Isn't Elon a sort of supply chain pariah at this point though? His learnings from SpaceX and Tesla so far probably make him one of the most experienced people in modern supply chains.
Pariah is not the word you're looking for, but either way I'd say the answer is certainly not. Making a few very expensive rockets and luxury cars is not anything like mass producing vehicles on a scale like VW/Toyota/GM/Ford/etc.
I'd say a company like Foxconn is probably a much better example. They are able to mass produce millions of widgets with astonishingly few defects and even begin doing it in secret. Very impressive logistics. If just one component of the iPhone isn't ready the whole line grinds to a halt.
It unintentionally might be accurate, though. ~90% of the parts in cars nowadays are manufactured by huge companies that sell to all the major automakers, worldwide. Tesla just doesn't have the volume to get the consistency of supply and quality that the other majors do.
Yes, this is a chicken-and-egg problem. But a real one nonetheless.
