When Elon Musk talks about manufacturing, people should listen. Not because he's famous. Not because he's controversial. But because he delivers. At scale. At speed. Again and again.
Just look at Tesla. Look at SpaceX. NASA builds a few spacecraft every decade. Musk? He’s aiming to build a thousand Starships a year. That’s not a moonshot — that’s a complete rethinking of how flow works in complex manufacturing.
And Musk is clear about how he does it. He’s shared a five-step method that flips traditional thinking on its head:
- Make the requirements less dumb. Question everything. Just because it’s on the spec sheet doesn’t mean it should be.
- Delete the part or process. If it’s not needed, cut it. Every part or process you keep must justify its existence.
- Simplify then optimize. Only after you've removed stuff do you start simplifying. And trying to optimize before deleting and simplifying is a waste.
- Accelerate cycle time. Speed matters. Fast iterations reveal problems and build resilience.
- Automate. But only when you’ve nailed the basics. Otherwise, you're just automating waste.
The key theme here? Flow.
And that’s exactly what’s missing from most supply chain systems today. The majority of planning tools are built around forecasting, safety stocks, and optimization algorithms. They’re clever — no doubt — but are they really delivering return on investment?
Compare that with flow-based systems like what Musk is using — fast, lean, learning machines that iterate, adapt, and scale. Flow is what’s enabling him to outpace industries that used to be untouchable.
A New Way Forward
After more than 30 years in supply chain planning, I can feel a shift coming.
We’ve spent decades layering complexity on top of complexity — building systems so dense and data-hungry that the only ones consistently winning are the software vendors and their sales teams. For many customers, the promised ROI just isn’t there.
But something is changing. And I believe that change is called Flow.
Elon Musk gets it. His entire manufacturing philosophy is built around speed, simplicity, and responsiveness — principles that are baked into flow-based thinking. And in our world of planning, the only methodology that I am aware of that truly puts flow at the centre is #DDMRP.
That’s why, at b2wise, we’ve committed to building a system for flow. Not a patch. Not an add-on. A tool designed from the ground up to sense, adapt, and execute based on what’s really happening — not what the forecast guessed might happen.
Flow exposes problems early. It breaks bottlenecks. It drives learning. And most importantly, it delivers results.
Just like Musk isn’t waiting around for NASA’s timelines, we’re not waiting for old-school planning to reinvent itself. The future is here — and it’s flowing.
Think flow,
Kevin Boake
