Production at Tesla and Space X: the so-called Algorithm: New Manufacturing Insights

 From Isaacson, Elon Musk, 2023, pp 284-286.

Given the historical development automobile  manufacturing from Henry Ford to Sloanism, Musks thoughts and implementation during the development of production at Fremont, CA is most remarkable.

Five commandments:

1. Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as the "legal department" or "the safety department." You need to know the name of he real person who made that requirement. Then you should question it, no matter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous,  because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the replacement came from me [Musk}. Then make the requitements less dumb. 

2. Delete any part of a process you csn. You may have to add them back again later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you did not delete enough.

3. Simplify and optimize. This should come after step 2. A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part of a process that should not exist.

4. Accelerate cycle time. Every process can be speeded up. But only do this after you have followed the first three steps. In the Tesla factory, I [Musk] mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I realize should have been deleted.

5. Automate. Taht comes last. The big mistake in Nevada and at Fremont was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requitements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and he bugs were shaken out.

A few corollaries, among them:

All technical managers must have hands-on experience.... Otherwise, they are like a calvary leader who can't ride a horse or a general who can't use a sword.

Comradery is dangerous. It makes it hard for people to challenge each others work.

It is OK to be wrong Just don't be confident and wrong.

A maniacal sense of urgency is out operating principle.

The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.