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That's good news. As an aside what is the real world version of "technical debt?" Tesla's tent factories has helped them accelerate manufacturing, but is that

That's good news. As an aside what is the real world version of "technical debt?" Tesla's tent factories has helped them accelerate manufacturing, but is that a technical debt they'll have to come back and fix later? I've also read people speculate it could increase warranty return/recall rates due to contaminants (e.g. dirt, dust, etc) in the tents, which if true, could be another source of future debt.

robertk 8y ago
I doubt they will retain them. They were a temporary setup to get to the goal. It’s back to factories as usual now.
mcot2 8y ago
This is addressed in the statement. The “tent” is GA4. So far there are no quality issues and they expect to keep this line around, producing over 1,000 cars per month alone next month. GA3 at 5,000 plus GA4 at 1,000 equals their 6,000 goal for August. “GA4, our new General Assembly line for Model 3, was responsible for roughly 20% of Model 3s produced last week, with quality from that line being as good as our regular GA3 line. We expect that GA3 alone can reach a production rate of 5,000 Model 3s per week soon, but GA4 helped to get us there faster and will also help to exceed that rate.”
stetrain 8y ago
I would think that the real technical debt is inside at their first super-automated GA line. They now have the second line in the temporary structure which let them test some different methods and can provide some pressure relief while they rework the main GA line. They have been planning to expand and build new buildings at the Freemont plant for quite a while now [1], so I would expect the 'Tent' line to move to a more permanent location eventually. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/8s9913/teslas_tent_was_planned_years_ago_as_part_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/8s9913/teslas_... Edit: As someone in the reddit comments pointed out, the new Tent/GA4 line is on the location of an already planned new building (#11 in the drawing), so perhaps the line stays in place and a more permanent building is built around it.
karthikb 8y ago
I bet there are some steps within the tent that have better yields or better QC than inside the factory (others are undoubdtedly worse). How do those effectively get transferred over? Thats technical debt.

robertk 8y ago

I doubt they will retain them. They were a temporary setup to get to the goal. It’s back to factories as usual now.

mcot2 8y ago

This is addressed in the statement. The “tent” is GA4. So far there are no quality issues and they expect to keep this line around, producing over 1,000 cars per month alone next month. GA3 at 5,000 plus GA4 at 1,000 equals their 6,000 goal for August. “GA4, our new General Assembly line for Model 3, was responsible for roughly 20% of Model 3s produced last week, with quality from that line being as good as our regular GA3 line. We expect that GA3 alone can reach a production rate of 5,000 Model 3s per week soon, but GA4 helped to get us there faster and will also help to exceed that rate.”

stetrain 8y ago

I would think that the real technical debt is inside at their first super-automated GA line. They now have the second line in the temporary structure which let them test some different methods and can provide some pressure relief while they rework the main GA line. They have been planning to expand and build new buildings at the Freemont plant for quite a while now [1], so I would expect the 'Tent' line to move to a more permanent location eventually. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/8s9913/teslas_tent_was_planned_years_ago_as_part_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/8s9913/teslas_... Edit: As someone in the reddit comments pointed out, the new Tent/GA4 line is on the location of an already planned new building (#11 in the drawing), so perhaps the line stays in place and a more permanent building is built around it.

karthikb 8y ago

I bet there are some steps within the tent that have better yields or better QC than inside the factory (others are undoubdtedly worse). How do those effectively get transferred over? Thats technical debt.