This is Kristen O'Brien, Managing Editor at NFX, and this is the founder list. Audible versions of essays from technology's most important leaders selected by the founder community. Collected and listed from separate internal emails, Elon Musk shares 10 pieces of advice to pick up the pace of manufacturing at Tesla, read by NFX. One. Always start with the good. 1st, congratulations are in order. We've now completed our 3rd full week of producing over 2000 model 3 vehicles. The 1st week was 2020.
The second was 2000 70, and we just completed 2200 50 last week along with 2000 model s x vehicles. 2, challenge, demand, but always offer Beller. Please note that all areas of Tesla and our suppliers will be required to demonstrate a model 3 capacity of approximately 6000 a week by building 850 sets of car parts in 24 hours no later than June 30th. Any Tesla department or supplier that is unable to do this will need to have a very good explanation why not.
Along with a plan for fixing the problem and present that to me directly. If anyone needs help achieving this, please let me know as soon as possible. We are going to find a way or make a way to get there. 3. Production only moves as fast as the least lucky. The reason that the burst Beller target rate 6000 and not 5000 per week in June is that we cannot have a number with no margin for error across thousands of internally and externally produced parts and processes.
Amplified by a complex global logistics chain. Actual production will move as fast as the least lucky and least well executed part of the entire Tesla production supply chain system. 4. Don't be 10% better. Be ten times Beller. Seriously. Most of the design tolerances of the model 3 are already better than any other car in the world. Soon, they will all be better. This is not enough. We will keep going until the model 3 build precision is a factor of 10 better than any other car in the world.
I am not kidding. 5. Encourage customers to bring out the measuring tape. Our car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and precision that If an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps, and flushness and their measurements don't match the model 3 specs, it just means that their measuring tape is wrong. Some parts suppliers will be unwilling or unable to achieve this level of precision. I understand that this will be considered an unreasonable request by some, That's okay?
There are lots of other car companies with much lower standards. They just can't work with Tesla. 6, if mole Hills turn to mountains, follow the money train. I've been disappointed to discover how many contractor companies are interwoven throughout Tesla. Often, It is like a Russian nesting doll of contractor, subcontractor, sub contractor, etcetera, before you finally find someone doing actual work This means a lot of middle managers adding cost, but not doing anything obviously useful.
Also, many contracts are essentially open time and materials, not fixed price and duration, creates an incentive to turn molehills into mountains as they never want to end the money train. 7. If you can't explain it to a five year old, you don't understand it well enough.
Don't use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesla In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication, we don't want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla. 8, it must be okay for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen. A major source of issues is poor communication between departments. The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels.
Flint order to get something done between departments, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager who talks to a director who talks to a VP who talks to another VP who talks to a director who talks to a manager who talks to someone doing the actual work then super dumb things will happen. It must be okay for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen. Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the chain of command.
Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere. 9. It is not rude to leave. It is rude to make someone stay and waste their time. Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get rid of all large meetings unless you're certain they're providing value to the whole audience in which case, keep them very short.
Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you're dealing with an extremely urgent matter, meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved. Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value. It's not rude to leave. It is rude to make someone stay and waste their time. And 10. Hold contractors to the same standards as your employees. There is a very wide range of contractor performance from excellent to worse than a drunken sloth.
All contracting companies should consider the coming weeks be a final opportunity to demonstrate excellence. Any that fail to meet the Tesla standard of excellence will have their contracts ended on Monday. For more audio essays from the people who've built companies like Instacart, Facebook, Trello, HubSpot, and Dropbox, visit the founder list. Atnfx.com, or subscribe to the nfx podcast at podcast.nfx.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.