There
isn't a big network of suppliers who can make or refurbish
the parts that go into a Tesla, or any other electric
vehicle, says Xavier Mosquet, a senior partner with Boston
Consulting Group in Detroit. For those reasons, it's not
surprising that Tesla runs "reman" lines of its own.
However,
current and former employees say that Tesla leverages its
remanufacturing group to deal with new car production
problems, which is unusual. Tesla denies this is happening.
Job
descriptions show that remanufacturing at Tesla includes a
much broader set of responsibilities than refurbishing used
parts.
One recent
listing said candidates should have
the "ability to identify and analyze new failures [sic]
modes from both the field and manufacturing lines," suggesting
that Tesla's remanufacturing line deals with parts coming
off its own assembly lines.
Another
for a team
process leader in the "Vehicle Reman
Center" in Fremont, California, where Tesla makes its new
cars, said the candidate would "lead the Value delivery
system created to repair and remanufacture Tesla electric
vehicles," and "lead daily operations...on large volume,
electric vehicle repair and reconditioning value streams."
Tesla
claims that these job listings reflect the fact that
remanufacturing experts evaluate and analyze a wide range of
factors to figure out why a particular part failed in the
field. These experts then sometimes feed this information
back to other groups, including manufacturing groups.
Tesla
also told CNBC its remanufacturing group included only 40
employees. However, at least one Tesla employee profile on
LinkedIn references a team within the remanufacturing
department that is comprised of 130 employees.
Mag
Consulting's Girvan evaluated Tesla's remanufacturing job
descriptions on sites including Tesla's careers page,
LinkedIn and Glassdoor.
He
said, "Problems are unavoidable in any factory. 'Rework'
does happen…These listings speak to what is probably a large
amount of product that has either not been built to
specification or that has been built to an incorrect
specification where the error wasn't found until later."
In
autos, there is a widespread philosophy of "right the first
time," Girvan added. Usually, automakers spend a lot of time
on planning and prototypes before going into full
production. One reason for a cautious approach is that too
much scrap, and a high portion of parts that need rework,
can eat into the already-challenging profit margins of auto
assembly.
CNBC
shared Girvan's analysis with Tesla. The company wrote, in
response:
"Remanufacturing
is not unique to Tesla, it is something that other
manufacturers do too. Remanufacturing involves taking
older parts and reconditioning them so they can be used
for cars when they eventually come in for service. Rather
than making new parts from scratch, this is good for the
environment and if done well, is equally good for the
customer. Any 'expert' claiming there is something unusual
about this or that it has something to do with the quality
of cars that come off a production line is either very
confused or just completely wrong."
Tesla
did not disclose its "first pass yields" to CNBC.This number
indicates what portion of a manufacturer's new cars were
created using standard processes, not requiring the extra
effort and expense of rework.
At
least, Girvan said, "It's better to catch a defect in the
factory and fix it -- far better than something occurring in
the field involving a customer's vehicle."
Regarding
the overall quality of its cars coming off the line, Tesla
issued the following statement:
Our
goal is to produce perfect cars for every customer.
Therefore, we review every vehicle for even the smallest
refinement. We care about even the smallest imperfection
like a slight paint gloss texture or a wheel alignment
check. We then feed these improvements back to production
in a pursuit of perfection. This is reflected in the
overall efficiency of the factory, which has improved
dramatically. For example, the number of labor hours
needed to complete a Model S or Model X vehicle has
decreased. Whereas before, it took three shifts with
considerable overtime to produce our target annual
production of 100,000 Model S and X vehicles, now it can
be done with only two shifts and minimal overtime. Nothing
speaks to this more than the fact that Tesla has the
highest customer satisfaction levels and the highest
percentage of customers who say that their next car will
be a Tesla in the entire global auto industry.
In
terms of the line stoppage in February, Tesla issued this
statement:
Our
Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned
downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1. These periods
are used to improve automation and systematically address
bottlenecks in order to increase production rates.