Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1513827
70 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2024 who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as from "the legal department" or "the safety department." You need to know the name of the real person who made that require- ment. en you should question it, no mat- ter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me. en make the requirements less dumb. 2. Delete any part or process you can. You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn't delete enough. 3. Simplify and optimize. is should come aer step two. A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or a process that should not exist. 4. Accelerate cycle time. Every process can be speeded up. But only do this aer you have followed the first three steps. In the Tesla factory, I mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I later realized should have been deleted. 5. Automate. at comes last. e big mis- take in Nevada and at Fremont was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs were shaken out. Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson, pp. 284-285. The Idiot Index Ever since he flew back from Russia and cal- culated the costs of building his own rockets, Musk had deployed what he called the "idiot index." at was the ratio of the total cost of a component to the cost of its raw materi- als. Something with a high idiot index—say, a component that cost $1,000 when the alu- minum that composed it cost only $100— was likely to have a design that was too com- plex or a manufacturing process that was too inefficient. As Musk put it, "If the ratio is high, you're an idiot." "What are the best parts in Raptor as judged by the idiot index?" Musk asked. "I'm not sure," Hughes responded. "I will find out." is was not good. Musk's face hardened, and Shotwell shot me a worried glance. "You bet- ter be [expletive] sure in the future you know these things off the top of your head," Musk said. "If you ever come into a meeting and do not know what are the idiot parts, then your resignation will