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I known someone who has been to the Tesla Model 3 production line. He said it was very advanced compared to other production lines and that was part of the iss

I known someone who has been to the Tesla Model 3 production line. He said it was very advanced compared to other production lines and that was part of the issue. Advanced means theoretically better, but it also means more risky to get going, lots of unknowns and new things. Apparently it is filled with ex-Toyota people.

kreetx 9y ago
Yes, supposedly there is plenty of exploration going on in making the process more automated than it usually is. Unsurprisingly, and not unlike software, bringing about masses of issues of things not working out-of-the-box. It will probably be great in the end, but stressful if the guy doing the exploring is you.
- millettjon 9y ago
  Good to see them pushing the boundaries. The payoff will be huge if they can achieve faster velocity of iterative improvements.
slivym 9y ago
Why does advanced mean theoretically better? From what I've seen from industry discussions, other companies seem to believe that Musk is automating processes at such a high cost that it would be more cost effective to actually employ humans to do those steps.
- Robotbeat 9y ago
  It usually does mean theoretically better. HOWEVER. The fly in the ointment is that increased automation usually only makes sense if you need to produce more cars and can tolerate delays as automation kinks are worked out (some of which may actually require changes in the car design). If you're making 100,000 cars per year per factory line, then very high automation doesn't make a lot of sense, and humans can often be more cost effective (from an opportunity cost perspective). But if you're producing 1,000,000 cars per line, then a lot of automation which wouldn't make sense at lower numbers now all of a sudden does. Tesla is developing some of this automation tech for a 500,000 per year Model 3 line, but where the full automation will really hit its stride is in the Model Y which is supposed to hit 1,000,000 per year from a single factory line. Model Y is supposed to have several design simplifications and modifications to enable more automated production.

kreetx 9y ago

Yes, supposedly there is plenty of exploration going on in making the process more automated than it usually is. Unsurprisingly, and not unlike software, bringing about masses of issues of things not working out-of-the-box. It will probably be great in the end, but stressful if the guy doing the exploring is you.

millettjon 9y ago
Good to see them pushing the boundaries. The payoff will be huge if they can achieve faster velocity of iterative improvements.

slivym 9y ago

Why does advanced mean theoretically better? From what I've seen from industry discussions, other companies seem to believe that Musk is automating processes at such a high cost that it would be more cost effective to actually employ humans to do those steps.

Robotbeat 9y ago
It usually does mean theoretically better. HOWEVER. The fly in the ointment is that increased automation usually only makes sense if you need to produce more cars and can tolerate delays as automation kinks are worked out (some of which may actually require changes in the car design). If you're making 100,000 cars per year per factory line, then very high automation doesn't make a lot of sense, and humans can often be more cost effective (from an opportunity cost perspective). But if you're producing 1,000,000 cars per line, then a lot of automation which wouldn't make sense at lower numbers now all of a sudden does. Tesla is developing some of this automation tech for a 500,000 per year Model 3 line, but where the full automation will really hit its stride is in the Model Y which is supposed to hit 1,000,000 per year from a single factory line. Model Y is supposed to have several design simplifications and modifications to enable more automated production.