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Blog Musk Says Tesla May Prefer Its Tented Assembly Line

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the massive tent set up to house a Model 3 manufacturing line at the Fremont, Calif. factory was necessary to reach the company’s 5,000 cars per week goal by the end of the quarter.

Musk previously shared a photo inside the tented assembly line showing the first performance version of the Model 3.


Answering questions on Twitter, Musk said the company did not have time to construct an actual building, but the tent went up in about two weeks.



Musk said the company may actually favor the tent to a building. “More comfortable & a great view of the mountains,” he tweeted.

Musk said the whole assembly line was built using scrap Tesla had in warehouses. “And it’s way better than the other GA line that cost hundreds of millions!” he tweeted.


Musk also also said that the Tesla Grohmann line is now running at Gigafactory 1.

 
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Cool, a thread about the line so I can stop polluting Market Action...

I'm having trouble figuring out the line setup. We've seen videos of robots putting in seats and instrument(free) panels long ago.

So I'm wondering if the new flow is:
  1. Body assembly and paint
  2. Remove doors (off to their own assembly line)
  3. Take body to this line
  4. Install trim pieces, harnesses, carpet, lighting, all the light and finicky stuff
  5. End of this line goes into factory proper where automated machinery does the heavy pieces that need equipment (seats, IP, drive train, pack, doors)
  6. The mostly assembled vehicle now comes back to second half of tent line for the rest of the assembly (connections to DU, steering, maybe brakes (that may be inside due to fluids).
  7. Completed vehicle goes to dyno and test track.
Without using existing equipment for step 5, it would be difficult to install the heavy/ bulk items without ergonomic assist devices.
 
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https://twitter.com/IspyTsla/status/1009134913881190400

I actually believe Elon when he says, they have made it from scrap. o_O

I'd advice anybody to take another look at the videos showing the Model 3 assembly line inside the plant. For example the CNBC video from some weeks ago - robot-porn ftw! Or just check out some of the older videos about Model S assembly. If that Twitter video is showing what seems to be the current state of the new line, it seems pretty obvious, that it's more of an emergency solution. It's either solving a very specific bottleneck or implementing only a sub-part of the process they couldn't fit inside or it's a temporary solution that may or may not get fleshed out in the coming months.
 
Is removing the doors regular? Seems like a lot of handling and risk of damage. If door assembly becomes a parallel sub-assembly, then why not have a door paint line eliminating the instal and un-install steps?
It is normal. They paint the doors on the car to make the color match exactly. Then unbolt the hinges and do the door build out separately. This protects the doors from dings and gets them out of the way during general assembly. Trunk and hood stay on since they open vertically.
 
https://twitter.com/IspyTsla/status/1009134913881190400

I actually believe Elon when he says, they have made it from scrap. o_O

I'd advice anybody to take another look at the videos showing the Model 3 assembly line inside the plant. For example the CNBC video from some weeks ago - robot-porn ftw! Or just check out some of the older videos about Model S assembly. If that Twitter video is showing what seems to be the current state of the new line, it seems pretty obvious, that it's more of an emergency solution. It's either solving a very specific bottleneck or implementing only a sub-part of the process they couldn't fit inside or it's a temporary solution that may or may not get fleshed out in the coming months.

Amazing how negative the comments are on that twitter post. The shorts sure do like to focus on BS that doesn’t matter. I don’t care if my car was made in a pup tent as long as I like the product. When I have purchased cars in the past, I never stopped to think how glad I was that it was built in a run down factory in Detroit.
 
I'm so confused. Where is the tent exactly (parking lot?)? Is this permanent? It's okay for this to be outdoors? Was there not enough room inside the factory for this additional GA line? This is the 4th GA line, and was the only way to get to 5k/wk by the end of Q2? Will the other lines be redone to mimic this apparently better line?

It's pretty neat they were apparently able to throw this together so quickly, but also has me scratching my head.
 
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I'm so confused. Where is the tent exactly (parking lot?)? Is this permanent? It's okay for this to be outdoors? Was there not enough room inside the factory for this additional GA line? This is the 4th GA line, and was the only way to get to 5k/wk by the end of Q2? Will the other lines be redone to mimic this apparently better line?

It's pretty neat they were apparently able to throw this together so quickly, but also has me scratching my head.

It has 6 month permit, in the lot next to where the rail spurs uses to be. Structure has 25 year skin and 50 year frame life.
Still unclear (to me at least) if they reset the 3 line numbering at 1, ( GA2-4 lines for 3, or GA1-4)
improvement will propagate (eventually).
 
I'm so confused. Where is the tent exactly (parking lot?)? Is this permanent? It's okay for this to be outdoors? Was there not enough room inside the factory for this additional GA line? This is the 4th GA line, and was the only way to get to 5k/wk by the end of Q2? Will the other lines be redone to mimic this apparently better line?

It's pretty neat they were apparently able to throw this together so quickly, but also has me scratching my head.

Calling it a "tent" is just for fun. It's a prefab building that can be put up quickly and is just fine for the climate in Fremont.

They have to look at building 500,000 plus cars in Fremont. Cars spend a lot of hours in a few processes such as the paint shop. They have to look at the space requirements of the paint shop at true high volume. So the don't want to build a GA line where it will conflict with other needs.

The short term building permit will likely be replaced with a regular (permanent) building permit. It seems to be a 25 year life structure.
 
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I really feel like this line isn't directly related to them meeting the 5k mark.

Anyone think this line is specifically for the Performance/AWD? Wasn't Elon's picture of the first performance in that tent? Elon said they would start deliverying AWD in July & since they are so close to the 5k deadline ( end of June ) it makes sense to make a new line instead of adding completexity & potentially new bottlenecks to the existing lines.
 
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