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<p type = "text" content = "On July 1, Elon Musk went to sleep at home. The CEO of Tesla Inc. was camping in his electric car factory in Fremont, California, for the most part. slept on a couch or under a desk, as part of a pressure campaign led by the entire company to get out of what he calls "the hell of production" by manufacturing at least 5,000 of its new Model 3 sedans in a week.I was wearing the same clothes for five days, "says Musk in an interview to Bloomberg Businessweek :" My credibility, the credibility of all of the The team was at stake. "data-reactid =" 22 "> On July 1, Elon Musk went home to sleep, and Tesla's general manager was camping in his electric car factory in Fremont, California. a good part of last week he was sleeping on a couch, or under a desk, in the It's a corporate campaign to get out of what it calls "the hell of production" by making at least 5,000 of Tesla's new Model 3 sedans in a week. "I wore the same clothes for five days," says Musk in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek . "My credibility, the credibility of the entire team" was at stake.
Musk had originally pledged 200,000 Model 3 by the end of 2017. To get there, he planned an unprecedented investment in the factory robots, calling the production line "The machine that builds the machine." He said it would sound like "an extraterrestrial dreadnought" – a manufacturing process so futuristic, unstoppable and profitable that it would seem extraterrestrial.
way. Tesla finished the year 2017 after not doing quite 2,700 models 3s. By the end of June, about 41,000 of them had doubts about the possibility of making a profit on the car, and Tesla did not even start selling the base model at 35,000 $.
Even more serious, Tesla has a $ 10 billion debt and suffered a downgrade in March. On average, it spends about $ 1 billion more per quarter than it absorbed last year, and the cost of a recently announced plant in China is still unknown. Tesla is running out of money at a time when competition is gaining momentum – Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler and others are planning to launch dozens of electric car models.
In early June, at the annual meeting of Tesla, Musk but sometimes seemed close to tears. "It's like – I tell you – the worst month I've ever had," he said, before noting that Tesla's assembly lines were further improved, which made the company "very likely". . He also revealed that he had asked employees to build a third general assembly line that would be "significantly better than lines 1 and 2." It seemed even more strange.
A week later, Musk published a photo of the news. ease on Twitter. There were no sophisticated robotic systems, nor fixed walls, even just a large tent on the outside of the factory built from scrap other lines. The world of the automobile has flinched. "Madness," said Max Warburton, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., in an email to Bloomberg News. "I do not think anyone has seen anything like this outside of the military trying to serve vehicles in a war zone."
The tent was enough. "I think we've become a true automotive company," Musk wrote in a July 1 email to employees saying Tesla had manufactured 5,031 Model 3 the week before. Even so, it is not clear whether Musk has put Tesla on the road to a lasting greatness or just avoided collapse. The company is the best-selling US stock, and a higher percentage of Wall Street analysts attribute to TSLA a higher sales rating than the S & P 500. The history of the sprint of Tesla to Release Model 3, based on interviews of 20 members of Tesla's design and engineering teams, suppliers and dozens of current and former workers, is a case study in a brilliant design and pride incredible
The price for Musk is huge: if he gets the model 3, he will remake a trillion dollar industry and do more to reduce carbon emissions than anyone else on the planet. But series cars may be the only challenge that challenges him.
In early 2015, Musk convened a meeting of its best engineers in a windowless conference room of the factory. There were 12 people, including experts in batteries, design, chassis, interiors, bodywork, drive systems, safety and thermodynamics. Musk had collected them to understand what the Model 3 would be.
During the meeting, the engineers filled a white board with dozens of requirements, including a range of at least 200 miles and an affordable price. The last of these criteria made the project particularly discouraging. Even more scary, Tesla would start selling it mid-2017, giving the company 2 ½ years to design, test and build a new vehicle, compared to about five years at a traditional car manufacturer.
Creating a cheap electric car is to maximize reach in every way possible. For example, Tesla designers have added plastic lids, costing $ 1.50 each, to hide four cushions on the underside of the car where a jack goes. The decision reduced the wind resistance and improved the range of the car by 3 miles. They also opted for four-piston monobloc caliper brakes, usually reserved for more expensive cars. But as the brakes are lightweight, they lower the car's battery requirements and overall cost. "Every decision like this one has been placed in the context of an electric car," says Doug Field, a former vice president of Apple, Musk, recruited as an engineer in 2013. In other words, electric cars require new performance.
Musk ruled that Model 3 would have a single central display for all controls and information, which would both reduce costs and allow Tesla to push the front seats forward to allow more space for the legs. Tesla's design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, spent the Christmas holidays 2015 designing a car interior without a traditional dashboard.
Musk said that he did not want visible events. "I do not want to see holes," remembers von Holzhausen. Von Holzhausen has paired engineer Joseph Mardall with designer Peter Blades to imagine it. The sketch of the blades required a hollow space across the width of the car from which the air would flow, with a long strip of wood instead of the dashboard. Mandel pointed out that for the approach to work, the entire ventilation system should be redesigned. Musk was serious, but a second problem soon appeared: the strip of wood, just below the air gap, was working like an airplane wing, sucking in cold air and pulling it into the knees of the pilot. Mardall, an aerodynamics specialist, proposed to add a second hidden gap from which air would propel itself up, raising the main air to cold air at above the piece of wood and away from the driver's crotch. "It was one of those eureka moments," recalls Blades, still impressed by the elegance of the solution. "The spine continues to clink."
The system designed by Blades and Mardall combines all the components of a standard HVAC system into a single plastic globe molded under the hood, which Tesla calls the Superbottle. The glob is marked with the logo of a bottle wearing a cape of superheroes
Blades and Mardall relay all this with pride. "I had to negotiate with my wife: I'll do it seven days a week for the next half year," recalls Blades. "And it's not just me – women or everyone's partners – it's just a part of the story of Tesla. In this business, if you do not ask these questions silly and ask to do something crazy, it's not really the right place for you. "
If such loyalty seems extreme, it's partly thanks to its reputation and, some say, He was mocked in 2002 when, as a 31-year-old non-aerospace software entrepreneur, he founded SpaceX.He now launches more rockets a year than any other other company.
The mass production of a car is not a rocket science; in some ways it is more difficult. The rockets can basically be built and checked by hand A perfect car must come out of the production line every minute if you have a prayer to keep pace with the princesses ipaux manufacturers of the world. The cars are made up of tens of thousands of individual parts and have to withstand snow, potholes and speed on highways, achieving impeccable performance for years. They are the biggest purchase that most people make outside of a home, and they are also highly regulated lethal weapons that contribute to more than a million deaths each year.
In a typical factory run by Toyota Motor Corp. Most capable car manufacturer, a new car requires about 30 hours of work. Even with all the robots, Tesla spends more than three times that number of hours on each car, says Michelle Hill, a manufacturing expert with management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. And Toyota would never, as Musk did, try a new manufacturing system and a whole new workforce on a car ever built before. The success of car manufacturing is "the orchestration of so many things that must play together in unison," she said.
Musk's contempt for precedents, of course, is part of his call. In the weeks leading up to the public unveiling of Model 3 in March 2016, employees bet on the number of potential buyers who would pay a $ 1,000 refundable deposit to reserve one. The most optimistic prediction was about 200,000; the real number was twice that. Field remembers opening his staff meeting the following week with a warning: "You are now working in a different company," he said. "Everything changed."
According to a supplier, Tesla had stated that he planned to spend 28 months to achieve mass-scale mass production, but after seeing the demand for the car, Tesla increased the chronology by 15 months. He previously said that he would build 500,000 cars a year by 2020, a goal that skeptics have described as extravagant. But in May 2016, Musk said the plan was to do it in 2018.
In an unconventional move, Musk restructured Tesla, charging the engineers who designed the model 3 to invent its process of manufacturing. He put Field in charge of the factory and gave him the budget to automate as much of the assembly of the car as possible. Tesla has bought two robotics companies, Grohmann Engineering in Germany and Perbix in Minnesota. Field's team has invented dozens of industrial processes. The one involved a tool called the gold wheel, a device that automatically breaks suspensions and aligns cars in one step without humans.
Manufacturers usually rely on thousands of suppliers, from wiper manufacturers to electronics manufacturers. But Musk has long argued that the traditional vendor model leads to cost overruns and mediocrity. As of 2015, he told employees that he wanted to build in-house the thorniest parts of his supply chain. In late 2015, he named Steve MacManus, a recently hired car interiors expert, to build a seating plant near the main Fremont factory. The assembly of seats is demanding in terms of manpower and is entrusted by all major car companies to the lowest-paid workers they can find. MacManus remembers that Musk had told him during their first conversation after he had started.
Thus, in an area of the MacManus Model 3 line of seats, more than a dozen robots assemble the front seats, including small engines, hinges, radiators and frames. Tesla says that it is the first assembly line of front seats to the world in which no human is involved at all. The plan is ultimately to use the Musk Tunnel Digging Company, the Boring Co., to dig a subway to bring seating to and from the main Fremont factory, about 2 miles apart. . They already have a place in mind.
Musk continues to try to bring other parts of the Tesla supply chain into the company. In an email sent to employees this spring, he also announced that he would fire all contractors and consultants, unless a Tesla employee is personally vouching for them. "We will rub barnacles," he said at the company's May call. "It's really crazy.We have barnacles on barnacles.There is going to be a lot of kidnapping of geese."
For critics, Musk's description of contractors as parasitic crustaceans It is revealing, he is passionately committed to Tesla's mission to save the world from global warming, but sometimes Tesla seemed to fall short of more mundane obligations, such as ensuring his workers are safe. 2016, eight months before the start of model 3 production, a factory employee heard a shout coming from outside the main building of the Fremont factory .He saw a colleague , the head of quality control, Robert Limon, wringing himself on the bitumen and grabbing at his leg that was "bleeding like crazy," says the worker.The details of this incident have not been previously reported.
Limon's colleagues Someone around him Someone used a belt to tie a tourniquet around his leg. The witness, who refused to be denounced by Tesla for its negative consequences, said the management was offering advice to people who had seen what had happened – and the witness took the company because it was traumatic.
= "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Limon later told this colleague that" he had been hit by a forklift driver who had made donuts on the property for fun Limon did not respond to requests for comments for this story, but according to the people who have him saw and talked to him in the following days, and as depicted in the photos Bloomberg Businessweek the injured leg was amputated. "data-reactid =" 55 "> Limon later told this colleague that he had been hit by a forklift driver who had made donuts on the property to have fun. Limon did not respond to requests for comments for this story, but according to the people who saw him and spoke to him in the following days, and as depicted on the photos seen by Bloomberg Businessweek the injured leg was amputated.
Tesla says that Limon and the forklift driver scoffed in an inappropriate manner that is not representative of the automaker's safety culture. Subsequently, Tesla said the driver had fired the driver and held factory – wide safety meetings at each shift. The company suggests that Tesla's enemies have leaked the episode to damage its reputation. "Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees," said a spokesman. "This does not mean that there are no real problems that need to be addressed at Tesla or that we have made no mistake with any of the 40,000 people who work in our company. " Spokesman says Tesla is targeting ""
The Cal / OSHA state agency, which fined Tesla $ 800 in connection with the injury, described it as an ankle fracture.But the agency documents show that she did not interview Limon.Tesla says that he has tried several times to arrange an interview A few months later, Justine White, a Tesla security officer, sent a resignation letter to Musk, recently reported by the Center for Investigative Reporting. "White said she had made" security recommendations. " repeated "to" inform employees of the dangers of forklifts in a timely manner after the lower leg of an employee was amputated. "Tesla disputed the claims of White
Many of them asked anonymity, saying that there is a broader scheme in which a company that wants to manufacture a lot of cars tolerates dangerous conditions. An analysis conducted in 2017 by Worksafe Inc., a non-profit organization, revealed that the serious injuries that occurred at the Tesla plant in 2015 and 2016 were well above industry averages. Tesla, which is a non-union company targeted by the United Auto Workers, points out that Worksafe has connections to the world of work. It indicates that injury rates in 2017 dropped by 25 percent and were about the same as the industry average. In June, Musk said Tesla's injury rates in 2018 were 6% below average, even as Model 3 production increased
Tesla was questioned earlier this year when the test center was tested. The investigation said Tesla had misclassified related injuries as personal medical problems, which made the plant safer than it was. Tesla claimed the report was "an ideologically motivated attack by an extremist organization," but he retroactively added 13 wounds of 2017 to his security logs, according to a later article. Tesla says that he regularly updates the security logs to ensure accuracy.
"An important mistake that Tesla made is simply to ignore the vast experience of the last 50 years in the automotive industry," says Harley Shaiken, a Berkeley professor. who chaired a state commission that warned against the closure of the Fremont plant in 2010, previously operated by Toyota and General Motors as a joint venture. Tesla has sought, Shaiken continues, "to start from scratch in a way that has resulted in collapses and near-collapses."
Tesla says that automation on the Model 3 line makes the factory safer. But when robots break down, employees must take over. For example, a highly complex robotic transport system to bring parts to the chain had to be removed, and teams of human workers eventually did the work. (Parts of the transportation system, which included 500 pieces-lifting machines, were used to build the new manual production line under the tent.)
Today, Tesla has about 10,000 workers at its disposal. Fremont factory. Tesla argues that a larger workforce is warranted given that a larger portion of the car is made in-house, but interviews with workers suggest that the Company is stretched. to make sure there are enough workers on the floor. Current and former employees describe 12-hour shifts as common, some up to 16 hours.
To combat exhaustion, employees drink large amounts of Red Bull, sometimes provided free by Tesla. New employees develop what is called the "Tesla look". "They are vibrant and energetic," says Mikey Catura, a Tesla partner. "And then a few weeks go by, and you'll see them coming out of the building staring into space like zombies."
Four current employees say that the pressure they felt to avoid delays forced them to cross the raw sewage when it spilled onto the ground. Dennis Duran, who works at the paint shop, says that once the workers were balked, he was told, as well as to his peers: "Just walk." Tesla says she's unaware that managers are telling employees to walk down the sewers and that plumbing issues have been dealt with quickly.
Musk and many Tesla employees dispute that workers are unhappy or dangerous. "There will always be challenges in terms of safety and from the point of view of production, it's manufacturing," says Dexter Siga, who started as a technician in 2011 and who is now manager. He adds that Tesla has "had our fair share of challenges" as a fast-growing young company, but considers security as "a top priority".
For his part, Musk says that Tesla requires a lot of work, but the only way to survive as an American automaker. "I have the impression of having a great debt to the people of Tesla," he says, his voice cracking with emotion. "The reason I slept on the floor was not because I could not cross the street and be in a hotel, it was because I wanted my situation to be worse than No matter who else else in the company.Every time they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse.
"You know," he continues, "at home. GM, they have a special elevator for the frames so that they do not have to mingle with anyone else.Elon typical, deviating from the real problem, which is the ability to mass production on a large scale and with quality, "says Ray Wert, spokesman for GM." My office is the smallest in the factory and I almost do not go there. "The reason for which people in the paint shop were working their donkeys was because I was with them. I am not in an ivory tower. "
In July 2017, Musk delivered the first Model 3 sedans during a raucous party in Fremont.The car was celebrated by critics (" Driving Change Tesla's Model 3 "was Bloomberg's take ), but it was almost immediately apparent that Tesla could never deliver it in the figures that Musk promised.
The first problem involved batteries. Tesla and Panasonic Corp., which jointly operate a battery factory in Nevada, designed cells slightly larger than the standard 18650 cells used in previous Teslas.The new batteries were better, but the automated production line to pack thousands of them was not working, and the task had to be done to a new system, manufactured by Grohmann, was finally built and transported by air.
In November, Musk told the analy stes that he was "really depressed" but that he was doing his best to solve the problem of packing batteries. Other problems arose and Tesla had to close the Fremont factory for five days in February. In retrospect, Musk says, trying to automate so much from the Tesla plant at once was too ambitious. "We thought it would be good, but it was not good," he says. "We were huge idiots and we did not know what we were doing."
In April, Musk took over from manufacturing engineering. "I'm back to the factory," he tweeted. "The car biz is hell." The field, who had been in charge of the factory, took a leave the following month; He then left the company. In mid-June, Tesla announced that it was laying off 9% of its workforce, more than 3,000 people.
<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8km) – sm" type = "text" content = "Musk turned 47 at the end of June, when of the final sprint to make 5,000 cars a week. "First day I spent in the factory," he tweeted, "but on the Friday before the deadline, Musk seemed astonished at what was going on. he was expecting to see climbing in the course of Tesla's action. He tweeted a clip from the 1958 single Short Shorts on Sunday, he announced that Tesla had crossed the cap and proclaimed his love for his employees. Tesla's stock price rose 5% Monday morning. "data-reactid =" 73 "> Musk turned 47 at the end of June, in the final sprint to make 5,000 cars a week" The first day I spent in the factory ", a- he tweeted, "but it's somehow the best." On the Friday preceding the deadline, Musk seemed excited about what he thought was a rise in Tesla's course. He tweeted a video The Royal Teens Short Shorts was singled out on Sunday and announced that Tesla had crossed the threshold and proclaimed his love for his employees. % Monday morning
The exuberance disappeared at lunch time, and Tesla's action ended the day down 2%. He lost 7% on Tuesday. Burn of the century "that Musk had predicted had not been realized, the skeptics stressed that the wild sprint of Tesla would be unsustainable.
<p class =" canvas-atom canvas-text M b (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" Musk projected trust during an interview with Businessweek on July 8th. "The past year has been very difficult but I think the coming year will be really good," he said, adding that he had "one foot in hell". He said the hell of manufacturing would be over in a month. "Data-reactid =" 75 "> Musk projected confidence during an interview with Businessweek on July 8. "Last year was very difficult, but I think the coming year is going to be really good," he said, "He still had" one foot in hell. "He said that 39, the hell of manufacturing would be finished in a month.
At the present time, Model 3 sells more units in the United States than any comparable mid-size sedan, including those offered by Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi It's fast and fun to drive.When you crush the throttle, the Model 3 recoils, and the Tesla designers have been trying to replicate the feeling of instant acceleration in all aspects of the driving experience. "Point and shoot," says Lars Moravy, director of chassis dynamics Tesla. "There is no overtaking, and there is no delay. This is the essence of the electric motor and our name. "
<p class =" canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" Of course, the acceleration fast is not unique to the model 3. This is true for all electric cars, but the fact that there is even a market for these vehicles is largely a result of Musk. Whatever happens to Tesla, he has succeeded: Tesla is, as Musk says, "a real car company," it is glorious, and it is also hell. With Sohee Kim
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"data-reactid =" Of course, the fast acceleration is not unique to the model 3, that's true of all electric cars, but the fact that there is even a market for these Musk is largely responsible for the fact that consumers are paying for zero-emission cars in huge numbers, and whatever happens to Tesla, he's done it. Tesla is, as Musk says, "a real automobile company." It's glorious, and it's also hell .– With Sohee Kim
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In the Tesla Model 3
Bloomberg builds its own model to estimate the Tesla output of the Model 3
[19659057] Read Hell for Elon Musk is a sedan of average size on bloomberg.com
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