The Education of Elon Musk in two parts

He slept in the factory and learned lessons

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October 10, 2021

Whatever you think of Elon Musk he has done much of what he said he would. He wanted to help create a sustainable energy economy that would start to deal with climate change. He said he would build electric cars. He did. He worried about us humans and our stewardship of earth. He hopes to create an insurance policy by making humans a multiplanetary species with a colony on Mars. A reusable rocket would be necessary. He has built such a rocket.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses on the red carpet of the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Credit: photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)

Musk has learned a lot. Let's take a look at the education of Elon Musk the manufacturer. Some like to compare Musk to Howard Hughes but, it’s better to think about Henry Ford and his turn of the century assembly line.

Musk likes his products to look good. His rockets are sleek. Tesla has a style. And the pressure suits astronauts wear on his Crew Dragon don’t look much like the NASA versions.

NASA Crew-2 posing in their custom-made SpaceX pressure suits. (Credit: SpaceX)

MANUFACTURING BESTS DESIGN

But the billionaire has come to a conclusion he has been sharing every chance he gets over the past few months. He now believes that design doesn’t matter that much. Design is a “rounding error” when it comes to producing products at mass scale, Musk claims. Manufacturing is "staggering hard" and is under-appreciated, he says.

Musk describes his appreciation for manufacturing during a tour of his Starbase. He mentions a Raptor whch is an engine for his Falcon rockets. (Credit: Everyday Astronaut)

Elon Musk Musk’s two most visible businesses, SpaceX and Tesla, are producing a lot of product. But not without near-death experiences for those companies along the way.

TROUBLE ON THE LINES

The origin story of SpaceX includes its first three rocket failures. If the fourth rocket didn’t make it to orbit, Musk would have to shut down the company. The Falcon-1 flew on the 4th flight and Musk was able to obtain a NASA contract that helped fund his development of the space company.

A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket. (Credit: SpaceX)

Tesla, on the other hand, is a public company. The pressure from shareholders is stronger. Musk made some promises about vehicles produced and when the company would be profitable. It wasn’t working. He started sleeping in a conference room off of Tesla’s Fremont, California assembly line and immediately started making mistakes, huge mistakes, by his account.

WORKING AND SLEEPING IN THE FACTORY

The sci-fi fan and technologist who became a billionaire by helping create software companies, including PayPal, jumped into his assembly line problems by trying to pile on more automation. It was a complete failure.

Workers assemble cars on the line at Tesla's factory in Fremont in February 2015. (Credit: Photo by David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images)

Musk tells a story about design, development, and deployment in the manufacturing process. Through all his mistakes he developed what he simply calls a five step process. It’s his way of dealing with problems that arise while trying to build a lot of stuff quickly. One of his most detailed versions of the process was given to Everyday Astronaut during a tour of Starbase in Texas.

DELETE IF POSSIBLE

The Tesla battery line was slowing down, which in turn slowed the actual car line. The problem was a fiberglass mat being attached to the battery pack. There were problems with glue and getting the mats attached. Musk tried several ways to quicken the process including changing the way the robots operated. He finally asked, “what are these mats for?” He got completely opposing answers. The battery development engineers said the mats were to provide noise and vibration dampening. Musk then asked the “noise department” about the purpose of the mats. Those engineers said the mats were for fire safety.

Infuriated, Musk had two cars built, one with the battery insulation mats, one without. There was no noise difference and the fire safety requirement was unnecessary. So, Musk had the mats deleted and both the battery assembly line and the car line sped up.

Musk talking to Italian Tech Week about auto-manufacturing. (Credit: Italian Tech Week)

One of the many lessons learned while Musk was living on the assembly-line.

What are the five steps in Musk’s manufacturing process? That is Part 2.