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Tesla decided a few years ago to replace SAP with something they built themself https://www.mendix.com/blog/tesla-cio-builds-erp-house-4-months-says-time-erp-up

by olavgg 7y ago

Tesla decided a few years ago to replace SAP with something they built themself https://www.mendix.com/blog/tesla-cio-builds-erp-house-4-months-says-time-erp-upgrades/ https://www.mendix.com/blog/tesla-cio-builds-erp-house-4-mon... I love this story, it really isn't that hard to replace SAP once you know the requirements.

kamaal 7y ago
A lot of this is just plain pointless bravado. Eventually a lot of people have to outsource their payroll and other admin work, it's just cheaper that way. Then you just discover your are doing many things unique to your company so you kind of have to retrain a lot of finance and office management staff. And keep retraining them. Then also maintain teams of programmers to do maintain your software. You don't want a car company to focus its resources on payroll software.
- olavgg 7y ago
  Payroll software is an example which is easy to outsource. What I mean is that I think that Tesla is more of a software company, than a car company.
- hef19898 7y ago
  So Tesla is again loosing focus? man, if they would just focus on a) developing EVs and b) mass-produce them traditional car makers wouldn't stand a chance by know. That hybris can kill them one day...
- modo_mario 7y ago
  Not necessarily true. The place I work at does the payroll with some cheaper payroll ERP. Most other things...well let's just say a programmer to make the entire thing was cheaper and more effective. The ERP has to interface with various NFC and barcode scanners, ticket printers, etc other companies appliance interfaces, the consultancy costs to adapt and existing erp and make it keep track of the entire production process and it's unique quirks would be trough the roof and make any subsequent version upgrade unmanageable cost and time wise.
Aeolun 7y ago
If they did it in 4 months they must’ve had requirements that were so simple SAP was the wrong decision to begin with.
- solarkraft 7y ago
  They were using the Mendix "low code application development platform", which I suspect already comes with many ERP features.
jamestimmins 7y ago
My understanding is that SpaceX built their own ERP system in-house and then shared it with Tesla. So it's possible that "4 months" was really about forking/customizing it for their needs.

by olavgg 7y ago

kamaal 7y ago

A lot of this is just plain pointless bravado. Eventually a lot of people have to outsource their payroll and other admin work, it's just cheaper that way. Then you just discover your are doing many things unique to your company so you kind of have to retrain a lot of finance and office management staff. And keep retraining them. Then also maintain teams of programmers to do maintain your software. You don't want a car company to focus its resources on payroll software.

olavgg 7y ago
Payroll software is an example which is easy to outsource. What I mean is that I think that Tesla is more of a software company, than a car company.
hef19898 7y ago
So Tesla is again loosing focus? man, if they would just focus on a) developing EVs and b) mass-produce them traditional car makers wouldn't stand a chance by know. That hybris can kill them one day...
modo_mario 7y ago
Not necessarily true. The place I work at does the payroll with some cheaper payroll ERP. Most other things...well let's just say a programmer to make the entire thing was cheaper and more effective. The ERP has to interface with various NFC and barcode scanners, ticket printers, etc other companies appliance interfaces, the consultancy costs to adapt and existing erp and make it keep track of the entire production process and it's unique quirks would be trough the roof and make any subsequent version upgrade unmanageable cost and time wise.

Aeolun 7y ago

If they did it in 4 months they must’ve had requirements that were so simple SAP was the wrong decision to begin with.

solarkraft 7y ago
They were using the Mendix "low code application development platform", which I suspect already comes with many ERP features.

jamestimmins 7y ago

My understanding is that SpaceX built their own ERP system in-house and then shared it with Tesla. So it's possible that "4 months" was really about forking/customizing it for their needs.