Blog Report Says Tesla Had to Rework Most Cars in Push to 5,000

About 4,300 of the 5,000 Model 3 units that came off the production line in June needed to be reworked, according to internal Tesla documents obtained by Business Insider.

Tesla has fought production delays since the Model 3 was introduced, continuously missing production goals against high demand.

The company originally intended to produce 5,000 units per week by the end of 2017. Production didn’t actually hit that mark until the last week of June. Manufacturing was not without flaws, however.

Business Insider’s report suggests that just 14% of Model 3 cars coming off the production line were ready to ship immediately, significantly below the industry standard. The report said the cars required an average repair time of 37 minutes.

“In order to ensure the highest quality, we review every vehicle for even the smallest refinement before it leaves the factory,” Tesla told Business Insider in a statment. “Dedicated inspection teams track every car throughout every shop in the assembly line, and every vehicle is then subjected to an additional quality-control process towards the end of the line. And all of this happens before a vehicle leaves the factory and is delivered to a customer.”

Tesla is currently aiming to hit a production rate of 6,000 units per week sometime this quarter.

 

[Electroman]

I don't get this. What is the fixation on just ONE PARTICULAR WEEK of Model 3 production?

Wasn't that the first week they ramped to volume production of 5k? have they stopped producing M3 after that? Or may be are they back to 2 or 3k per week now?

Is that one week - last week of June - the be all and end all of quality of Tesla? Why not take another week, say 2nd week of August and then take another week like November 2nd week and see where they are?

This fixation on ONE WEEK in June has only one agenda - to exaggerate and show Tesla in bad light. It is like running stories on how the first SpaceX rocket crashed and so the conclusion is all SpaceX rockets have poor reliability. We all know BI is yellow journalism and Laura and others are paid to throw feces at Tesla.

But over here in TMC shouldn't we know better? Why is this a front page blog post by the editors? Sic.. So have TMC owners resorted to click-bait journalism too?

 

[SO16]

1. I'm not Captain Defend TSLA. I didn't immediately blather on about "other car manufacturers are not perfect; therefore, TESLAALLALA RULEZ!!!111" Those were introduced by the great supporters of obfuscation and diversion who wanted to say "Hey, no big deal!" I didn't say Tesla was worse. I was suggesting why it was notable. You are offering what is called "an explanation" for why Tesla's rework % is high. That the line is new. I think that's likely an oversimplification, but I also find all of this boring. I mostly like to observe how psychologically and rationally broken posters are. People here are convinced and reason backwards. It's the most amazing petri dish of epistemic investmentalism.

2. I believe in principle that such surveys have no value. I care that people cite them. Caring that they are cited is completely unrelated to how I would fill the survey out. If surveys were overwhelmingly negative, I'd also think citing them was stupid.

I'd proofread this but I'm going to tea.

Enjoy your tea. I think you need it since you are now needing to resort to personal attacks....for some reason.

 

[Words of HABIT]

Looks like the problems have been fixed. My M3, VIN 300XX picked up in Toronto on June 7th is flawless. From reports received, Tesla has been more than accommodating to remedy any manufacturing defects. Cheers!

 

[Lasairfion]

While it sounds bad to say that 80 something percent of cars needed rework; 37 minutes isn't a long time to fix.

Literally it could just be that one simple process wasn't quite right on nearly all the cars due to the increased production speed which, yes, they're not used to. It could be something as simple as a rubber lining along a door frame.

I'd much rather see specifics of what needed rework to get a better perspective.

 

[alcibiades]

Apparently it is hard for you to grasp. Your logic is flawed...you are cherry picking out a date range....it's not 86% reworked cars, it is a reported 4300/total M3 built (insert number here which I don't have). Granted, I am sure there have been other reworks during the production ramp up...this is normal for a new vehicle going down the assembly line and will improve over time. You can spin that percentage any way you want based on your methodology.

LOL. My response pointing out that my "cherry-picked" data was available in the original post of this thread was moved to snippiness. Sorry that I hurt your feelings.

So are you deliberately misrepresenting what I was referencing or didn't you read it? And also please share your sources for ramping up/reworkings that support your claim. Reveal your methodology. Thanks in advance!

 

[alcibiades]

Enjoy your tea. I think you need it since you are now needing to resort to personal attacks....for some reason.

Thanks! My tea was great! They really do a nice job at the Peninsula for both adults and kids. The gummy-bear mocktails are such a hit and the chicken salad is delicious. (Not so much a fan of egg-salad in general so, get this, I don't judge theirs.) Desserts were wonderful.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

While it sounds bad to say that 80 something percent of cars needed rework; 37 minutes isn't a long time to fix.

Literally it could just be that one simple process wasn't quite right on nearly all the cars due to the increased production speed which, yes, they're not used to. It could be something as simple as a rubber lining along a door frame.

I'd much rather see specifics of what needed rework to get a better perspective.

The bear argument is that June production increase was an illusion because they had to throw lots of bodies at it, and had shoddy work that results in more costs down the line (in both senses).
The bull argument is that the ramp will have stress-tested production, allowed Tesla to identify the problem areas to fix, what happened in June is old news and The Tent is the line design that will provide the model for future production.

I'd agree that the nature of the rework is more important than the rate of rework.

 

[scaesare]

Tesla should indeed avoid trying to ramp production at all, so as to not push the envelope, identify the next set of bottlenecks or areas for improvement, and then iterate their way to 10K/month.


Elon tells an interesting anecdote where in early Model S production, a shipment of 18" USB cables needed for the center console ports were on a slow boat from China, and held up completions of a bunch cars for a 75 cent part. They went out found a few thousand somewhere and had people out "reworking" the cars to install them.

 

[Electroman]

I'd much rather see specifics of what needed rework to get a better perspective.

Now for the sake of argument, lets say, they forgot to fix a wheel, or head lights, or motor, or battery, or drivers seat, or whatever.. take your worst pick.

HOW does it matter for the long term health of Tesla what happened in that ONE WEEK? That one week doesn't define anything. What matters is, how did they progress over the next few weeks and where are they now, and where they will be by the end of this quarter and year.

This fixation on that ONE WEEK is a nonsense that the haters want us to keep talking about and focus on.. and somehow instill the narrative that everything is being reworked every time, all the time, then, now and in the future.

 

[DanL3]

Looks like a good start of a fixing hell.

Tesla has been in fixing hell for weeks now. I beleive the frustration with fixing hell is what drove the going private tweet.

This too shall pass. And when it does Tesla will start doing better quality. Then a quarter after that the profit margin will improve more that everyone expects. I think that Elon realizes that the stock market never wants to wait one more quarter,

 

[StealthP3D]

Make that 4301. I need some stuff fixed on mine too. Loose headlight. Loose side mirror. Warped windshield glass. And for some reason the sound system doesn't sound as good as the early build model 3 i rented a few months back.

That's odd, the sound in our April build LR 3 sounds just like the sound in our P3D we took delivery on Sept. 30. It would probably cost Tesla more to change anything with the sound than it was worth. The sound is excellent not because it's super expensive, it's good because they tuned the entire system, in terms of speaker type and placement and equalized the sound to suit the environment they created. It doesn't cost more to stick to their successful formula.

I also think the overall cabin shape is pretty efficient in terms of creating a good volume of sound without needing too much power

 

[MRNA]

Apparently it is hard for you to grasp. Your logic is flawed...you are cherry picking out a date range....it's not 86% reworked cars, it is a reported 4300/total M3 built (insert number here which I don't have). Granted, I am sure there have been other reworks during the production ramp up...this is normal for a new vehicle going down the assembly line and will improve over time. You can spin that percentage any way you want based on your methodology.