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Insiders describe a chaotic environment within Panasonic's battery manufacturing operation in the Nevada desert, where standard usage procedures are ignored, costly mistakes are born out of negligence and where a half million waste is generated each day.
"I do not think Tesla knows everything [that goes on on Panasonic’s side], "said a former employee who left the company at the end of last year. It is impossible to know everything. If Elon Musk had to know what was really going on, he would flip his lid. "
Tesla and Panasonic share the Gigafactory – a huge manufacturing facility outside Reno, built in 2016. Panasonic manufactures cells for Tesla's cars and, at the Gigafactory, Tesla turns the cells into batteries for its New model 3 sedan. Tesla also manufactures the training units for the model 3.
Last week, Nikkei announced that Tesla and Panasonic would freeze their Gigafactory expansion plans. Tesla's share fell, while that of Panasonic rose to news. Tesla responded to the story by saying that both companies were still investing "in substantial funds" in the Gigafactory, but that there were more "results to be gained by upgrading existing production facilities". Tesla CEO Elon Musk called The rate of production of Panasonic is a "constraint on the exit of the model 3" that the company knows since the month of July.
Indeed, three current and former employees (who spoke under the guise of anonymity) told Business Insider that the operation removes about half a million cells a day. Business Insider also reviewed internal company documents, including some relating to an oil spill that prompted management to struggle to find potentially contaminated cells for weeks. Together, they tell the story of an operation that always tries to make its mark as the batteries leave the production line and enter the model 3. And just like the Tesla side of the Gigafactory, there is a pressure intense to achieve production goals and work at breakneck speed.
A spokesman for Panasonic answered a list of Business Insider's detailed questions on these issues with the following statement:
"Panasonic manufactures the most advanced electric vehicle battery cells because we pay exceptional attention to quality," he said. "Our quality control protocols are industry standards and include lab-like cleanroom and lab conditions, and battery cells go through multiple test ports before they are unplugged." to be delivered to Tesla, and Tesla is testing the cells separately after their delivery.We are proud to have helped propel one of the most exciting revolutions in the automotive industry. "
If you have already worked with Tesla or Panasonic, contact me at [email protected].
Quickly, a few words (very general) on the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.
Inside the battery is made up of a positively charged electron sheet (anode) and a negatively charged electron sheet (cathode). A thin material separates the two. All this rolled together made inside a battery cell.
Panasonic is sending Tesla about 3 million battery cells a day, making it a gigantic operation with all that that entails: giant 16-foot blenders mixing lithium and other chemicals, standard procedures allowing to keep the volatile ingredients clean and a tracking system follow the materials throughout the production process. It's an expensive operation too. Panasonic represents the lion's share of Tesla's $ 18 billion purchase obligations, of which $ 4.8 billion are due in 2019, according to documents filed by Tesla Corporation.
Employees, past and present, told Business Insider that standard operating procedures were often ignored without consequences for the facility.
On several occasions, one of the 16-foot mixers (containing a mixture of chemicals, including volatile lithium), fell inside the plant, three people told the business insider. This "something" – whether scissors, a roll of tape or a tool – is usually found when the mixer is being cleaned.
"People just do not have the integrity to say" hey, I've done something wrong, "said a former employee.
Greg Less, technical director of the battery manufacturing and characterization facility at the Michigan Energy Institute's Energy Institute, told Business Insider that if a piece of shrapnel was penetrated into the lithium mixture, it could pierce the separator between the anode and the cathode and cause a short circuit.
The shrapnel would not need to be very big – a millimeter or a half millimeter – and they could be thin, the width of a human hair or less, a- we added. In theory, if the room was long enough to pierce the separator and Carrying a current between the anode and the cathode could cause a fire, he said.
"The presence of pieces of metal in your mix could cause real performance problems, not to mention damage to your equipment," Less said.
Read more: Wall Street fears Tesla will start again
Last September, Business Insider also learned that an oil spill had put Panasonic's operation into crisis mode for about two weeks.
The spill was detected on September 17, according to internal documents consulted by Business Insider, but it is not known when it started. The mechanical oil was deposited on one of Panasonic's huge machines used to press the cathode material into a sheet.
The machine then contaminated the affected product. Employees had to shut down and sift through millions of nearly completed battery cells to find the potentially impacted product, sources said.
According to documents reviewed by Business Insider, as well as employee accounts, Panasonic searched for a product that had passed through the contaminated machine since 9/11. This research was extended to the final stages of the production process and all Panasonic products suspected of being contaminated was scrapped, according to internal documents and employees.
A current employee who spoke under the guise of anonymity for fear of retaliation told Business Insider that he was concerned that Panasonic had not properly located the start of the spill.
"If my car is leaking oil, how will I know what day it started?" the employee said.
Mark Ellis, senior partner at Munro and Associates, a manufacturing consulting firm, said the oil spill would upset him tremendously because the whole product would be an "auto scrap".
"You do not want the electrodes to be contaminated," he said on the phone by Business Insider.
One current employee said he was concerned about contaminated cells because of Panasonic's tracking system in the factory. Potential battery cells are tracked throughout the plant using a lot number system. Depending on the employees, as they move from one step to the next, a new piece of paper bearing this number and other details is printed and stuck on the product.
The three current and former employees who spoke to Business Insider said that this document was often misplaced. The tape falls or the paper tears. When this happens, workers sometimes take the paper of a similar product and use it to scan it down the line so that everything continues to advance without interruption. People are worried that this practice, which goes against the official procedure, undermines the traceability of battery cells.
Read more: Internal documents reveal that Tesla is blowing on a senseless amount of raw materials and money to make models 3 and that production remains a nightmare
Panasonic sends about 3 million battery cells to Tesla a day, and the pressure is still strong to exceed the previous targets. That's why, said the employees at Business Insider, some workers inside the factory sometimes put adhesive tape on sensors on machines that can detect defects. They do not want production to stop.
"If I went through a factory and saw tape on the sensor, I would be kicking ass," Ellis told Business Insider.
Faults missed earlier in the process are often detected later in the production chain when the product enters the production coil phase, where the sheets are wound together as a cylinder. Panasonic's winding machines have dozens of sensors – too much for workers to handle. Thus, the machines can detect defects, including defective / expired materials, dust, misalignment, etc.
A spokesman for Tesla said that he was performing numerous tests on the battery cells once they had been received from Panasonic, and that the cells that were not making the cut are sent back to Panasonic .
The winding phase is causing the bulk of the plant's waste, a half-million battery cells a day, said a current employee and a former employee. Employees begin each position with a ministerial meeting where they are informed of the production of the previous position and the number of cells discarded.
"Why are we throwing away half a million stacks a day because people are lazy and the material is not clean," said the former employee. The three employees, past and present, also said that the rules for cleanroom cladding were often ignored inside the factory.
According to Ellis, winders should be 70% to 85% efficient and should not catch a lot of waste.
"If the scrap came from the winders, I would put myself to ballistics," he said. "They've been making cylindrical cells for decades, and if people can not make sure their machines do something they've been doing for decades, they should be ashamed, they should be operating at a much higher rate.
A spokesman for Panasonic responded to Ellis' statement, saying the company "respectfully disapproves" of its estimates and that they do not reflect the company's numbers.
But Less and Ellis both explained that the more a damaged product is in the production process, the more money is wasted on the labor, materials, and depreciation of the product. # 39; s equipment.
"This [scrap level] is really excessive. I would be crazy about myself if it was my factory, "Ellis said. They obviously do not control all their assembly processes. That's what would cause that. "
If you have already worked with Tesla or Panasonic, contact me at [email protected].
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