Tesla Moves To 24 Hour Production Of Model 3 To Meet Production Goals

Seems like a reasonable thing to do to ramp up production. Way back when I worked for Boeing, there were times that some lines would have three shifts, and other times that there were two shifts but with mandatory overtime, so it was 24 hour production anyway.

So, 5,000 cars a week (shooting for 6k but will achieve 5k). But 21 shifts a week instead of 10. Tesla finally capitulated and admitted that they're going to have to produce cars the same way as any other manufacturer.

Gross margins will be crushed.

How are you calculating 21 shifts instead of 10? The line is already 7 days a week with the factory running ~16 hours per day.

A normal manufacturer would look at a capital intensive automated plant as a fixed asset to pump more product through. Doing that actually produces more cash and profits from an accounting view. But Tesla isn't a normal manufacturer. The risk for them is much higher warranty expenses fixing mistakes later in the process. That's a drain on profits and cash.

San Jose driver - future plan is 3 shifts a day / 7 days a week (21 shifts). From what I've read, current production is 2 shifts per day / 5 days a week (10 shifts). Even if it were 2 shifts a day for 7 days (14 shifts), we're still talking about a 50% increase in labor costs, not to mention other manufacturing costs. Bye-bye gross margins.

So in the end, Tesla has zero manufacturing magic, and as any car engineer on the planet will tell you, they will need to produce cars in the same manner as any other mfg.

They were already at 7, assuming they can get a similar cost and productivity from the additional shifts, profits should increase. They have very high fixed costs that will go down (per unit) as production increases. If $2 billion worth of capex is just sitting there for 8 hours a day, going 24x7 seems like the right approach as long as operational costs per unit don't skyrocket.

This is not the kind of burnout one expects from a car company!

Jumping the shark? They're just getting started.

Also, I checked out a high-VIN Model 3 today and there were no panel gap issues, it looked flawless on the exterior. Looks like quality has improved a lot since the early ones if that car is any indication. My first coworker to get one should have it in a few weeks, so I'll have more info then.

Let me get my lawn chair, bucket of fried chicken, sun hat, and cocktails ready for the spectacle that this will become! I'm all settled in to watch this unfold.

What do you think SanJoseDriver - is Elon Musk jumping the shark" (apologies to Fonzi)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark ?

What's your cocktail of choice? Mine's a razor blade martini. I'm on my way over.

By 24/7 I understand they will be going for the 4/5 shifts (continuous produktion) option. By shifts you must understand teams! There is no way 3 Teams are working 7 days a week. I don't know exactly what are the laws in the US like, but I imagine there is a maximum number of hours one can work every week. In the 4 shifts solution the duration of every shift is 12hours and in the 5 Shifts it's 8 hours.

They're not unionized, there are no strikes.

Der Fuhrer says work!

Did Tesla finally get all the robots they needed for manufacturing the 3? Is this another one week special, with the inability to produce returning next week?

Oh the humanity of Elon sleeping on a cot next to the assembly line! The man is a martyr.