By ArsTechnica's count this is the 5th fire in the plant. 5th. That's insane. Report after report is that things continue to not go well and the email sent out reeks of paranoia and combined with other comments made recently are quite clearly dishonest. They aren't failing at the details of ramping a manufacturing line...they are failing at the basics of running a factory. To use a restaurant analogy, he's presenting this like a giant conspiracy to throw salt in his special new desert, all the while their walkin freezer is at room temperature. It is a distraction.
Here is the full email as reported by CNBC:
>From: Elon Musk
>To: Everybody
>Subject: Some concerning news
>June 17, 2018
>11:57 p.m.
>I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations. This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties.
>The full extent of his actions are not yet clear, but what he has admitted to so far is pretty bad. His stated motivation is that he wanted a promotion that he did not receive. In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move.
>However, there may be considerably more to this situation than meets the eye, so the investigation will continue in depth this week. We need to figure out if he was acting alone or with others at Tesla and if he was working with any outside organizations.
>As you know, there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die. These include Wall Street short-sellers, who have already lost billions of dollars and stand to lose a lot more. Then there are the oil & gas companies, the wealthiest industry in the world — they don't love the idea of Tesla advancing the progress of solar power & electric cars. Don't want to blow your mind, but rumor has it that those companies are sometimes not super nice. Then there are the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors. If they're willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they're willing to cheat in other ways?
>Most of the time, when there is theft of goods, leaking of confidential information, dereliction of duty or outright sabotage, the reason really is something simple like wanting to get back at someone within the company or at the company as a whole. Occasionally, it is much more serious.
>Please be extremely vigilant, particularly over the next few weeks as we ramp up the production rate to 5k/week. This is when outside forces have the strongest motivation to stop us.
>If you know of, see or suspect anything suspicious, please send a note to [email address removed for privacy] with as much info as possible. This can be done in your name, which will be kept confidential, or completely anonymously.
>Looking forward to having a great week with you as we charge up the super exciting ramp to 5000 Model 3 cars per week!
>Will follow this up with emails every few days describing the progress and challenges of the Model 3 ramp.
>Thanks for working so hard to make Tesla successful,
>Elon
It is one thing to report details or a broad explanation of the incident and request vigilance. It is another entirely to speculate about the source, especially to continue to place your company as the victim of conspiracies...ESPECIALLY when IN THE SAME EMAIL you make clear that the motive had nothing to do with any of those sources. He comes off as having a serious Martyr complex.
He said it was about promotion, why the speculation and the paranoia? The first 3 paragraphs are fine, they need ot be there. 4,5, and 6 look to me like planting excuses and leaking them through your employees. This email reads to me like it was written to leak. It was written to be PR sexy. I think it was written this way to get the 'sabotage' story press coverage.
This is a precursor to them missing 5k again. As others have reported they may not have the permitting necessary to even paint the number of cars they are targeting. They have 3 assembly lines trying to collectively produce 5k/cars a week, something other plants do with 1. Yesterday Musk talked about the short's eating their words because the stock price blipped...and now this. Shorts aren't in it for the short haul, look at Enron, look at the housing bubble. When a spaceX rocket blew up, he claimed sabotage. He made a PR show of 'moving into the Tesla factory' why? what is he going to do? Turn a wrench?
Taken individually none of these things are individually 'proof' he's losing it. Taken collectively, the preponderance of evidence is becoming increasingly damning. Occam's razor comes into play here. I've worked in big factories...I led lean task forces at two factories. All of these issues look to me like a lack of planning and an unawareness of how to execute on manufacturing mechanical things at scale. You can't rush a ramp, but you can speed it up. Getting management off the floor and getting them to empower engineers rather than manage engineers is a strong step towards it. Having the CEO living in the factory isn't anywhere in the Lean playbook that has let Toyota absolutely crush other companies in terms of manufacturing. And remember [edit: Toyota offered to help them do this and Musk burned that bridge].
Tesla's greatest enemy at this point is the cult of Elon Musk, and the cult's leader, Elon Musk.