Ford Plant size vs Tesla Gigafactory 3

quad

quad

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I worked on a project at the Livonia Transmission Plant a few years ago. It is over 3 million square feet and it was common to see people on trikes to get from A to B. I used one myself.

Livonia Transmission - Wikipedia

So I just checked and the Tesla Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai is three times bigger! Holy crap that is gigantic. What's the biggest auto plants you have been to?

Gigafactory 3 - Wikipedia

Tesla Gigafactory 3 is a factory currently under construction in Shanghai, China by Tesla, Inc. The facility will produce battery cells along with Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y cars, at an initial production rate target of 250,000 electric cars per year.

Area: 864,885 m2 (9,300,000 sq ft)

gigafactory-3-may-13-1a.jpg
 
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CV355

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I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man

I've been to engine plants where the whole facility is a large P&F pallet conveyor system complete with EOL dyno / startup system.
I've been to frame/BIW plants where there's a thick fog hovering around near the ceiling from hundreds of arc weld systems running simultaneously
I've been to food processing plants the size of a small town
I've been in Class 100 medical facilities, and medical facilities that should be at least class 100,000
I've been in chemical plants where your shoes literally melt to the floor if you don't wear slip covers on them

A lot of equipment I designed years ago is still running in a lot of those factories- especially automotive. They chuck the tooling but keep the base systems with midyear cycle enhancements and 4/5 year design cycles.

The scariest plant I've ever been to would make Freddy Krueger scared for his life. I swear it was a dungeon. Massive plant, half the place wasn't even lit. Imagine standing in a facility so large that you can't see the back of the place because it's so dark and cavernous. It's literally just this empty void.

Another plant, similar size, was doing frame components. They had a conveyor system located under the facility that all scrap fell into. Large 6x6 pits fall down into a shredder and out the garbage conveyor. They had simple rail guarding around the pits, with no mesh or foot catch. Just a rail. Like waiting in line at the bank.

Sometimes I'm shocked at how some of these places are even in business. Safety standards that weren't even good in the 60's, somehow still operating nowadays where every operator is just waiting to lose a fingernail so they can sue you to oblivion. Open flames. Molten steel. Spinning blades. No guarding. Then, when I work on a system and have to add $30,000 worth of safety devices (light curtains, scanners, safety relays, etc) they do "whoa whoa whoa that's so expensive!!!" Yeah, well, if I install a system without that "stuff," and someone gets hurt, I can get sued. Me.
 
Coiled03

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quad said:
I would not be laughing at anybody that's able to at least assemble something of that scale. Damn that's massive. You would need transportation to get around.
Click to expand...

I laugh wholeheartedly at a person who builds a facility of that scale when their business won't require even half of that before long. Can you say unused floor space?
 
quad

quad

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CV355 said:
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man

I've been to engine plants where the whole facility is a large P&F pallet conveyor system complete with EOL dyno / startup system.
I've been to frame/BIW plants where there's a thick fog hovering around near the ceiling from hundreds of arc weld systems running simultaneously
I've been to food processing plants the size of a small town
I've been in Class 100 medical facilities, and medical facilities that should be at least class 100,000
I've been in chemical plants where your shoes literally melt to the floor if you don't wear slip covers on them

A lot of equipment I designed years ago is still running in a lot of those factories- especially automotive. They chuck the tooling but keep the base systems with midyear cycle enhancements and 4/5 year design cycles.

The scariest plant I've ever been to would make Freddy Krueger scared for his life. I swear it was a dungeon. Massive plant, half the place wasn't even lit. Imagine standing in a facility so large that you can't see the back of the place because it's so dark and cavernous. It's literally just this empty void.

Another plant, similar size, was doing frame components. They had a conveyor system located under the facility that all scrap fell into. Large 6x6 pits fall down into a shredder and out the garbage conveyor. They had simple rail guarding around the pits, with no mesh or foot catch. Just a rail. Like waiting in line at the bank.

Sometimes I'm shocked at how some of these places are even in business. Safety standards that weren't even good in the 60's, somehow still operating nowadays where every operator is just waiting to lose a fingernail so they can sue you to oblivion. Open flames. Molten steel. Spinning blades. No guarding. Then, when I work on a system and have to add $30,000 worth of safety devices (light curtains, scanners, safety relays, etc) they do "whoa whoa whoa that's so expensive!!!" Yeah, well, if I install a system without that "stuff," and someone gets hurt, I can get sued. Me.
Click to expand...
5db4d3777ccf3c798b0ae2fc7fdda76cc345da3fae63b335647d8f3fd228fda6.jpg
 
CobraBob

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My brother is close to buying a Tesla Model 3. I'm resistant to driving an electric vehicle. I'm seeing electric cars more frequently, but not for me.
 
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Government subsidies to keep his show running might be drying out in the USA, but they are just beginning over there. And the tease that I can get state of the art R and D and still let you steal it, as long as I get mine. His whole show is one government check after another, but that same model has worked well for several other well healed Dems.
 
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VRYALT3R3D

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nxhappy said:
what a pisser they put it in CHINA. Thanks for the job support.....****ing assholes.
Click to expand...
You clearly don't know the auto industry that well and the realities of operating a multinational company. In order for Tesla to be competitive, it has to make its cars in China to avoid huge duty and taxes that would otherwise make it uncompetitive. Furthermore, China has codified through regulations that a certain percentage of cars sold in China must be electric and automakers must meet that threshold in order to sell cars there. It doesn't really make much business sense to build a Tesla that is being exported to China in the USA when it would be uncompetitive in the Chinese market due to the duties it will face.

To answer @quad 's question. I visited Wixom assembly and I think was over 4m sq. ft. It is a shame they closed that plant
 

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