhttps://youtu.be/6QCF8tVqM3I
What is the rational thought it permitting that on the road.
that is what happened in the recent fatality, tell me how that is even remotely acceptable regardless of disclaimers. I seriously doubt adaptive cruise control would do the same, the majority of them work by following other vehicles.
Cruise control ll control the steering? I thought it just maintain the speed...
Me: Why aren't your hands on the wheel?
Him: They don't need to be. It tells me once in a while when I need to touch the wheel.
Think about that for a minute. This is representative of your average driver. People are so blindly trusting of autopilot that they deliberately don't even touch the wheel at all, opting instead to play with their phone until the car nags them to pay attention for one second.
This is so completely different than cruise control that the two are barely comparable in terms of driver mindset.
“Can’t believe you’re even writing about this. My job as CEO is to focus on what’s most critical, which is currently Model 3 production. Doug, who I regard as one of the world’s most talented engineering execs, is focused on vehicle engineering.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/98091067176319385...
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/02/elon-musk-takes-charge-of-te...
I wish success to Tesla, at least a little bit, but I'm really curious to know how they fixed their assembly line