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Originally Posted by RedDevil
The problems Tesla ran into were no sign of incompetence. You simply cannot make progress without taking risks. You cannot iron out every detail beforehand. All you need is to know what you want to achieve, and systematically work to get there, learning and improving while doing so.
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The entire Model 3 launch fiasco was the most likely outcome given the choices Musk made:
1. Set an unreasonably tight time table
2. Choose to automate things that your employees and the automation experts you hired said should be assembled manually.
3. Choose to skip soft tooling (To try to keep the unreasonable timetable)
4. Refuse to use industry standards like Kanban because they are industry standards.
Launching a new model is not that difficult but when a company chooses to cut corners bad things happen. There is nothing new about designing a steel unibody or building an assembly line. It is something that companies have been doing for decades but Musk bungled because he refused to learn from the market leaders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
As long as demand for the high-end versions exceeds production capacity, it makes no sense to retool for the base model. I hope you can see that.
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There should not be any retooling required. This is brand new assembly line made for a brand new product. The line should support full model flexibility from day 1.
I can see that it makes sense to start with more expenses models and then only add cheaper models as necessary to keep the production schedule full. The topic of discussion is when Tesla made that decision. I believe that was the plan from the start. I believe that when Musk promised in 2016 that Tesla would build a $35,000 Model 3 in 2017 he knew that would not happen. I believe Musk promised a $35K Model 3 for sale in 2017 to boost reservations.
Do you believe Tesla intended to launch the Model 3 with the $35,000 version?