The trend of layoffs is sweeping across super factories.
Musk personally created an efficient production empire - the Shanghai Super Factory.
In this factory, a new car can be produced in less than 40 seconds, which is highly efficient and eye-catching to the industry.
A group of component suppliers are stationed around Tesla's factory. A component can be shipped from the supplier and arrive at the Tesla factory in as little as one hour.
This large and highly efficient factory has attracted thousands of young people who aspire to pursue their dreams here.
However, when they were truly immersed in it, they realized that besides mechanically repeating fixed movements, it was difficult for them to learn technical skills.
As the trend of layoffs swept through Shanghai's super factories, the dreams of these young people finally woke up.
1
Add quantity without adding price
"When will the machine break down on its own?" On Tesla's assembly line, 26 year old worker Fu Yinan has pondered this question countless times.
He works in the final assembly workshop, which is the end of Tesla's factory production. Workers are holding machine guns and constantly screwing screws, connecting various spare parts and vehicle bodies together.
This is also the place where the workload of the entire factory is the highest, because the vehicles cannot be delayed from going offline, and the final assembly workers are even breathing heavily.
Previously, in order to meet the soaring order volume, Tesla's workshop implemented a two shift, 12 hour work system. At 7am and 7pm, the workers shift over.
Entering 2024, frequent price wars have led to Tesla's involvement, seriously dragging down its gross profit margin.
According to the financial report, Tesla's gross profit margin declined to 17.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023. In 2022, this number is still 23.8%.
In order to combat the decline in gross profit, Tesla will maximize cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
Some subtle changes have emerged one after another. In early May, the class monitor notified that the original 12 hour work schedule had been adjusted to 11 hours. Leave work early, but no one is happy.
Fu Yinan said that originally, the production of a workshop team was 530-550 units, but now the working hours have been reduced by one hour, and the production still reaches over 500 units.
This means reduced working hours, but greater workload.
Fu Yinan is even more exhausted than usual. Tesla will provide afternoon tea and there is 10 minutes to go to the bathroom every two hours.
Nowadays, with endless work and non-stop production lines, "there's no time to eat overtime meals and use the restroom."
As for the missing working hours, reflected in wages, workers can only receive a base salary of over 5000 yuan, while at their peak, they can earn a monthly income of 8000 yuan.
Due to not meeting the minimum wage requirement, workers were even notified that they owed Tesla over thirty working hours.
The number of people working has also decreased.
When I first arrived at Tesla, worker Wu Feng was on a shift of 13 people, including two activity posts - the assembly line would not stop, and when someone wanted to use the toilet or their work malfunctioned, the person at the activity post could take over.
Last year in the middle of the year, after two people left the activity post, Wu Feng never used the restroom during working hours again.
In 2022, when Wu Feng first arrived, Tesla's delivery volume declined in the second quarter. Musk decisively allowed the Shanghai factory to expand production, with an annual production capacity of over 750000 vehicles, known as Tesla's world's largest super factory.
During that period, workers became the pressure bearers of Tesla's miracle. The production of Wu Feng's team increased from 1020 and 1030 units to 1080 units at one point.
Under high pressure, some workers feel physically exhausted. Even after seeing his colleague fall, Wu Feng did not leave, and Tesla is willing to offer generous rewards.
He has calculated that at Tesla, with a monthly base salary of 5300 yuan, plus bonuses and commissions, one can earn over 100000 yuan per year, which is almost the salary ceiling for domestic automobile factories.
Wu Feng heard old employees talk about how "salary increases used to be in the hundreds and hundreds", as well as stock rewards.
Chen Ke, who joined Tesla in 2020, said that the equity he received was sold off at its highest point and exchanged for 700000 yuan.
A strong sense of drop appeared. Wu Feng's monthly salary is 5300 yuan, but he only received a salary increase once after joining, which is less than 200 yuan.
At the end of last year, when the year-end bonus was awarded, there were five levels from A to E, and very few people were able to achieve A performance.
Wu Feng received the most ordinary C, receiving 1.2 times the year-end bonus, which is about 6500 yuan. Tesla no longer provides equity rewards.
2
Manufacturing volume king
In 2020, Tesla's China factory landed and started production in Lingang, Shanghai. In just one year, more than 19000 young laborers came to admire it, forming a young and restless super factory.
This factory has been labeled as efficient since its inception. Elon Musk instilled his will in every level of the company from top to bottom.
"Keep a collective charge with crazy buddies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
The biographer of "The Story of Musk" exclaimed that this "reflects Musk's demand for everyone to achieve a 'non lethal' work intensity.".
The supplier responsible for machine maintenance, cargo transportation, and other work is also operating according to Tesla's schedule.
A supplier employee described it as "following Tesla, Tesla keeps working, and we keep working.".
Automotive parts from suppliers are temporarily stored in large container storage points.
The storage point is located outside the factory, separated only by a road, with hundreds of freight vehicles parked here, greatly saving the space occupied inside the factory.
According to 36 Kr calculations, Tesla's factory can produce 580 vehicles per mu, while in comparison, domestic automobile factories only produce around 100-200 vehicles per mu.
When the production line is about to run out of stock, the 28 year old transport worker Qin Di will receive email instructions and mobilize short distance transport vehicles to complete the process of parts entering, unloading, and leaving the factory at the fastest speed.
Internally within Tesla, this is known as a Warehouse On Wheel, with over 2000 logistics vehicles shuttling back and forth throughout the factory area.
Qin Di's job position is outside the factory. After the long-distance freight truck from the supplier arrives, the third-party carrier completes container inspection, cargo counting, and cargo damage handling at the factory gate, which is equivalent to solving a variety of miscellaneous tasks in a one-stop manner outside the factory.
Tesla Time plays a huge role. In 2023, Tesla's Shanghai factory produced 947000 cars, more than half of Tesla's annual delivery volume.
In terms of area, the Shanghai factory is only one twelfth that of the Austin factory in the United States and one twentieth that of the Montreal factory in Mexico.
3
Efficiency is malfunctioning
Tesla's efficient operation has helped it enter the top tier of global new energy vehicles and attracted many people to come.
Firstly, it is the merchants who smell business opportunities, and the street of snacks is bustling until late at night. 40 booths once attracted over a hundred merchants to compete.
There are also component suppliers rushing towards the port. The core principle of Tesla's supplier selection is to be close enough.
A widely circulated saying is that Tesla controls the distance between suppliers and their factories within a 4-hour drive, known as the "four hour circle of friends".
Chinese suppliers have keenly grasped this demand.
In 2020, more than 10 suppliers settled in this free port, and some companies acquired nearby factories in exchange for a closer location.
In order to join the "special chain", Lingang is highly sought after by component enterprises. Only enterprises with per capita sales of 2.5 million yuan are eligible to set up camp.
So, with Tesla factory as the core, a complete and efficient production loop is formed.
The company where carrier employee Lu Jia works transports parts for Tesla. He revealed that starting from the arrival at the supplier, a series of operations including loading, transportation, and unloading can be completed in just one hour at the fastest.
The improvement of efficiency always comes at a cost. Part of the pressure on cost control has fallen on the carriers. Every year, Tesla conducts bidding and selects carriers with lower quotes.
For example, Xusheng Corporation, which provides lightweight solutions for Tesla, saw an 8 percentage point decrease in gross profit margin after receiving orders from Tesla.
On the other hand, there are limits to cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Musk also realized that efficient production is no longer an absolute victory code.
The sales data exposed Tesla's predicament - in the first quarter of this year, Tesla produced 430000 cars and only sold 380000.
Sales have suffered setbacks, and Musk has accelerated cost cuts, leading to a large-scale layoff this year.
The latest data shows that the total number of Tesla employees has decreased from over 140000 at the end of last year to around 121000, a decrease of over 14%.
At the same time, the strategic focus is also being adjusted. At the first quarter financial report conference call, Musk revealed his determination to continue investing $10 billion in autonomous driving and plans to release autonomous ride hailing services in August.
4
Stop dreaming
After various considerations, many workers plan to leave Tesla.
Fu Yinan used to work as an auto mechanic, breaking up, cutting, and dismantling the entire car into thousands of small parts, and "you can roughly see some craftsmanship.". He has his own small plan, which will come in handy in the future when he enters the main engine factory or opens his own auto repair shop.
But in an intelligent factory, what can be learned is extremely limited.
The work done by Fu Yinan is just a few fixed actions. During training, this set of work can even be precise to the curvature of the limbs.
After two years at the factory, the only machine that Wu Feng learned to operate was the radio gun used for screwing. The electric gun can automatically detect various problems, and Wu Feng doesn't even need to think about where the problem is.
In order not to delay production, Wu Feng always finishes his meal quickly and rushes back to the production line. He can even endure 12 hours without going to the restroom.
Due to the difficulty in adapting to the rhythm of sacrificing health, the other three roommates in Wu Feng's dormitory have all left Tesla.
Beyond the spirit, when life is filled with screws, an experience of atomization arises. Due to a shift in schedule, Fu Yinan's contact with his friends gradually decreased.
The Lingang area where Tesla's factory is located is far from the bustling city of Shanghai. If departing from Pudong Airport, it takes 40 kilometers to reach Lingang Town.
More often than not, Fu Yinan's life lacks restaurants and entertainment.
The workers have an app called "Special Life" on their phones, which Tesla has created for their employees. In the official vision, workers can consume and entertain themselves.
But Fu Yinan hardly ever used it because it was either too expensive or too far away.
Day after day, young people who have come to admire this place finally realize that they cannot draw technological nourishment from this huge modern chemical factory, nor can they achieve a balance between work and life.
Leaving Tesla is the biggest thought besides expecting the machine to break down and fill in working hours.