{"id":26099,"date":"2020-10-06T10:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T14:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=26099"},"modified":"2020-10-06T10:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T14:03:48","slug":"tesla-takes-a-more-traditional-route-to-its-new-berlin-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/tesla-takes-a-more-traditional-route-to-its-new-berlin-plant","title":{"rendered":"Tesla takes a more traditional route to its new Berlin plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the introduction of its groundbreaking Model S sedan in 2012, Tesla has been about industry disruption.<\/p>\n

Led by mercurial CEO Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley electric-car maker has taken a clean-sheet approach to everything automotive \u2014 from its spare interior designs to its \u201cLudicrous mode\u201d acceleration to its over-the-air software updates.<\/p>\n

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But its attempt to remake auto manufacturing in 2018 nearly broke the company.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0year of what Musk called \u201cproduction hell\u201d at its Fremont, California, plant was a lesson in hubris as Tesla sought to meet demand for its mass-market Model\u00a03 sedan.\u00a0Vehicles came off the line with sunken hoods, detached bumpers\u00a0and uneven panel gaps. Some were assembled in parking lot tents.\u00a0Flawed paint jobs delayed the delivery of thousands of vehicles.<\/p>\n

As Tesla embarks on\u00a0its first major production facility in Europe \u2014 building the Model Y compact SUV in Berlin starting next year \u2014 experts say the company appears to be adopting traditional production methods and relying less on robots. And it is simplifying the vehicle’s structure.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTesla’s got an innovative culture,\u201d said manufacturing expert Sandy Munro, president of Munro & Associates. He\u00a0has been a vocal critic\u00a0of Tesla production. \u201cSometimes, it gets it right. Sometimes, it gets it horribly wrong, as in the case of the (California) plant. So now we’ve got the German plant, and it seems to be learning from its mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riding current consumer and government trends toward electric vehicles, Tesla announced a record 139,300 deliveries in the third quarter,\u00a0up 24% from its previous record set last December. All of those vehicles were built in California.<\/p>\n

Tesla began production of cars in its new Shanghai plant late last year and plans to boost capacity of the plant from 200,000 to 250,000 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

With Asian sales\u00a0suppressed by the coronavirus crisis, the China plant is at overcapacity,\u00a0and the automaker is facing increased competition in the electric market in Europe from established carmakers.<\/p>\n

Still, Tesla anticipates increased demand for its vehicles globally, with countries like France and England\u00a0phasing out gas and engines over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n

But Tesla\u2019s quality has been an issue even as it has been an innovator in the design of electronics and body construction.<\/p>\n

Its\u00a0electronics and battery systems are “not a generation\u00a0but generations beyond what any other manufacturer is doing,\u201d said Munro, a 30-year veteran of auto manufacturing and one of the industry\u2019s most respected consultants.<\/p>\n

And the manufacturing process?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crap,\u201d he said of Fremont assembly\u2019s attempt to automate assembly three years ago. \u201cIt was a terrible, terrible philosophy.\u00a0Unless you’ve designed your product so that a blind, one-armed idiot \u2014\u00a0a robot \u2014 can put it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Convinced he could make what he termed\u00a0\u201calien dreadnought\u201d factories operated mostly by robots, Musk hired Audi executive and automation advocate Peter Hochholdinger in 2016. Tesla made a crucial mistake in automating the factory while the Model 3 was still in prototype development.<\/p>\n

David Cole, a veteran analyst and chairman emeritus of Ann Arbor\u2019s Center for Automotive Research, said most manufacturers\u00a0don’t start production\u00a0until they’ve finished development. “Tesla, on the other hand, would take prototype tooling into the production line to see what worked. They didn’t figure out their processes before they started volume production.”<\/p>\n