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In April, Elon Musk admitted that Tesla was shot in the foot trying to automate his production process excessively. "Humans are underrated," he tweeted.
Tesla got there because Musk had ordered engineers to know how to "automate everything" for the production of model 3, the electric car he had promised to sell $ 35,000 to the mass market. Musk insisted on automation in the face of concerns from his team, who warned that robots were not suitable for certain stages of production, such as installing seals on car doors, reported CNBC yesterday (October 19) . The expensive robots that Tesla bought for work never worked properly and were out of use during the summer.
If Musk's mea culpa in April was unusual, its reach was far from perfect. The automation incident was "emblematic" of Musk's management style, CNBC said:
Interviews with 35 past and present employees portray an ambitious CEO whose willingness to do everything from scratch has sometimes hindered his decision-making, leading him to approve expensive projects that have failed and have delayed the production. They also described instances in which Musk had refused to consider methods developed by other automakers and had ignored the advice of veterans of the area in Tesla's ranks.
Musk also insisted on the "vision system" and the "magic carpet". This last project aimed to accelerate the quality controls of fully assembled models. High resolution cameras took pictures of completed cars and sent them to inspectors located in another part of the factory for approval or remote signage. But former employees told CNBC that cameras did not always have a clear view of important parts and that they also bothered workers.
The "magic carpet" was supposed to be a software-driven treadmill that was transferring parts to the production workers of Model 3. Tesla planned to spend $ 40 million on the project and assigned 20 engineers for three months, but the system never worked
Tesla was also constrained by Musk's micromanagement and his insistence on doing things differently from traditional builders. Musk rejected everything from organization methods to industrial terminology used by companies such as GM and Toyota, CNBC reported, preferring that Tesla develops its own approach. Musk also asked Tesla to create its own software instead of relying on corporate programs from companies like SAP. Employees told CNBC that the programs were often incomplete and that information could be lost among the many disparate systems.
Tesla has achieved its goal of producing more than 5,000 model 3 cars a week in the third quarter. But the selling price of $ 45,000 is far from that goal (Tesla says the actual cost is closer to $ 30,000 when you factor in federal tax incentives, state rebates and gasoline savings ). The company is far from producing the 500,000 electric cars planned for this year by Musk in 2016.
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