The Leaning Factories 277
ever seen.”^438
There’s a story about a factory that wasn’t spotless.
This factory was filled with so many items that they lost
a prototype car stored in the factory. The prototype car
remained hidden for weeks. No one knew where it was,
until they found it buried between the waste.^2
Elon thought you can only judge a car’s beauty if it’s
framed by beautiful surroundings, so the final inspection
area in the factory got a wooden floor.^332 “Before deliv-
ery, the car must go through quality testing,” the VP of
manufacturing, Gilbert Passin, said. “Typical quality tests
consist of a rolling road [a device that mimics driving
on real streets], a water test to check for leaks, and an
inspection station that ensures all components are installed
to standard. Instead of wasting gallons of water to perform
the leak test, we will instead employ ultrasonic waves
inside the car as a device on the exterior detects escaping
waves.”^249
Both SpaceX and Tesla have the same policy as several
companies in the computer industry, but these policies
are often not common within the space- or auto industry.
Food and snacks are available for free, they can find free
M&M, Beef Jerky, and Starbursts. They are, however, not
encouraged to feed the snacks to their pets they are allowed
to bring with them. If they need a break, they can visit
the arcade room with pinball machines. “You keep your
engineers happy and they work a little longer and harder,”
Elon said. “It’s counter-intuitive, but it works.”^4
Tesla applied the ideas behind Lean by minimizing the