Is Tesla's 'continuous improvement' the next manufacturing model after Toyota?

[Maximillan]

Interesting analysis of Tesla's new thinking and approach. The approach to manufacturing and quality is a complex and much debated topic. I see that similar to the circumstances of post-WW2 Japan helping to shape the Toyota / Deming methods, the tech revolution of the past few decades and the approach to automated testing has influenced Tesla's new thinking.

Unlearning What Toyota Taught Us

 

[21EV]

That’s an interesting article and I didn’t realize the architecture of the Model 3 is so different from the Model Y. I think of their nimbleness is due to the comparatively small number of models Tesla makes, and the fewer variants of those models. As they grow and add more models I wonder what will happen and since much of what they do is software driven will the different platforms pose challenges down the road?

None of this is insurmountable and Tesla has some very smart people on the payroll so I’m confident we will keep seeing a steady March of progress. Perhaps the bigger question, posed in the article, is whether or not the traditional automakers will follow the path of Tesla.

 

[Maximillan]

As they grow and add more models I wonder what will happen and since much of what they do is software driven will the different platforms pose challenges down the road?

It will be interesting to see how they cope with the complexity, if they're feature toggling based on spec at some point it becomes unmanageable for a human to stay on top of the complexity. I'm guessing that they'd be looking at a software architecture that automates a lot of the complexity and undoubtedly automates the testing of an any changes, however they've been in Production long enough now that a lot of their code is already legacy.

Perhaps the bigger question, posed in the article, is whether or not the traditional automakers will follow the path of Tesla.

This will be a massive challenge, it requires a lot of $, talent, and time to build your own software engineering capability. Tesla had the advantage of starting with no legacy architecture and culture in Silicon Valley, and they did struggle to get it right at the beginning. I had colleagues who worked with their teams to implement a TDD driven approach to software development, similar to Toyota's Production method it requires commitment and discipline across the entire org to do this. Mercedes seems to be doing this well, VW software appears to be as buggy as always.

Around 6 years ago that same company partnered with a telco to approach a japanese car manufacturer to work with them on the lainch of a new model that was aimed at a younger customer set. The new model needed to be seen as tech leading, and we offered to work with their engineers to build a complimentary app that would simply read, not write, the car's data to the app in user's hands. Head office in Japan shut it down, no way would they ever approve Read only access as it was against engineering policy. That's what you're up against every single step of the way trying to change the legacy car manufacturers.

 

[paulp]

VW software appears to be as buggy as always.

I’ve never experienced software bugs in cars anywhere near the level of tesla

 

[Tasdoc]

I’ve never experienced software bugs in cars anywhere near the level of tesla

Computers tend to have more software glitches than typewriters

 

[paulp]

Computers tend to have more software glitches than typewriters

As far as I can tell both devices showed errors based on human inputs