Analysis:Tesla’s new car-making process stokes debate among industry experts

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Tesla Inc's new vehicle-assembly system, which created instant buzz when it was unveiled in March, ignited a debate among auto manufacturing experts on whether CEO Elon Musk's so-called unboxed process is radical, revisionist or derivative - or all of the above.Musk believes the company needs to radically

Tesla Inc's new vehicle-assembly system, which created instant buzz when it was unveiled in March, ignited a debate among auto manufacturing experts on whether CEO Elon Musk's so-called unboxed process is radical, revisionist or derivative - or all of the above.

When the new process was revealed at Tesla's March 1 Investor Day, executives said it would make the company's next-generation vehicles"significantly simpler and more affordable." Several big questions loom: What sort of impact will Tesla's process have on the auto industry overall? Will it render useless the widely copied Toyota Production System? And can Musk actually make his company's process work as promised given Tesla's history of missed production deadlines and failed attempts to deploy unproven technology?Martin French, managing director at consulting firm Berylls which focuses on the industry's rapid shift to electric and smart mobility,...

Tesla is still testing various elements of the system, including the use of large front and rear subassemblies built on single-piece underbody castings, which are then joined to a central structural battery pack. Body panels are painted separately, then joined together toward the end of the assembly process.

At its core, the Tesla method"is an assembly process" while Toyota has developed a far broader and more comprehensive"production management system" that helps automakers run assembly processes and related operations more efficiently, said Womack, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of"The Machine That Changed the World," the 1990 book on Toyota's lean production philosophy and methods.

 

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