
Tesla switching to 24/7 shifts to push for more model 3s by June - fluxic
https://jalopnik.com/tesla-switching-to-24-7-shifts-to-push-for-6-000-model-1825335216
======
Jasper_
> Most of the design tolerances of the Model 3 are already better than any
> other car in the world.

Really? The Model 3's panel gaps are quite well-known among car owners. One
example from Munro and Associates:
[https://youtu.be/QCIo8e12sBM?t=394](https://youtu.be/QCIo8e12sBM?t=394)

How can Elon say this with a straight face?

~~~
jeremejevs
Not defending the gaps, but "most of the design tolerances" != "all design
tolerances". There's much more to a car than just cosmetics. And I'm not
claiming that those non-cosmetic parts are all top quality, just that it's
possible that they are.

~~~
ProfessorLayton
Non-cosmetic gap: [https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/help-a-pillar-
defect...](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/help-a-pillar-defect-
found.88657/)

------
Animats
Bloomberg agrees they got their production rate up.[1] Now they're getting
someplace.

This is about what you expect from a highly automated production line. If it's
not working perfectly, production quality and quantity are poor. There are
line stops all the time. Once it's fully debugged, product comes out in vast
quantities. Then you need to watch quality.

In the end, Tesla took about as long as everybody else does to debug a final
assembly line. They tried to use it for production during debugging, which ran
up their costs.

[1] [https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-
tracker/](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-tracker/)

------
waynenilsen
I found this interesting

> Btw, here are a few productivity recommendations:

> \- Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get
> worse over time. Please get of all large meetings, unless you’re certain
> they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very
> short.

> \- Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an
> extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the
> urgent matter is resolved.

> \- Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you
> aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone
> stay and waste their time.

> \- Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes
> at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits
> communication. We don’t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to
> function at Tesla.

> \- Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the
> job done, not through the “chain of command”. Any manager who attempts to
> enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working
> elsewhere.

> \- A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to
> solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in
> order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to
> talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks
> to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to
> someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must
> be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.

> \- In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a
> “company rule” is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that
> it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.

~~~
aaomidi
With all the respect I have for Elon, I don't think he realizes he's not the
CEO of a startup company anymore.

Getting rid of acronyms will have an inverse effect on productivity. Are you
supposed to explain each time you refer to it?

I agree if someone is new to the team then you should probably explain a few
times before using acronyms. But for established teams, this just slows
everyone down.

Chain of command is there so that no one goes over the other person's head. If
two developers disagree on an approach and one just straight up goes to the
manager instead of the project manager it causes issues for the whole team.
I'm a fan of "hey you should be able to talk to whomever you want", but not as
the default.

Company rule is there to protect the worker in case they made a bad decision.
As long as it was within the company rule, they can't be blamed as much as
"hey I used common sense".

For massive companies you need these systems in place.

~~~
uoaei
Seems like he's advocating little more than "critically examine your behavior
and forgo following stupid conventions if you deem them stupid". He's just
giving concrete examples to make easier the connection to what that actually
would mean in practice.

There are smarter-than-average people working at Tesla; they will figure out
what is useless and what can be reasonably applied as productivity measure.
They just need to be reminded to consider these things every once in a while,
like the rest of us.

------
silentfish
> _A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to
> solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in
> order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to
> talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks
> to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to
> someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must
> be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen._

This is a way to create a clusterfuck. Nothing is worse than having people
barging in from other departments going over managers' heads and imposing
their own priorities.

~~~
nwah1
Provide some examples of when this happened, why it caused harm, and to what
degree the harms from this sort of thing outweighed the benefits.

One would generally assume that if someone from another department is
commenting on something, particularly if they are a lower level employee, they
are generally doing it because they genuinely believe there is some kind of
important issue.

And even if it turns out that it isn't important, the time spent briefly
annoying someone is generally going to be much less costly than overlooking an
issue of actual importance.

------
treis
Wowsa. This is the type of e-mail that would get me to polish ye olde resume
and start looking for other jobs. Nothing like the combination of impossible
goals, additional overhead, and reduced capacity.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
This section on meetings is something that actually makes me want to apply at
TESLA.

>Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get
worse over time. Please get of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they
are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.

>Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely
urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is
resolved.

>Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t
adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and
waste their time.

~~~
SilasX
Your section with long monotype lines, which makes you have to scroll right to
read it, makes we want to plead with HN commenters to stop doing it. Please,
do quotes with >, it reads fine that way.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
You are right. I have edited the comment to be easier to read.

~~~
SilasX
Thank you, and apologies if I was too bitter with my tone.

------
DmenshunlAnlsis
_Most of the design tolerances of the Model 3 are already better than any
other car in the world. Soon, they will all be better. This is not enough. We
will keep going until the Model 3 build precision is a factor of ten better
than any other car in the world. I am not kidding._

I’d settle for precision beating their previous janky models with a nearly 50%
recall rate.

 _Our car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and precision
that, if an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps and flushness, and their
measurements don’t match the Model 3 specs, it just means that their measuring
tape is wrong._

Right, and if their “autopilot” kills them, they were using it wrong.

 _There is a very wide range of contractor performance, from excellent to
worse than a drunken sloth. All contracting companies should consider the
coming week to be a final opportunity to demonstrate excellence. Any that fail
to meet the Tesla standard of excellence will have their contracts ended on
Monday._

This whole letter reads like a puff piece intended for fanboys and
stakeholders to pass around and fantasize about, but three weeks of meeting
goals shouldn’t give anyone a head this big. This is from the same guy who
just realized he couldn’t automate everything he wanted to, and who the NTSB
just booted off a death investigation. The last thing needed here is grandiose
talk.

Instead of trying to leap from being marginal to the greatest ever, how about
trying to meet reasonable goals, safety standards, and work _with_ the NTSB?
Instead of trying for Ferrari-esque panel gaps, just do better than the Model
S and meet basic industry standards within class.

~~~
davidzweig
A good part design reduces the requirement of tight mechanical tolerances to
perform correctly. Manufacturing costs can be reduced. This is preferable to a
design that requires tight tolerances to function equivalently. Maybe in terms
of fit and finish of the interior or the exterior panels superior 'precision'
is a desirable attribute. But this still reads a little odd to an engineer.

------
Bellyache5
> _We are burning the midnight oil to burn the midnight oil._

This is an odd way to end a memo titled "Progress". Are employees supposed to
be motivated by the prospect of a self-propagating series of tough slogs?

------
seem_2211
I don't have a horse in the race either way, but I love watching the Tesla
bulls and bears comment on everything. It's an amazing spectator sport.

------
thrillgore
Tesla's stock value is driven 100% by Elon Musk. If he were shown the door,
the company would flatline.

------
danso
> _Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at
> Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits
> communication. We don’t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to
> function at Tesla._

I'm guessing "HTTP" is exempt.

~~~
jamestimmins
At SpaceX there was the infamous email banning TLAs (three letter acronyms).

~~~
Rebelgecko
How long ago was that? Seems like they gave up for ITS/BFR

~~~
jamestimmins
I'm not sure how seriously it was ever taken. I also suspect that using an
acronym for a major initiative is seen differently than adding them to the
workflow.

------
drinchev
Wow that’s like a CEO I would like to have.

I really like his attitude that an already big company should not act like a
conglomerate. Cutting middleman is always something that I advise my managers
to do, as well as pointless time-wasting meetings.

Keep in mind that some Germans here think Tesla is a joke, because “nobody can
mass produce cars so easily”

And they are both right and wrong. It’s a tough business, but I have no doubt
that someone like him can actually make it till the end.

------
tbirrell
> Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job
> done, not through the “chain of command”. Any manager who attempts to
> enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working
> elsewhere.

If the chain of command is inefficient, then change it, don't go around it.
Managers are there for a reason, and leaving them out to get quicker results
will bite you in the butt down the road.

~~~
kbart
_" If the chain of command is inefficient, then change it, don't go around
it."_

I work in a "flat" company now and couldn't be happier. Also, I haven't seen
such productivity in any siloed company around. Managers should help with
communication and cooperation when needed, not act as a gateway when I need to
have a quick chat with another technical people in different department.

------
mkempe
When Musk writes "We are going to find a way or make a way to get there" he
echoes this quote attributed in Latin to Hannibal: "Aut viam inveniam, aut
faciam" (I will find a way, or make one) when his generals told him it was
impossible to cross the Alps by elephant. It was used as a motto by Francis
Bacon.

------
mkempe
To all the naysayers here: you may not believe in the factory reaching the
goals and standards he is announcing -- but a proper time to pass judgment
will be by July, not now, not in advance. Until then all you say is (mostly)
noise.

~~~
MBCook
Why? What about all the previous times Tesla hasn’t made goals and said they
were doing something to fix it?

At this point I don’t trust any predictions or promises Musk says. His
timelines (and level of product quality) are something to be very suspicious
about.

And that doesn’t include when I think he’s flat out lying for marketing
reasons (“Autopilot”).

I used to like Tesla, but this happens too much. I don’t doubt the production
rate will improve, I doubt his estimate. I doubt the quality will improve to
the level he claims (or possibly much at all). I doubt the Y will come out
anywhere near on time.

I don’t see why he should deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore.

------
samlevine
Climate change is an existential threat. This is the language of someone who
takes this seriously.

------
FullMtlAlcoholc
Discussions about Elon Musk and, specifically, Tesla has become quite the
lightning rod around here with negative sentiment rising. Here's a little
tidbit of info that I think partly explains it: a lot of it is driven by
schadenfraude. "Investors have placed more bets against Tesla than any other
U.S. stock, with short interest hovering around 25 percent, according to S3
Analytics."

So I suspect a fair amount of posturing and astroturfing amongst the
detractors mixed within those who have are more sincere in their positions.

As always, be skeptical.

Source: [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-13/tesla-
may...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-13/tesla-may-be-the-
most-hated-stock-in-america-and-the-most-loved)

