Tesla switching to 24/7 shifts to push for more model 3s by June
jalopnik.com
jalopnik.com
Really? The Model 3's panel gaps are quite well-known among car owners. One example from Munro and Associates: https://youtu.be/QCIo8e12sBM?t=394
How can Elon say this with a straight face?
A TRW unit bearing supplied to Tesla in one bolt pattern and spline configuration isn't any more precise than the same bearing assembly in a different bolt pattern and spline configuration sold to GM.
Tesla is not in a position to dictate abnormally high tolerances to it's suppliers for stuff like that.
Edit: Why am I being down-voted. Is this not a correct analysis of the situation?
A bit cheeky none the less.
"We found this massive list of a problems with this build of the car."
'So? That's from, like, a year ago, we've changed a ton of stuff since then.'
> Our car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and precision that, if an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps and flushness, and their measurements don’t match the Model 3 specs, it just means that their measuring tape is wrong.
Designing in tolerances that allow considerably mismatched parts to be combined is beneficial for the manufacturer, if they have a long list of people willing to buy the product regardless of the mismatch.
I guess when he starts talking about their achieved manufacturing tolerances?
This is about what you expect from a highly automated production line. If it's not working perfectly, production quality and quantity are poor. There are line stops all the time. Once it's fully debugged, product comes out in vast quantities. Then you need to watch quality.
In the end, Tesla took about as long as everybody else does to debug a final assembly line. They tried to use it for production during debugging, which ran up their costs.
> Btw, here are a few productivity recommendations:
> - Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.
> - Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.
> - Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.
> - Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don’t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.
> - Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the “chain of command”. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.
> - A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.
> - In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a “company rule” is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.
Getting rid of acronyms will have an inverse effect on productivity. Are you supposed to explain each time you refer to it?
I agree if someone is new to the team then you should probably explain a few times before using acronyms. But for established teams, this just slows everyone down.
Chain of command is there so that no one goes over the other person's head. If two developers disagree on an approach and one just straight up goes to the manager instead of the project manager it causes issues for the whole team. I'm a fan of "hey you should be able to talk to whomever you want", but not as the default.
Company rule is there to protect the worker in case they made a bad decision. As long as it was within the company rule, they can't be blamed as much as "hey I used common sense".
For massive companies you need these systems in place.
There are smarter-than-average people working at Tesla; they will figure out what is useless and what can be reasonably applied as productivity measure. They just need to be reminded to consider these things every once in a while, like the rest of us.
This is a way to create a clusterfuck. Nothing is worse than having people barging in from other departments going over managers' heads and imposing their own priorities.
That's not the same as imposing different priorities, it's just a question of "I need X in order to do Y".
This is how a company should operate. Where everyone is on the same team, working to solve the most pressing problems, and working on what on what justifiably blocks the company from it's most critical goals.
Again its critical to hire non-idiots, and this works great. Hence why people who do things without rationally justifiable reasons get fired from Tesla regularly.
One would generally assume that if someone from another department is commenting on something, particularly if they are a lower level employee, they are generally doing it because they genuinely believe there is some kind of important issue.
And even if it turns out that it isn't important, the time spent briefly annoying someone is generally going to be much less costly than overlooking an issue of actual importance.
“Please refer anyone you know who you think meets the Tesla bar for talent, drive and trust” he wrote. “Between Fremont and Giga, Tesla will be adding about 400 people per week for several weeks.”
There is a very wide range of contractor performance, from excellent to worse than a drunken sloth. All contracting companies should consider the coming week to be a final opportunity to demonstrate excellence. Any that fail to meet the Tesla standard of excellence will have their contracts ended on Monday.
Unless this is an empty threat a bunch of contractors will be out the door on Monday. Which means less capacity to do the work.
Hiring line employees for a 3rd shift is great, but where are all the supporting ops people like safety engineers and plant managers going to come from? Doing that means a bunch of white collar employees just got a whole lot more work to do.
Sure that company has employees, but if they are not doing the job it is better to find a different company that will.
>Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.
>Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.
>Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.
But I still don't like the social convention that its people think its rude to leave a meeting when you have nothing left to contribute. I think any effort to change that could have a positive effect on workplace productivity and moral.
> I think any effort to change that could have a positive effect on workplace productivity and moral.
Of course. But in most big companies, that's just CEO speak, business goes on as usual 2 days later. Musk already has a cult of personality, this type of email makes it sound even more like it'd be a good place to work (which it might be, but not because of the line you quoted).
I’d settle for precision beating their previous janky models with a nearly 50% recall rate.
Our car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and precision that, if an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps and flushness, and their measurements don’t match the Model 3 specs, it just means that their measuring tape is wrong.
Right, and if their “autopilot” kills them, they were using it wrong.
There is a very wide range of contractor performance, from excellent to worse than a drunken sloth. All contracting companies should consider the coming week to be a final opportunity to demonstrate excellence. Any that fail to meet the Tesla standard of excellence will have their contracts ended on Monday.
This whole letter reads like a puff piece intended for fanboys and stakeholders to pass around and fantasize about, but three weeks of meeting goals shouldn’t give anyone a head this big. This is from the same guy who just realized he couldn’t automate everything he wanted to, and who the NTSB just booted off a death investigation. The last thing needed here is grandiose talk.
Instead of trying to leap from being marginal to the greatest ever, how about trying to meet reasonable goals, safety standards, and work with the NTSB? Instead of trying for Ferrari-esque panel gaps, just do better than the Model S and meet basic industry standards within class.
This is an odd way to end a memo titled "Progress". Are employees supposed to be motivated by the prospect of a self-propagating series of tough slogs?
I'm guessing "HTTP" is exempt.
In any case, I think you could enforce the spirit of that idea with something like:
1) Don't use abbreviations or terms outside of common English unless it's in The Glossary.
2) If you want to use such a term, add it to the Glossary.
3) It's some group's job to review the Glossary for garbage.
I detest the invention and use of these acronyms and – ignoring the rest of the email – I for one would love to see such an instruction come from management at my place of work.
It's not just rude, it's an intentional power play and a shibboleth to identify outsiders. No one wants to be the one who looks stupid or not part of the scene by asking what an acronym means, so it's a way to lord over other people.
The wicked jargon is the normal English word with a weird specific meaning.
If you use a TLA or a bunch of latin I know that I don't know what you mean, and I look it up or I ask you.
If you use a normal English word but in a specific way I may think I know what you mean, and I may not ask you. This is a hinderance to communication.
I really like his attitude that an already big company should not act like a conglomerate. Cutting middleman is always something that I advise my managers to do, as well as pointless time-wasting meetings.
Keep in mind that some Germans here think Tesla is a joke, because “nobody can mass produce cars so easily”
And they are both right and wrong. It’s a tough business, but I have no doubt that someone like him can actually make it till the end.
If the chain of command is inefficient, then change it, don't go around it. Managers are there for a reason, and leaving them out to get quicker results will bite you in the butt down the road.
I work in a "flat" company now and couldn't be happier. Also, I haven't seen such productivity in any siloed company around. Managers should help with communication and cooperation when needed, not act as a gateway when I need to have a quick chat with another technical people in different department.
At this point I don’t trust any predictions or promises Musk says. His timelines (and level of product quality) are something to be very suspicious about.
And that doesn’t include when I think he’s flat out lying for marketing reasons (“Autopilot”).
I used to like Tesla, but this happens too much. I don’t doubt the production rate will improve, I doubt his estimate. I doubt the quality will improve to the level he claims (or possibly much at all). I doubt the Y will come out anywhere near on time.
I don’t see why he should deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore.
So I suspect a fair amount of posturing and astroturfing amongst the detractors mixed within those who have are more sincere in their positions.
As always, be skeptical.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-13/tesla-may...