Insiders describe a world of chaos and waste at Panasonic's massive battery-making operation for Tesla (TSLA) - li ion battery cell

Insiders describe the chaotic environment of Panasonic batteries
Operate in the desert of Nevada, where standard operating procedures are ignored, expensive errors are caused by carelessness, and half a million pieces of waste are generated every day.
"I don't think Tesla knows everything [
This continues on Panasonic's side]
A former employee who left the company last year said.
"It's impossible to know everything.
If Elon Musk knew what really happened, he would lift the lid.
"Tesla and Panasonic jointly own the Gigafactory, a large manufacturing plant built outside Reno, Nevada, in 2016.
Panasonic makes batteries for Tesla's cars, and Tesla turns them into batteries for the new Model 3 sedan of the automaker.
Tesla is also producing Model 3 drivers there.
Tesla and Panasonic will freeze plans to expand Geely's plant last week.
After the news, Tesla shares fell, Panasonic shares rose.
Tesla responded by saying that the two companies were still putting "a lot of money" into Geely's factory, but "improving existing production equipment can get more output ".
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Panasonic's productivity is the "limit on Model 3 production" that the company has known since July ".
Three current and former employees, who declined to be named, told Business Insider that the operation wasted half a million cells on a daily date.
Business Insider reviewed the company's internal documents, including some related to the oil spill, which left management scrambling for potential contaminated cells for weeks.
Together they tell the story of an operation that is still trying to obtain the bearing when the battery rolls down from the production line and enters the 3 s model.
Just like online, there is a lot of pressure to achieve production goals and work at breakneck speeds.
A Panasonic spokesperson responded with the following statement to a list of detailed questions from Business Insider about these issues: Panasonic produces state-of-the-art electric vehicle batteries because we are very concerned about quality. Our quality-
The control agreement is the industry standard, including clean room environment and laboratory-
Such as working conditions
The battery went through several test doors before it was released to Tesla, which tested the battery separately after delivery.
We are proud to drive one of the most exciting revolutions in the automotive industry.
Soon, there are a few very broad questions about how lithium
Ion batteries were made.
The inside of the battery consists of an electron with positive electricity (anode)
Electronic film with negative electricity (cathode);
There is a thin material between the two.
All of this together forms the inside of the battery.
Panasonic sends about 3 million batteries a day to Tesla, a massive operation that includes everything needed --giant 16-foot-
High mixers stirring lithium and other chemicals, standard operating procedures designed to keep volatile components clean, and tracking systems that track materials during material production.
It's also an expensive operation.
Panasonic has the largest share of Tesla's $18 billion purchase obligations, or $4.
8 billion of them will expire on 2019.
Current and former employees told Business Insider that standard operating procedures are often ignored in factories without any consequences.
A few times, something fell into 16-foot mixers —
A mixture containing chemicals, including volatile lithium-
Inside the factory, three people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.
That "thing "-
Whether it's scissors, a roll of tape or a tool
It is usually found when the mixer is cleaned.
"People just don't have the integrity to say 'Hey, what I did wrong, '" said a former employee '. ".
Greg Sears, technical director of battery manufacturing and characterizing user facilities at the University of Michigan Energy Institute, told Business Insider that if a piece of shrapnel enters the lithium mixture, it may pierce the partition between the anode and the cathode, and cause a hard short circuit.
The shrapnel is not necessarily big either-
Mm or half mm-
It can be very thin, as wide as a person's hair, or very thin.
It is conceivable, he said, that if the debris is long enough to penetrate the separator and carry a current between the anode and the cathode, it could cause a fire.
"Adding metal sheets to your mixture can cause real performance problems, let alone damage your device," said Less . ".
Business Insider also learned that in September, an oil spill caused Panasonic's operations to fall into crisis mode for about two weeks.
According to the internal documents viewed by Business Insider, the leak was discovered on September 17, but it is not clear when it will start.
Mechanical oil enters a large machine used by Panasonic to press the cathode material into thin sheets.
The machine then pollutes any product it touches.
Employees must stop what they are doing and sift through millions of almost finished batteries to find potentially affected products, the source said.
According to the documents reviewed by Business Insider and the accounts of employees, Panasonic searched for products that had been contaminated with machines as early as September 11.
According to internal documents and employees, the search scope is extended to the latest stage of the production process, and all products suspected of being contaminated by Panasonic are scrapped.
A current employee who spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation told Business Insider that they were concerned that Panasonic did not point it out correctly at the beginning of the leak.
"If my car leaks oil, how do I know which day it started," the employee said . ".
Mark Ellis, senior assistant to manufacturing consulting firm Munro and Associates, said that oil spills like this would make him "very frustrated" because all products are "automatically scrapped ".
"You don't want pollution on the electrodes," he told Business Insider over the phone . ".
A current employee said they were concerned about contaminated cells due to Panasonic's tracking system on the factory floor. Would-
Be batteries use a lot of tracking throughout the plant-number system.
When they move from the production phase to the production phase, the number becomes longer, according to the employees, at every new stage of production, there will be a new paper printed on the product with that number and other details.
Three current and former employees who spoke to Business Insider said the paper is often lost --
Tape off or paper torn.
When this happens, the worker sometimes takes a piece of paper similar to the product and uses it to scan it so that everything is not interrupted.
People say they are concerned that this violation of official procedures would compromise the traceability of the battery.
Panasonic sends about 3 million batteries to Tesla every day, and the pressure is always high to achieve the previous goal.
Employees tell Business Insider, which is why some workers in the factory sometimes attach tape to sensors on the machine to find defects.
They don't want to stop production.
"If I walk through a factory and see the tape on the sensor, I'm going to be angry," Ellis told Business Insider . ".
As the product enters the winding stage of production, defects that are missed early in the process are usually detected later in the production line, where the paper is wound together as a cylinder.
Panasonic's winding machine has dozens of sensors.
Too much tampering for the workers.
Therefore, defects can be found in the machine, including poor or expired materials, dust and misplacement.
A Tesla spokesman said that once the battery is received from Panasonic, it will test the battery many times and the battery that will not be cut will be sent back to Panasonic.
The winding stage is where most of the scrap from the factory comes from-
A current and a former employee said that the battery power reached a fairly stable half-million per day.
Employees start each shift through the department meeting, during which they will be informed of the production of the previous shift and the number of scrapped batteries.
"Why do we throw away half a million batteries every day because people are lazy and things are not clean," the former employee said . ".
Three current and former employees said cleaning rules
In the factory, the dress of the room is often ignored.
According to Ellis, collecting wind should run at 70 to 85% efficiency, and too much scrap should not be captured at all.
"If the scrap comes from a windmill, I will go crazy," he said . ".
"They have made cylindrical batteries for decades.
If people can't let their machines do what they 've been doing for decades, shame them.
They should run at a much higher efficiency than that.
A Panasonic spokesman responded to Ellis's statement saying the company "respectfully disagreed" with his estimate and did not reflect the company's figures.
But both Less and Ellis say that the more deeply damaged products go into the production process, the more money is wasted on depreciation of labor, materials and equipment. "That [scrap level]
It's really too much.
"I would be angry if that was my factory," Ellis said . ".
"It's clear that they don't have control over all the assembly processes.
That is why this is the case.