Munro to help Rivian with production speed

[MoreTrout]

That's just not true. Many production line issues are related to procedural, material or training problems. Simply changing the type or composition of a fastener and it's installation technique in one work cell could shave 15 to 30 seconds off an assembly procedure. Make similar improvements at 10, 20 or 30 assembly processes, and you've improved vehicle build time by 5 minutes or more. Identify and eliminate assembly problems that cause vehicles to be moved to a rework area and you save thousands of dollars and hours of time every week.

I never said it wouldn't help... in the long term. That's why I differentiated short term vs long term. RJ has said multiple times their production numbers are limited by the supply chain. And that as a CEO, he spends a significant part of his daily routine on the phone with individual suppliers. So what if they are able to produce 50,000 vehicles this year because of a few fasteners. That just means 35,000 sit on a lot waiting for chips and other parts - just like the other big OEMS. They still only deliver 15,000 this year. When those supply limiting factors are fixed, then yes, these kind of improvements are a big deal and important to ramping from 15 to 50k and up to 150-200k expected from the plant in the next year or two.

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[R1Tom]

It's a genius business plan actually....start tearing down the vehicles and noting short commings without burning the bridge (except that little fiasco with the ADAS not actually being engaged in a review...that one was probably close to killing the deal), and then get hired which both will help the manufacturer and equally important...stop the internet teardown....

Genius!

 

[miasm]

I don’t see any downside to this. Big manufacturers (of anything) are always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their process, as they should be. Even if all Munro does is show Rivian how they can do the same thing with the same parts more quickly, it is worth it. We are talking about a company with 98,000 orders waiting.

Yup. Now with the lull due to supply chain, and relatively few cars on the road, bring in some people to iterate on the small stuff so that if/when supply chain breaks free you're good to go. But obviously you can't do too much of that since you need to refine the build as-is, and also design changes are just bleeding money when you're low on revenue. An optimist would look at this and hope that the current production line is running well and that they're seeing their supply chain issues potentially coming to an end on the horizon and are getting prepared.

 

[R1Sky Business]

The contract for Monroe probably is coming from him. One of the first things I would have done is get someone in to focus on the build process and find low hanging fruit in the assembly process. After that would come the deeper dive looking for design changes that would streamline the assembly process.

They had some good comments during the tear downs, have not seen a video from them in a couple of months, I wonder if this is why.

Yup...no more criticisms for a while.

 

[R1Sky Business]

haha, thats def true, but as he takes them apart he definitely notices areas for improvements in design, which impacts production as well as costs. this is a good thing imo.

but... at the same time, wasn't hiring that dude from Magna supposed to accelerate production? maybe his resignation is coming shortly.

Easy now, it takes time to implement those changes.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Why all the negative comments about Rivian people failing or not doing their job? Another perspective is that "the dude from Magna" knew he had to find the bottlenecks to accelerate production, drove his team to identify the problems areas, and chose to bring in a subject matter expert with outside knowledge and perspective. I know from experience that's how it works more often than not. Our small engineering company has extensive specific industry knowledge and get calls from small to Fortune 500 companies all the time asking for help in our area of expertise, including COOs and CEOs who are taking the bull by the horns to solve a problem.

Let the man do his magic ?

 

[R1Sky Business]

Do you really think someone gets hired and production timing changes in a matter of weeks?

Don't forget this is Rivian. People want everything and they want it now.

 

[SeaGeo]

Why all the negative comments about Rivian people failing or not doing their job? Another perspective is that "the dude from Magna" knew he had to find the bottlenecks to accelerate production, drove his team to identify the problems areas, and chose to bring in a subject matter expert with outside knowledge and perspective. I know from experience that's how it works more often than not. Our small engineering company has extensive specific industry knowledge and get calls from small to Fortune 500 companies all the time asking for help in our area of expertise, including COOs and CEOs who are taking the bull by the horns to solve a problem.

I wasn't being negative about Rivian, I was making a similar point as you. I would respect him to bring in consultants or individuals to improve the product. If the COO was spending the bulk of his time doing what Munroe does, then I would be concerned.

 

[mikehmb]

The whole point of their YouTube stuff is to get OEMS/suppliers to buy their reports.
pthat it gets a bunch of normal people frothing at the mouth and giving them money on patreon for some reason is a bonus.

What you’re explaining sounds like soft-extortion. I certainly don’t think that’s what Munro is doing - in fact, youtube teardown videos are a great demand generation marketing tactic - but it did give me a pause there for a moment.

 

[dleepnw]

Easy now, it takes time to implement those changes.

Has it only been a few weeks? I guess the announcement was a while ago. Seems odd though then you’d hire Munro if he’s only been in place a few weeks. Sounds like maybe the new guy recommended hiring Munro.

 

[Dirty_B]

... focus on the build process and find low hanging fruit in the assembly process...

How about you put all the panels into the proper spot, use measurements for gaps, align panels, QC the shit out of it...so the SCs don't get overloaded fixing production's crappy misaligned panels and gaps - 3 weeks to semi-fix mine. That's low hanging fruit. I'm betting/hoping that's already been taken care of by now though.

 

[RBR1S]

If you watched the Munro tear downs of the R1T, they talked about a LOT of stuff that could be improved. From # of welds, to material that could be shaved down, to questionable design stuff. That's what Munro does.

People will ask how does that save time. Because if one of the supplies you are waiting on is unnecessary, you can save millions and make more trucks now. It might also reduce error rate (something people never talk about on supply chain - right...).

I think it's a good thing. Just fix my R1S and get it produced, and in the driveway please.

 

[Dirty_B]

If you can replace 7 parts with one part I would think that would generally help lessen pressure on the supply chain. The issues go beyond "we need chip A and don’t have it." Look at the interior wood issues As an example. Processes required can affect supply available… one would think.

That's a mid to long term thing.....7 parts made by 7 or more manufacturers with 7 or more diff toolings into one new designed part...oooffff. Maybe model year 2024.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Has it only been a few weeks? I guess the announcement was a while ago. Seems odd though then you’d hire Munro if he’s only been in place a few weeks. Sounds like maybe the new guy recommended hiring Munro.

Sounds like an inside job!!!!

 

[NY_Rob]

This is what Sandy does.... we've seen lots of his young engineers speak at length regarding improvements that could be made. I think it's fair to say we have all been impressed by his staff. Let's give them a chance... I see this as a great hire for Rivian!

Who knows, maybe Monroe Inc. can convince Rivian to give up on their (by most accounts) completely underwhelming infotainment & nav system and simply include AA/CP

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