AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
I'd suggest the "good old two-inch brush". And don't forget, we don't make mistakes, we just have "happy little accidents". 
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Tesla production line was ‘sabotaged’
- Thread starter thegruf
- Start date
This makes no sense to me. Obviously I wasn't there and so I can't dispute what you saw on the day that you saw it. Are you sure you were looking at the model 3 main assembly line? There's no implication that all of the sub assembly lines were running 24/7.
I was at the factory a couple of years ago and saw the S line; various cells weren't running and I got the sense that some component cells had substantially more capacity than the main assembly line could handle. That's pretty normal.
Barklikeadog
Active Member
It must be a nightmare there. In the quest for 2,500/week they are running 7 days a week with multiple shifts and now using a outside tent for extra production capability. Elon projects 10,000/week on some point. He needs to find some magic pixy dust to get that to happen. All this extra labour and overtime pay must be killing any gross margin on the model 3.
Maybe your browser isnt showing you the entire post. Here you go. Technology fails us sometimes.
One news source reported that Tesla has made 6000 Model 3 as of June 19. So Tesla may be running at a rate of 10,000. This may be the basis for Musk taunting short with the three week date. Tesla may also be running S/X production at capacity in expectation of a surge in demand. A high M3 rate may not be sustainable.
I think you are correct that a big push will reduce margins. But a big push can still improve net income.
Running at a total rate of 20,000 cars/month is a modest modern car plant.
You failed to include the post you said you were going to reference (true about tech), so I'm including it in it's entirety (so that every point can be addressed).
Pure opinion and speculation, nothing to debate.
Which is true, that is the goal (also a fact, not a point).
Pixy dust was outlawed in the Fairie Treaty of 1805, everyone knows that.
The only point of any merit to debate, which I did in the next post.
dc_h
Active Member
Seems hard to believe, since Elon says they are 24x7 and many other posters have been onsite during shift changes and we have the lot of lots pictures with cars rolling all hours and several drive bus at night showing worker lot full at night.
ahkahn
Active Member
I did see the Model 3 main assembly line. We mainly stayed around the S/X line. The entire factory was running on a single shift basis. There were different start/end times for each section (cell), but only 1 shift.
ahkahn
Active Member
Like I said, unless something has changed in the last month. I was there the last week of April, and I did witness a shift change. That does not mean people were leaving and more were coming to replace them, it just means they shut down a portion of a line. In fact, when I got there, stamping was completely shut down. I was in that area for around an hour. I did specifically ask the nice lady giving the tour how many shifts they ran, and she said 1 shift with staggered start/end times. She also said that different parts of the plant are shut down different days and that is to build in efficiencies (in case 1 area slows down, it doesn't have a ripple-effect).
So, yes, technically the plant has people onsite 24/7, but no, as of the time of my visit, they were not running 2-3 shifts 7 days/week.
That is useful data that your tour (don't violate NDA) was a month and a half ago.
Tesla shutdown in late May for further line updates.
I'm not disputing what you saw. I don't think we have all of the information. It makes no sense in a bunch of ways, and it contradicts information coming in from a lot of other sources.
Tesla bought the best stamping equipment capable of high volume. There would be no reason to run the process 24/7 at 20,000 cars/month.
The skepticism should come from Tesla planning to run a mostly full third shift and achieving good margins from that operation. An efficient third shift is challenging in Mexico or China. Tesla plans to do it with American residents from northern California.
The skepticism should come from Tesla planning to run a mostly full third shift and achieving good margins from that operation. An efficient third shift is challenging in Mexico or China. Tesla plans to do it with American residents from northern California.
I have read of dual 12 hour shifts with a 3 on, 4 off, 4 on,3 off rotation. It's common in nursing, but not sure if human compatible in manufacturing.
ahkahn
Active Member
Yeah, I'm certainly not getting into any details of what I saw or was told, but to the best of my knowledge, this information I am sharing has been publicly available and/or released by Tesla.
Well considering that Elon answered a question about this on the investors call and said that the plant runs 24x7, I think you got wrong information from somewhere.
The spin on the tents being superior to a traditional factory made me laugh. I mean come on Elon.
Yesterday I watched the crew putting in a patio at a friends house. These guys would find a 12 hour shift a Tesla a great job. They were all born in Mexico, of course. The one outlier was the owners teenage son, who spoke perfect english and was likely born in Chicago. He did the minimum work required.
Even Toyota mostly avoids third shift in Japan due to employee efficiency. But it is logical that Tesla will try given that they have one car factory. It is just unlikely they will be able to build cars at the same quantity and quality.
If they are doing 12 hour shifts putting in an RV lot west of Fremont and providing a shuttle would allow Tesla to hire employees who don't live close to the factory. It is not uncommon in the west for nurses to live rural and do a 12 hour shift at the hospital while sleeping in their RV.
Krugerrand
Meow
Buddy, what part of ‘the employees do NOT want a union’ do you not understand. If they wanted a union, they’d have one already.
UAW has been trying to convince employees for YEARS. UAW had to hire standins for their last rally - which they admitted publicly - because no Trsla employees were interested.
UAW left previous NUMMI employees high and dry - also public record.
You’re barking up the wrong tree. I believe you know that. I believe you’re here for not nice ulterior motives. I might even be convinced you’re a UAW plant since also public record the despicable levels UAW has and will stoop to.
So one more time for you real s l o w; Tesla employees do N O T want union representation. They’ve been real clear about that.
Krugerrand
Meow
Krugerrand
Meow
Don’t forget that regular maintenance has to be done on those press lines - and it’s a lot more frequent than once every six months.
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