Assignment Preparation

Selected organization

The selected organization is Tesla which was started by engineers in 2003 who had the zeal to prove that vehicle technology can save on the environmental distraction using electric cars that could be better, faster, and more luxurious. Currently, Tesla has engaged in various activities apart from an all-electric vehicle, which includes generating cleaner energy and products for storage of scalable renewable energy (Välikangas, 2018). Tesla company management had a vision of quickly stopping the reliance on fossil fuels and accelerating the attainment of global zero emissions in the future. Besides the cars, the Tesla company came up with a high-tech roadster battery product and a powertrain that was electrically powered through its clean energy concept. From then, Tesla went on to design the first premium electric car, a sedan, that was the first in the world named model S. Ever since, the model has become a success and the best electric car in the market that can combine safety, efficiency, and performance and hence has attained the expectations of the world and the dream of the Tesla founders of having an all-electric car by the 21^st century with updated software and faster acceleration. In 2015, Tesla started to expand its manufacturing line and products by introducing Model X, which had a sports utility function and 5-star safety ratings in each category.

The Tesla company started producing electric cars in California with another Giga factory in Shanghai. To attain their goal of having the safest electric car model globally, Tesla has changed its business model to a more proactive approach within its factories. The employees have to go through safety and quality assurance training before starting work. In addition to this strategy, Tesla has continued offering training on-job and tracking workers’ performance daily. Improvements have been made with the results of Tesla safety continuing to go up as the production continues. In their bid to ensure a sustainable energy framework, the company has also engaged in coming up with energy-saving systems a such as a solar roof for residential places, a power wall, and a power pack for businesses and homes, which are products used in the management of renewable energy including storage for future consumption (Cooke, 2020). In this regard, Tesla has an automotive factory specially designed to produce batteries and other energy storage products. Therefore, by bringing the battery production in-house, Tesla has been able to manufacture batteries at the required volumes that meet the production costs while at the same time creating job opportunities. However, Tesla has experienced some issues that have affected its organizational efficiency, including limited manufacturing capacity.

The issue to be analyzed

I will be analyzing the limited production capacity, which does not meet the increasing demand for electric vehicles in the market. By 2013, the company had only one production factory for cars and later built a factory for batteries and other renewable energy products (Kaczorowska et al., 2020). This limited capacity has led to a failure to meet the customers’ demand, which would impact customer loyalty and eventually the organizational efficiency. The production issues had quickly become a topic of concern, especially for the workers at Tesla, who alleged that the company has resorted to taking shortcuts on its models such as Model 3 manufacturing to ensure they meet the demand, which led to tight production schedules, risk of injuries to the workers, and compromise on the safety of the vehicles. With the industry being disruptive in the issue of technology, Tesla managed to become profitable in its initial rollout and hence improved its customer base and demand. The challenge then came to the production capacity, with the company racing against time to meet the volume demanded by the market from different regions of the world besides the US. This limitation gave undue advantage to the company’s competitors such as Toyota and Volkswagen, who have more extensive product lines to meet the rising demand for electric cars.

References

Cooke, P. (2020). Gigafactory logistics in space and time: Tesla’s fourth gigafactory and its rivals. Sustainability, 12(5), 2044.

Kaczorowska, D., Rezmer, J., Jasiński, M., Kostyła, P., Leonowicz, Z., Sikorski, T., … & Bejmert, D. (2020). Identification of Technological Limitations of a Battery Energy Storage System. In 2020 12th International Conference and Exhibition on Electrical Power Quality and Utilisation-(EPQU) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Välikangas, L. (2018). Forum on Tesla and the global automotive industry. Management and Organization Review, 14(3), 467-470.