Comment by Munkum | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Munkum | Hacker News Reader

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I read that and have zero confidence that there will be a leap forward in productivity.

Density of automation equipment is all well and good, but it comes at a price of being difficult to maintain. If a tool or a robot breaks in some way (and any FMEA will tell you about the myriad of ways that can happen) then people will need to get into the cell and fix it. If you need to remove a robot, gripper or fixture - well, that's going to be difficult if you've landlocked everything by packing the machinery in so densely.

Vision systems for handling are great idea, but they are a nightmare to set up and to keep clean, especially in a welding shop.

Robots that repair the looms of robots around them. Fantasy, and it will continue to be fantasy for a good while yet.

Tesla doesn't need a major breakthrough in production technology. They're proposing to produce about as many cars as the NUMMI plant produced in its peak year. And Tesla has far more employees. Tesla's problem is going to be cost. They're trying to build a relatively fancy car at a low price. That's hard.

Tesla's big edge: they underpay their employees compared to other automakers. The workers are now talking to the UAW about organizing a union.[1] Musk sounds scared about this.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-09/tesla-emp...

Pretty sure all factories have high ceilings so the track cranes overhead can remove any piece of machinery from the factory floor, piece by piece if necessary. At least that's what my Millwright buddy who has worked on power plants, canneries and paper mills has told me.

In car assembly lines there are often gantries, conveyor systems (accumulating and EMS), trunnions and other high level equipment that prevents the use of track cranes. First choice would be to extract heavy equipment by manitou or fork-lift, crane is a distant second best. It sounds as though Tesla aren't considering how to maintain or repair their model 3 line.

Why did people downvote you, it's an honest question? Anyway, I expect the Audi manu expert would consider this and make sure he doesn't design a system without that possibility.

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