The automobile industry has seen two major innovations till now. The first took place a long time back when mass production was introduced by Henry Ford. The second one of them took place after the World War II when Toyota developed its production system, which gave rise to lean manufacturing.
It was exactly opposite of the vertically integrated approach used by Ford. From the looks of it, Tesla is on the brink of another major innovation in the field of automobile industry.
Peter Hochholdinger was hired away from Audi by Tesla, and he is now the vice-president of vehicle production. He is a highly experienced executive in automobile manufacturing, and he is probably the prime reason behind Tesla’s latest business move. It deals with the acquisition of German company, named Grohmann Engineering, which specializes in the aspect of industrial automation.
The ideas being implemented by Hochholdinger seem to be in line with Elon Musk’s (Tesla CEO) radical notions regarding the auto-manufacturing process. He has been talking about this sort of revolution ever since the ‘Master Plan: Part Deux’ was revealed a few months back. From the looks of it, Tesla has the perfectly designed test bed to execute all the ambitions of Elon Musk.
The mass-market Model 3 is expected to arrive in the late quarter of 2017, and it should make up the bulk of Tesla’s annual production of 500,000 by the year of 2018. Hochholdinger recently had an interview with Manufacturing Leadership Journal, and some of the Model 3’s advantages were outlined in it.
While talking about the Model 3, he said that it is all about the product. The product needs to be made as simple as possible and also easily buildable. He also talked about why the vehicle should succeed based on its simplicity.
Hochholdinger said, “[It] has no exhaust system. It has no gearbox. It has no engine. It’s more or less a computer on wheels. It’s totally thrilling and exciting. This car is totally different than everything else done before.”
A particular phrase, “the machine that makes the machine” was used by Hochholdinger during the interview and the same phrase has been used by Musk as well. According to this concept, supply chain logistics and manufacturing should be integrated with the design and engineering process.
However, automation, which deals with building on the Model 3’s simplicity, requires a much bigger role. His view suggests that robots can play a much greater part in automobile production than currently used. This is because most components need to be handled and designed by humans and not by machines.
If Hochholdinger and Tesla manage to accomplish it successfully, it will be a much greater achievement compared to thousands of electric cars on roads. With its success, gas powered vehicles could be mass-produced by highly automated factories.
Keep in mind that the production may not be as fully automated as Tesla thinks. The company needs to keep in mind that any innovation in the manufacturing process will be copied, in the same way, everyone copied Toyota. Nevertheless, Tesla will remain the pioneer.
Meanwhile, Tesla has something they call Tesla Advanced Automation Germany and it will be based in Grohmann’s headquarters, Prüm, in Germany. The company will hire more than 1000 technicians and engineers within the next two years so as to assist in the advancement of its manufacturing efforts, before the production of Model 3.
The two companies, Grohmann and Tesla, have already put their heads together, for the production of this car. However, this move from Tesla signifies that the company wishes to get all their ducks in a row before its release.