What's a batch, anyway?

[Cobra427]

Our car is 'In Production' this week, and the crew on our build week thread are all talking about their batch numbers and sequence in the batch. Looking at the posts, the cars in the same batch are not the same color, model, battery, or drive. So what constitutes a batch, then?

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[ctenidae]

batch (noun): a quantity or consignment of goods produced at one time

Honestly, not being snarky, I doubt it's any more specific than that.

X number of cars meet y set of criteria for production, so they're in batch n to be produced the week after the last batch is supposed to be built.

 

[Wally5280]

Our car is 'In Production' this week, and the crew on our build week thread are all talking about their batch numbers and sequence in the batch. Looking at the posts, the cars in the same batch are not the same color, model, battery, or drive. So what constitutes a batch, then?

As I understand it, the batch number is assigned to a group of cars scheduled for production in a given day typically. If you look on your window sticker you can see which number you car is within your batch. The build week threads typically talk about what batch you're in since it usually means they are being produced at roughly the same time.

 

[ctenidae]

The answer I wanted to give was "Life, man. Life's a batch."

 

[Cobra427]

batch (noun): a quantity or consignment of goods produced at one time

Honestly, not being snarky, I doubt it's any more specific than that.

X number of cars meet y set of criteria for production, so they're in batch n to be produced the week after the last batch is supposed to be built.

Probably so, but my question was what are x and y and how are they determined?

 

[Maquis]

As I understand it, the batch number is assigned to a group of cars scheduled for production in a given day typically. If you look on your window sticker you can see which number you car is within your batch. The build week threads typically talk about what batch you're in since it usually means they are being produced at roughly the same time.

I think this is the jist of it. The reason batches exist is to better enable tracing of field problems back to the factory.

Often, things such as critical processes or instruments are recalibrated between batches. If something is found out of spec, they know exactly which units produced might be affected. This is based on my experience implementing batch management systems in manufacturing processes.

The assignment of your car to a batch is likely more a result of its scheduling, not driving its schedule.

 

[ctenidae]

Probably so, but my question was what are x and y and how are they determined?

X is most likely something like the plant's expected capacity for that period. We've all discussed build weeks, usually with ~600 cars in them, which would indicate an expected production capacity of ~600 a week. There are weird weeks - 3/14 or 3/21, I think, blended two batches together, so not sure how to interpret that.

The Y criteria is probably something like "Do you have all the parts?" and when ~600 orders answer yes, the batch is created. For a simple build menu like the MME it's probably not as complex a set of criteria as it might be car with multiple trims and options (grouping similar cars might be an advantage in some set ups).

Maquis has the systems expertise here, so I will defer to his judgement on the logic here.

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