#编者
As a strong challenge to tradition, Elon Musk's Tesla has been playing an "innovator" and "pioneer" in the automotive field, and its controversial professional software research and development capabilities and strong supply chain management system have enabled it to turn the tide in the face of the global "lack of core" situation and stand out among global car companies.
Zhang Yiju, deputy director of the Logistics and Supply Chain Management Research Institute of China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, believes that Tesla's measures to deal with "lack of core" have good reference significance for the construction of China's manufacturing industry and its supply chain system. On the one hand, professional software research and development capabilities are the key to promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, and an important support for the integration and development of traditional manufacturing industries with advanced technologies such as big data, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. Therefore, Chinese manufacturing enterprises should jump out of traditional thinking and pay more attention to technological innovation and application. On the other hand, the key to tesla's strong supply chain management system construction is the advance layout and vertical management, which is based on its strong full-process supply chain management capabilities. For Chinese enterprises, especially large enterprises, they should establish supply chain management thinking faster, improve supply chain management capabilities from all angles such as enterprise management, production, operation, and sales, and better maintain and ensure the sustainable and high-quality development of enterprises.
The global chip shortage plagues traditional car companies, whether it is Volkswagen Toyota, Or Ford GM, or Audi BMW Mercedes-Benz, and the news of production cuts and production suspensions continues to be heard. But Tesla sales have reached a new high, where is the secret? So how did Musk do it?
Let's start by looking at tesla delivering 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter and announcing an 87% increase in deliveries in 2021 compared to 2020 deliveries.
Everyone must be curious about how this new energy vehicle company does it? The answer seems to be very simple: from the perspective of industry analysis, the key is to shoot quickly in the core grabbing war, professional software research and development capabilities and a strong supply chain management system.
Tesla is a new energy vehicle company, is a leader and innovator in the new energy category, and has obvious advantages over traditional car companies:
Advantage 1:
Professional software research and development capabilities
Professional software research and development capabilities are a powerful weapon for Tesla to deal with the lack of cores. In the eyes of industry insiders, Tesla's core ability ahead of traditional car companies is not electrification, but software development capabilities.
In this way, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was able to rely on software development capabilities to keep it up and running, which makes Tesla more efficient than many competitors in dealing with the global chip shortage.
This fact is reflected in their production last year, and traditional car companies such as Honda, Nissan and General Motors will see their production decline in the United States in 2021, resulting in consumers having fewer models to choose from. The global chip shortage has also forced some car companies — including Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Volkswagen — to temporarily shut down some production sites.
According to consultancy AlixPartners, if there are not enough chips, automakers will produce about 77 million vehicles worldwide by January 2022, down about 9 percent from expected production in the same period a year earlier.
It is predicted that by 2025, half of the top ten automakers will design their own chips. Tesla announced from 2017 that it has developed its own AI chip for self-driving, and officially released an AI chip on April 23, 2021 at the "Tesla Autopilot Day", AI chip auxiliary supplemental software research and development application, in the charging network, sales stores and other fields, Tesla also adheres to the principle of direct operation and self-leadership.
Chip shortages are both a supply and demand issue, with work from home becoming commonplace due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and a surge in online sales orders for laptops and smartphones.
Automakers are likely to continue to face similar difficulties for some time, with Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger saying last year that the global chip shortage could continue for years.
Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said in October 2021 that our R&D capabilities in the chip industry help us meet the challenges of the chip supply chain.
Advantage 2:
Strong supply chain management system
A strong supply chain management system is an important reason why the industry believes that Tesla is not plagued by chip shortages. All along, Tesla has pursued an iron fist principle in supply chain management, suppliers can follow their own, high degree of cooperation on the outside of the procurement, not on their own, their own creation.
In order to reduce costs and improve the control of the battery supply chain, after 5 years of silent deep ploughing, Tesla is about to release its own battery tricks, and Tesla is ready to manufacture batteries on a large scale from 2022. With a planned capacity of 100 GWh of batteries, enough for 1.4 million cars, about three times the amount Tesla buys from Panasonic today, Musk's ambitions have surged from the electric vehicle industry to the power battery industry, and a new bloody storm will begin.
Although this kind of large-scale approach, everything has to come by itself supply chain management and collaboration style has been controversial in the industry, skeptics believe that they can only adapt to small-scale start-ups, and after the scale becomes larger, they must take a professional division of labor and rely on outsourcing or cooperation. But at least for now, this highly vertically integrated supply chain management approach allows Tesla to respond quickly in the chaos of chip shortages and chaotic supply of components.
Adam Jonas in How Did Tesla Find a Chip? The article said: "Tesla is known to be one of the most vertically integrated companies in the world, especially in the automotive industry. It controls and maintains many of its own components, including car seats. Moreover, the company has ownership of retail channels, which is one of the company's huge advantages in coping with the global shortage of parts. ”
Of course, Tesla is not immune to global supply chain problems, and the electric pickup truck and semi-trailer originally planned to be put into production in 2021 will be postponed to 2022 and 2023 respectively, and Musk blamed this problem on chip shortages.
We from the global chip famine, this black swan event, Tesla stands out in this regard, fully illustrates how important supply chain management is to an enterprise, a sound supply chain management system can allow enterprises to obtain the greatest benefits at the lowest cost, while improving the efficiency of enterprises and production and sales rate, in a large number of management links of enterprises, supply chain management is an important link to maintain the normal operation of the entire enterprise.