"Produce a Model Y in 10 hours"
Tesla's seemingly short expression is behind the efficiency gap that countless car companies can't hope for, even volkswagen.
Recently, according to relevant reports in foreign media, Tesla claimed that it takes only 10 hours for its Berlin gigafactory to produce a Model Y, while Volkswagen takes three times as long to produce an electric car.
In recent years, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has also expressed his eagerness to boost production efficiency on several occasions. According to Information from Volkswagen, Volkswagen has planned to build a new plant in Wolfsburg to produce one Trinity model every ten hours in 2026.
It is worth mentioning that the "ten hours a car" expressed above refers to the "complete production cycle" of the vehicle, which is more focused on the description of scale than the concept of "production beat" that we are familiar with, while the former can better reflect the actual production efficiency.
In contrast, it is not difficult to find that not only in terms of current efficiency, Tesla's production efficiency has reached three times that of volkswagen. Even in terms of time, Tesla's production efficiency has been four years ahead of Volkswagen.
So, what is the reason for the difference in production efficiency between Tesla and traditional car companies? Let's start with the basics of automobile manufacturing.
Traditional car companies: four major processes that cannot be bypassed
For traditional car companies, automobile manufacturing is nothing more than "four major processes", namely stamping, welding, painting and final assembly. Looking around the factories of the current mainstream car companies, whether advanced or not, the layout planning of their production lines is centered around these four major processes.
Here, we can understand it in a more popular way. Stamping is to stamp the raw materials into the corresponding large covering parts (such as outer skin, fender, etc.) through the stamping machine; welding is to weld each component, painting is to cover the paint surface of the vehicle components, and final assembly is to finally combine the various parts. After the final assembly of the production line, the vehicle will go through a set of standard quality inspection process, after the inspection passed the vehicle will become a commercial vehicle that can be qualified to leave the factory.
In this context, car companies want to improve manufacturing efficiency, the solution is nothing more than the use of more efficient working equipment, in the local link to improve efficiency. Sensory-wise, it's more of a tower-like solution.
Of course, the factors that affect manufacturing efficiency are not only the production line itself. In addition to the production line, factors such as warehousing, logistics, labor, and supply chain also restrict the overall production efficiency of the factory. Traditional car companies will use more advanced information systems and management tools in these areas to improve efficiency. But in essence, this is also a kind of optimization of local efficiency.
Tesla Factory: Iterative manufacturing process
So how exactly does Tesla improve efficiency? The answer lies in the iteration of the manufacturing process.
Compared with the way traditional car companies improve the overall manufacturing efficiency by continuously optimizing the efficiency of each part, Tesla has chosen a solution that is more in line with the so-called first principle, that is, "where time is wasted, it will be simplified." "The main step of this is the use of integrated die casting.
First of all, let's explain what integrated die casting is. The so-called die casting, the simple understanding is to inject molten metal into the mold after pressure, the stereotype release, and integrated die casting can be popularly understood as a die casting technology that can die cast larger structural parts. Through the application of integrated die casting technology, car companies can mold multiple different parts at once, eliminating the need for the process of manufacturing and welding separately.
In Tesla's production line, the traditional four major processes have been further split, adding die casting links. Although there has been an increase in the number of links, the overall improvement can significantly improve overall production efficiency because integrated die casting reduces the manufacturing and welding process of many parts and reduces the pressure of supply chain management.
At present, the tesla Model Y's rear plate assembly has been applied to the integrated die-casting process on a large scale, which has reduced the total weight of the car body by 30% and the manufacturing cost by 40%. In addition, Tesla will further apply integrated die casting in the chassis structure and other parts. At that time, the car body assembly composed of 370 parts will be completely replaced by 2-3 large die castings, further reducing costs and improving production efficiency and technical parameters of the vehicle.
In early April, Tesla officials also released a promotional video about the Berlin factory, which showed almost the entire process of its production and manufacturing.
First of all, the eye is the stamping link, in this step, we see the steel plate stamped into the corresponding body structure parts by the stamping machine, and sent to the quality inspection by the robotic arm and the conveyor belt, and sent to the next link after the quality inspection is passed.
Then, the high-temperature furnace we see is the integrated die casting link, in which the molten liquid metal is injected into the mold, and this steaming structural part is the rear bottom plate assembly that has just been released.
As the line of sight shifts, this production line full of robotic arms is used for welding, which can weld different body structures into complete bodywork.
After welding, it comes to the painting process, in this step, the body-in-white will pass through the electric pool, and after a series of physico-chemical reactions excited by the current, the paint surface will be attached to the body. And this electrophoretic coating process is also the reason why we often say that the original paint is only once.
After the painting process, the vehicle goes through the final assembly process, in which the vehicle completes the final assembly of all parts, including the interior exterior powertrain.
After assembly, the assembly workshop will also have a special quality inspection link to evaluate the manufacturing quality of the vehicle, and only the models that pass the quality inspection can be regarded as production completed. Here we also have to say more, that is, the paint assembly of the flawed vehicle will also go through the corresponding rework repair link, although it has undergone repair, but as long as it meets the factory standards can be sold as a new car, which is why some consumers buy new cars will also have different paint thickness reasons.
Write at the end:
In the century-long development of the automobile industry, the improvement of production efficiency has always been the focus of continuous research by car companies. From Ford's assembly line to Toyota's lean production, every efficiency improvement will promote the cost performance of automotive products, which is the most easily perceived benefit of production efficiency for consumers.
Focusing on the current automobile production, Tesla has indeed achieved a positive cycle in the whole chain from design to manufacturing process. With the popularization of integrated die casting technology, although more manufacturers will gradually keep up with this production rhythm, this time difference is enough for Tesla to establish a new competitive advantage in the dividend of production efficiency. Deeply investigating the reasons for this phenomenon, I think that in addition to the difference in technology, the more fundamental factor is whether the business management model can really put innovation in the core position, after all, there are always predecessors to explore the way with the runners, while the frontrunners can only rely on their own judgment and motivation.