Comment by simonbarker87 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by simonbarker87 | Hacker News Reader

When plants like Nissan's in Sunderland (UK) have worked out how to make well over 500K cars per year incorporating a luxury brand car (Infiniti Q30), a mid range crossover company cash cow (Qashqai) and an electric car (Leaf) safely with a strong track record of keeping workers safe there is simply no excuse for this at all. No worker in modern day manufacturing should be concerned for their safety at work, ever.

I am a fan of Tesla and Musk but this line in the email pasted in by thsowers irks me and signals to the underlying issue:

"Managers must always put their team’s safety above their own"

No Elon, every employee's safety is equal and is more important than your TACT time.

I interpreted that sentence differently: managers are not the ones on the factory floor getting injured. By reporting injuries, they may be concerned for the safety of their career, and think by covering them up they'll avoid black marks on their record.

Potentially what he meant and probably a fairer interpretation. I run a (small) factory and my wife works as an engineer at the aforementioned Nissan plant so I tend to have a less forgiving attitude toward people who seem to disregard worker safety.

I remember when I toured the BAE submarine plant 10 years ago in Barrow in Furness being told that 1 death per month was considered standard and kind of ok in the early days of that plant - terrifying and thankfully not the case anymore.

Yeah, there's really no excuse for the safety record at Tesla's factory. At least the workers seem to be organizing so hopefully things will improve soon.

Also FYI it's takt time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takt_time

Thanks - I don't have formal manufacturing background so don't know the exact acronyms/terms.

I know that it is not the norm within the auto industry as it is considered as a competitive advantage, but the safety techniques used in assembly lines should be shared among the manufacturers. It would definitely save lives and injuries.

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