Question: The following is a description of Tesla Model S manufacturing process from Wikipedia.com:
The manufacturing process for Tesla Model S uses more than 160 specialist robots, including 10 of the largest robots in the world, which are named after X-Men characters. Many of the Model S's unique components, including the battery pack, battery module, and drive units are manufactured in-house. The plant has a high level of integration compared with other modern car assembly plants, with most processes taking place within the Tesla Factory. This includes most of the stamping and machining, painting, and some coding. The hydraulic press lines used to stapm 5,000 body panels per day with a force of 10,000 tons,are the largest in North America and the 6th largest in the world. Around 60% of the car parts are sourced from North America, while Japan is the second-biggest source of components as of March 2015. Design engineers also work at the factory itself, rather than a separate facility. Each vehicle is made to order with a two to three-month wait time for delivery, although individual vehicles only take between three and five days to complete the assembly process. The assembly line moves at a speed of 5 cm/s. Tesla prefers delivery by train rather than by truck, as costs and damages are less.
Evaluate and discuss Tesla's manufacturing process. Consider its facilty layout issues, inventory costs and processing times, costs of nonconformance and quality issues. Just in time manufacturing, and benchmarking.
Be sure to specifically use/refer to materails/concepts such as faciity layout systems (process, product and group), Theory of Constraints, Work-in-process inventory, inventory and processing time, incentory-related costs, Cost of Nonconformance and Quality Issues, Quality Standards Prevention Costs, Appraisal Costs, Internal and External failure Costs, Just-in-time manufacuring, Kaizen costing, etc.