Employees Blame Flawed Parts for Tesla Model 3 Production Woes

DooKey

DooKey

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According to some current and former employees of Tesla the reason Model 3 production is behind is because up to 40% of the parts received at the assembly plant are flawed (WARNING auto play video) and have to be reworked. The company doesn't agree with what the employees are saying, but there might be some shred of truth to what employees are saying because Model 3 production is way behind their targeted production numbers. Hopefully the company will get its act together and start to fulfill more orders for the 400,000 people who reserved a car.

One current Tesla engineer estimated that 40 percent of the parts made or received at its Fremont factory require rework. The need for reviews of parts coming off the line, and rework, has contributed to Model 3 delays, the engineer said.
 
You know, if people outside the company hear your employees griping about bad parts, maybe you should listen to your employees and fix it before the word gets out, instead of letting it get out and denying everything?
 
In one of the Tesla subreddit some model 3 owners have shared their less than glowing reviews. I could believe it.
 
When I started seeing pictures of cars with trunk lids that look like a methed our Honda kid put them on I was less than impressed.

Still don’t see that many of them (model 3) and I live in the home of Tesla (gonna drive by the Fremont plant in a few hours).
 
So quality control is an issue and the parts are not up to spec?

Wonder which supplier is shitting themselves hoping not to be named :)
 
vegeta535 said:
QC been lacking with all Tesla cars.
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Making cars is hard...imagine that.

But to be honest even Chevy is having teething issues with their Bolt. Not so much build quality but battery and software issues.
 
This isn't surprising, Tesla is running into the same problems everybody who does large scale production runs into. The danger has always been they over promise out of the gate.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Making cars is hard...imagine that.

But to be honest even Chevy is having teething issues with their Bolt. Not so much build quality but battery and software issues.
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When you stamp parts at 60 to 130 spm things can drift. Tesla makes a big deal of their automated lines but if nobody is reading the SPC reports then it's just a time bomb. This is where you need experienced toolmakers and press operators to catch it before it leaves the work center.
 
gamerk2 said:
This isn't surprising, Tesla is running into the same problems everybody who does large scale production runs into. The danger has always been they over promise out of the gate.
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The article is a little shady when it suggests rework is unusual. Reworking parts is normal as shit happens and the lead-times on steel can mean you'll miss shipments if you wait for new coils. And not doing it on the final assembly floor is also normal as the OEMs use inlining plants for a reason.
 
It sure is a lot harder to mass produce a car whilst keeping ones standards high.
 
Krazy925 said:
When I started seeing pictures of cars with trunk lids that look like a methed our Honda kid put them on I was less than impressed.
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I have no idea what you are trying to say here. What about trunks and "Honda kid"?
 
Where is the SPC (statistical process control), Quaity Control, Quality Assurance data to back this claim up?
 
Mut1ny said:
I have no idea what you are trying to say here. What about trunks and "Honda kid"?
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Extra-Titanian said:
Half assed, poorly prepped, bad gaps, not lining up with anything relevant, etc...
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gaCeVPX.jpg

Now imagine the trunk lid wasn't adjusted because it was done by a 19 year old who's just looking for vtec.


More importantly here is the info on the Tesla's having body panel alignment issues. Kinda interesting. Also grossly unacceptable in a car in that price range.
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/body-panel-alignment-issues.78489/
 
I wonder if it's not so much a parts and reworking issue as it is a staff issue. Tesla staff managers are accustomed to hiring fervent and faithful engineering students who work insanely long hours for little pay and consider themselves "lucky" to have such a job. Now that Tesla is tapping into the American automotive workforce, rife with unions and labourers, they are having to deal with the real world for once.
 
velusip said:
I wonder if it's not so much a parts and reworking issue as it is a staff issue. Tesla staff managers are accustomed to hiring fervent and faithful engineering students who work insanely long hours for little pay and consider themselves "lucky" to have such a job. Now that Tesla is tapping into the American automotive workforce, rife with unions and labourers, they are having to deal with the real world for once.
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Or even that the Tesla "shine" is wearing off and people are starting to treat them less like a boutique manufacturer and more like a mainstream competitor to the offerings of the major domestic and import manufacturers.
 
Methadras said:
Where is the SPC (statistical process control), Quaity Control, Quality Assurance data to back this claim up?
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More quality engineers and managers than not in my company scrub data to make themselves look better.

Wouldn’t surprise me if guys in the chain are f-ing with the metrics to make them say what they want.
 
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I dunno, but it doesn't seem like we can attribute these issues to normal teething problems or the mass production concern. This guy claims these are quality issues he's never seen before.
 
Lol, you need to jump the car to open the hood? Car looses power and the back seats become a tomb unless you crawl into the trunk and push the child release button on the trunk? Definitely didn't expect that.
 
Some of the complaints are "it's different and I don't like it", with respects to the HMI things. That's pretty common in the auto industry whenever an engineer gets an itch to do something differently. You can get drawings for a latch that has 120 moving pieces and it's up to the production designer to reduce it to three stamped parts so it's actually affordable to produce. The lack of prior auto production experience can answer the door lock / hood latch stupidity, I can remember having an early power lock system with a remote that I had to hide external leads for as it didn't have a tumbler connected any more. "What happens when it doesn't work" is a question that can dumbfound the engineers sometimes; I can't count the number of times the response has been "that's out of scope." :mad:
 
Extra-Titanian said:
Lol, you need to jump the car to open the hood? Car looses power and the back seats become a tomb unless you crawl into the trunk and push the child release button on the trunk? Definitely didn't expect that.
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No kidding, how did that pass a FMEA without some stupid high RPN, makes me wonder if they are doing FMEA

Failure Mode Effects Analysis
 
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Unter Dog said:
More quality engineers and managers than not in my company scrub data to make themselves look better.

Wouldn’t surprise me if guys in the chain are f-ing with the metrics to make them say what they want.
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Wow, that would really suck if that ends up being remotely true.
 
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