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I'll just point out that auto makers who manufacture in the 100's of millions of units often have mandatory, stop-use, stop-sales recalls on their products 5-10

• klyrs 7y ago
  Two scenarios: 1. A flaw is found in a standardized design impacting hundreds of units. Engineers identity a fix, and technicians receive training on how to apply the fix. They apply the fix to hundreds of units in a standardized and repeatable fashion. If the flaw is catastrophic, chances are this will prevent hundreds of catastrophes. 2. You have an industry producing hundreds of bespoke designs. Each time a flaw is found, engineers work to devise a solution, and technicians repair the flaw on an ad-hoc basis. The industry is competitive, so potential learning surrounding individual flaws does not propagate quickly. Each catastrophic flaw is a new catastrophe, endangering many lives. Funny thing about auto makers manufacturing 100s of millions of units: they're still hugely profitable and despite the risk of mass recalls, bespoke designs are practically unheard of.
  • jhayward 7y ago
    This is moving the goalposts quite a bit. The GP was asserting, in essence, that it was naive and fear-mongering to say that mass-produced designs may have major flaws that need recall. Now we get the argument that yes, that will happen but it will still be profitable to do so. All of this contradicts 70 years of nuclear industry experience. It is an unsupported assertion, not a truth, that modular manufacturing will experience a beneficial industrial learning curve that will bend costs toward being competitive with alternatives.