On the Model 3 body line on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, everything is still. Tesla Inc. is just coming off a week of downtime during which workers added a new production line, improved ventilation after a fire in the paint shop, and overhauled machines across the factory. But even after the changes, there are kinks to work out.

It’s lazy to think that a manufacturing process is better just because it’s automated. While the effort going on right now at the Tesla factory in Fremont is anything but lazy, it brings into the spotlight one of the core problems with the simplistic “automation for automation’s sake” strategy: processes that aren’t stable to begin with cannot be made stable with robots.

One year ago this week, Amazon.com Inc. loudly declared its intention to become a grocery industry heavyweight by announcing its agreement to buy Whole Foods Market.

Three years into the Iraq war, facing a spike in casualties from roadside bombings, the Pentagon turned to a steel mill in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, to supply emergency armor for combat vehicles.