[webmaven]

This may not be specific enough, but Elon Musk seems to have brought a software-engineering-like perspective to both SpaceX and Tesla, although the latter hasn't been an unqualified success in all respects, applying rapid iteration to a product and process while the process is running at scale has caused occasional blips: https://jalopnik.com/tesla-model-y-owners-have-found-home-de...

We sometimes refer to software systems as held together with spit and baling wire, but it's never literally true.

Others have noted the general influence in the opposite direction of the Toyota Production System on software engineering methodologies (most notably in that family of processes labeled "Lean"), but it is pretty clear Tesla could have stood to take a bit more direct influence from TPS on their assembly line.

We haven't seen anything like that at SpaceX (despite much armchair prognostication), but then, even as they ramp up production and launches, each rocket is still somewhat a bespoke product, and no one is going to get in trouble for holding up the production schedule when a problem is noted. Each rocket is still very much a pet, rather than cattle. It remains to be seen if the pace of iteration will slack off (or start conforming to a more regular punctuated cadence) as SpaceX continues to ramp up their capacity.