Change Of Guard

Automation is marching into factory floors, making India Inc faster and smarter with each passing shift.

- V Keshavdev

Alien Dreadnought” is a term which is yet to find a mention in the bluebook of manufacturing. But the maverick founder of Tesla has shown the world what he meant when he first alluded to it in 2016. Keen to meet his target of rolling out 5,000 units a week of the popular Model 3, Elon Musk took upon himself the challenge of creating a fully automated factory — never ever attempted in the history of auto manufacturing. Musk’s audacious dream was to create a factory as a machine that built machines — human intervention would be zero, resembling a futuristic spacecraft manned by extra-terrestrials as shown in science-fiction movies.

While automation and robotics deployment are the highest in the auto industry across the globe, what Musk was aiming for was the impossible — entirely automating the last mile. A typical assembly operation is robotised to varying degrees, with most carmakers deploying workers to transport parts and load them on to machines. Tesla’s ambition was way higher, and it stumbled. Its robots couldn’t deal with different orientations of parts such as nuts and bolts and maneuvering of car frames.

Musk, finally, made an admission. In April 2018, he tweeted: “Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”