Rivian is very disorganized

[Max]

I have problems making a weekend plan without forgetting something. They have made the first EV truck and they are delivering it while they are hiring. They have already done better than a ton of companies that have attempted similar things. Things will be chaotic for a while. They have shown that they can be responsive to resolve design problems. That means they have been moving in the right direction. The only question is if they are moving fast enough. To me where they are is not as important as their trajectory. They will do OK if they can learn to listen better (two way communication); but expecting a perfect trouble free experience as a consumer with a new product from a new company may be unreasonable. I think they were counting on releasing the product and improving it after. As far as ramp up, and deliveries, expect a bit of crapshoot and you won’t be disappointed.

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[goldburger]

How many 2022 orders have been fulfilled? I feel like that can’t possibly be accurate.

 

[rhuber]

My delivery process was a mess, like some have experienced, but the product is amazing. That’s not consolation to folks waiting years but it is nice that the wait is worth it, at least.

 

[wicked2112]

Rivian isn't an exception. Tesla was a mess when it first started and was close to bankruptcy multiple times. Lucid is having a bunch of issues too. Starting a car company is hard. There will be a lot of growing pains.

Agreed, and in the middle of COVID. I cannot imagine anyone starting a business with all good intentions and then supply chain comes to a complete halt. We all need to hit the pause button and remember that. This is pass and we will all get our vehicles.

 

[zipzag]

Realistically some of the managers are just going to be the wrong people at this point in time. The guides gathering their own information is probably a case in point. Obviously the guides should be funneling Rivian's official position. Where you see this sort of problem the cause is management lacking systematic thinking and possibly sufficient authority.

I had a relative working as an engineer at SpaceX about five years ago. It was also a mess. So being a mess is not necessarily and indication of upcoming failure. Many people are not suitable as employees in operating functions of newer companies.

 

[OldGoat]

I had a relative working as an engineer at SpaceX about five years ago. It was also a mess. So being a mess is not necessarily and indication of upcoming failure. Many people are not suitable as employees in operating functions of newer companies.

This is so true. I've worked at small startup software companies, mid-sized companies and several Fortune 500 firms. I've also worked with or consulted with companies from software to utilities to manufacturing to finance to government. I can't understate how some people thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic, ambiguous environment, while others excel in a highly structured, hierarchical, stable, highly procedural environment. Put one in the other and they become miserable, unproductive ees.

However, while most understand these substantial differences matter, even small differences can have a big impact. For example, for a number of years I worked at tone of the nation's largest banks. A couple blocks down the street was another of the largest banks in the country. Not surprisingly, ees would frequently move between the banks. While some did fine, it was amazing how many people would struggle until they found something back at the first bank. In many cases, they were moving to the exact same job. So, what was different? They didn't move so nothing regarding home, family, kids, friends, etc. changed. They ate lunch at the same places, worked out at the same places, shopped at the same places. They stayed in the same industry, and did essentially the exact same work and yet were miserable.

 

[the long way downunder]

I was chatting with some friends skiing and mentioned Rivian, and it turns out one of them works with Rivian (being intentionally vague). He immediately said that Rivian was the most disorganized company he'd interacted with so far. Thinking about it some more, it does show up quite a bit in the collective experience on this forum:

• Those trucker Google Maps reviews about rivian being unable to receive things they order
  • Consistent reviews about being stuck there for 24h+
  • Anecdotes around employees having no idea what bay/where etc
• Inconsistent information from guides who basically have to do their own information gathering
  • R1S is being delayed until June, and no one really knew until the original delivery window had already passed
  • Same thing with the ocean coast fiasco
• Some of it is definitely availability, but the incredibly adhoc ordering of deliveries (quite a few orders from 2022 & late 2021 being fulfilled before many LEs)
• The price increase, wait go back, having to wait for the dev team to update the website as they weren't planning to partially restore original pricing
• I'm sure people have other experiences

I'm not hating, but it does concern me on whether the company will be able to ramp up to become a Real car company and give me my SUV.

Thoughts?

I remember "interacting" with Tesla when trying to buy a Model S (2014) and a Model X (2015) … "disorganized" would be the most polite way a fan could describe the snafu that was (is?) Tesla. I've had things like a vehicle built with the wrong seats, and another built with the wrong wheels and delivered with a "we'll fix this up" that took well over a year … dozens … hundreds? of phone calls while the local dealer manager (okay, "service center") either quit or was fired or "moved to another part of Tesla" etc. Each time, starting with conversations like "this never happened" or "gee, didn't you already get that?" and "oh wow, this is terrible, I'll fix this immediately" … followed by more months.
I think the March 1st price update blunder was a self-inflicted injury that's all to do with corporate communications and nothing much to do with organization. Most of the logistics anecdotes are the nature of large scale operations. They should have managed the communication of the price increases and once they made those increases, they should have stuck with them (and increased again in the following quarters.) To react as if they agree they were betraying the customer was nonsense and to reverse the decision showed a major c-suite decision was subject to public opinion (it should not be that the executives are unsure of their own knowledge and decisions so they need to "throw it out on the back porch and see if the cat licks it up.")

People not knowing what's going on is often because it's not their job to know and they shouldn't be dragged into figuring out the actual point of failure.

I've had my own gripes with Rivian internal processes and customer communications. I'd suggest they quit the sales closure process (the "guide") and have the service center manager "own" the relationship and be the single "customer facing" and "customer advocate" role in the enterprise. All the back end work, knowledge and resources are at galactic central headquarters, but the customer has one person who knows their situation.

Rivian is trying for efficiency, but inventing 'new co' is like walking on water. You can invent weird contraptions or you can apply science and turn the water into a non-Newtonian fluid.

You need to keep moving, not get slowed down … and break the rules (because by empirical observation, the rules clearly don't apply and don't work.)
They're writing their own customer relationship management ("CRM") and as someone from an enterprise software background, I shudder at the thought of trying to roll my own CRM – it's one of the worst SNAFU application categories and none of them is good. Unless software is your core competency (e.g. you're Google, Microsoft, Apple) then don't even try. Get some decent business process engineering work, implement a quality system methodology and deal with the process inefficiency of people using text, email, phone, slack and post-it notes. After a few years of profitable quarters, hire a VP of whatever you want to call it – someone not reporting to the COO, VP Sales, VP Engineering – and go through a fully informed vertical integration BPR … and expect three years of damn hard work. : )

 

[Nermal]

Feeling massively fortunate for having my R1T and giving Rivian all the slack in the world for where they've gotten with the magnitude of the challenge and their stage in life, there are still some hiccups I've experienced that seem like even they should not be experiencing
- My windshield washer level alert came on day-1. It was ALMOST empty which means someone started filling it. Can't believe it was emptied during 19 miles it had on odo. I mean, Jiffy Lube fills windshield fluid before returning vehicle, no? Certainly seems a reasonable expectation of a new vehicle.
- My first manufacturing defect spotted. No clips in driver gear tunnel door to secure interior plastic panel. Just found that this weekend messing with compressor hose kit.

All this and
- a month after delivery my crossbar and field kit re-delivery are still MIA
- I've got a 3 week old open ticket for charger WiFi connectivity that's gone dark since providing them requested info a week ago Friday
- an owed wristband signed off on during delivery, followed up on via phone couple of weeks later is MIA as well.

I wish I could say my guide has been helpful. They are definitely not the single point of resolution they were originally positioned to be. Maybe they'll improve with time and better processes and systems.

I know these are relative nits. I just hope major issues, should they arise, get better attention. It seems like those are getting good service based on reports from those who've experienced bigger issues.

 

[IRun]

I was chatting with some friends skiing and mentioned Rivian, and it turns out one of them works with Rivian (being intentionally vague). He immediately said that Rivian was the most disorganized company he'd interacted with so far. Thinking about it some more, it does show up quite a bit in the collective experience on this forum:

• Those trucker Google Maps reviews about rivian being unable to receive things they order
  • Consistent reviews about being stuck there for 24h+
  • Anecdotes around employees having no idea what bay/where etc

This is nearly every company that deals with this at any given time.
I was an account manager that worked with Office Depot/Max and Veritiv and they would always do this with deliveries. They did not require appointments when we shipped the order but when drivers would get there, they would require an appointment 24 hours in advance and could only accept on Tuesdays and Thursdays so drivers would get stuck for similar periods.
Then when they would finally accept the orders and unload, they would send a chargeback report claiming they didn't receive entire pallets. Orders were audited for them and confirmed pallets always shipped, they would just always lose them.

 

[godfodder0901]

All this and
- a month after delivery my crossbar and field kit re-delivery are still MIA

I feel you. Got the truck on 3/8 and FINALLY got my crossbars, kayak mount, and floor mats on 4/28... Keep hounding your Guide until you get them. I sent emails and texts with the current number of days since delivery every few weeks.

 

[Zoidz]

Vehicle production is considered by many to be the most logistically challenging volume manufacturing industry. At the beginning of the puzzle is the large number of discrete component parts (10,000 - 30,000 per vehicle) with varying lead times, at the end of the puzzle is every vehicle built to a unique configuration with dozens or hundreds of customer options. All of that has to come together perfectly on the assembly day for a particular vehicle.

Now add the past two years of supply chain disruption to that equation. It's not surprising at all that Rivian appears disorganized - they are. I fully expected it when I placed my order.

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