Chapter 212: Water Bath
The new factory covers an area of about seven acres. This place originally belonged to the public land of the local village committee. Li Daqi found the village committee through an introduction, rented it for 2,500 yuan a year, and signed a fifteen-year contract.
Water and electricity were directly pulled from the village committee, and of course the water and power systems were also involved, which cost some money. After all, a factory is not an ordinary rural house, and the industrial electricity and water usage rates and voltages are different, so the wiring layout needs to be re-routed, but in this era, these costs are not high, and it is still very cost-effective overall.
The factory building and warehouse were newly built. The entire construction cost about 50,000 yuan, and the rest of the money was basically invested in decoration, equipment and other aspects.
The total investment in the new factory and equipment is as high as 300,000 yuan, which is an absolutely huge sum of money in this era, but for the current factory, 300,000 yuan is just the income of less than one month of normal operation of the new factory. With the booming clothing industry and the hot sales of those products, the factory's performance is surprisingly good.
When we drove to the gate, we saw a sign hanging at the gate that read "Shanghai Tengfei Garment Factory" . It is said that this name was given by the factory director Ma. The word "Tengfei" implies that he hopes this new factory will soar high and far like a roc spreading its wings.
It was working hours at the factory and the iron gate outside was closed. Li Daqi honked the horn twice, and a fifty-year-old security guard hurried out from the guard room to open the door.
"Director Li, you're here!" The doorman had a dark face and spoke in the local suburban dialect of Shanghai.
"Come on, come on. Is there anything to do at the factory today?" Li Daqi asked, sticking his head out.
"Just like usual, two batches of goods were shipped out half an hour ago. The warehouse has just taken a break, and everyone else is busy in the workshop." The old man said with a smile.
Li Daqi just asked as a routine question. He greeted the old man, drove the car in, and then parked it in front of the building.
"This uncle is a relative of the director of the village committee. After renting this place, the village committee contacted me and asked me to resettle a few people. I have personally seen these people and they are all honest people, so the factory helped to resettle ten of them. The other nine young people are in the workshop or warehouse. The uncle is old, but he is very serious about his work, so I arranged for him to be the gatekeeper." Li Daqi explained to Song Yuanchao as he got out of the car. Song Yuanchao nodded after listening. This situation is very normal. It is also human nature to rent land from the village committee to build a factory and solve a few jobs at the same time. As long as there is no problem with the personal morality, it doesn't matter who is hired.
The new factory has much more employees than the old one. Originally, the old factory had only 35 people. Later, after the new product was launched, the number increased to 48. Now the number of employees in the new factory has reached 136, which is almost three times that of the old factory.
The new factory is divided into three workshops. The first one is a workshop specializing in making denim clothes and jeans. This workshop has 42 male and female workers, making it the workshop with the largest number of workers in the entire factory.
The second workshop is for making bell-bottoms and trousers, with 38 workers. As for the third workshop, it makes shirts and fake collars. The manufacturing methods of these two products are similar, and the latter can largely use the scraps of the former. Although the business of fake collars is no longer the pillar business of the factory, Li Daqi has not given up on this. As the saying goes, even the smallest bit of money is still meat. After all, the profit of fake collars is not low, and sales are relatively stable.
The third workshop has 35 staff members, and the total number of staff members in the three workshops is 115. The remaining 21 people, including Li Daqi, are responsible for security guards, supply and marketing, labor and personnel (administration and personnel), finance, warehouse and other positions.
There are not many old employees in the new factory. Since the factory is some distance away from the city and public transportation is inconvenient, there were only about ten people coming from the old factory. The rest were recruited later. Except for the ten people who were required to be arranged by the village committee, most of the remaining people were unemployed young people recruited from the society.
As the core personnel of the new factory, the old employees were basically placed in some key positions, including Xiaoqi who was promoted before.
Xiaoqi is no longer the workshop director. After two years, he has gained experience and was appointed by Li Daqi as deputy production director, mainly responsible for the daily production work of the three workshops.
As for the two masters of the old factory, Master Wang and Master Liu, Master Wang followed to the new factory, but Master Liu stayed in the old factory. In his words, his legs were not good and the new factory was too far away, so he couldn't ride a bike, so it was more convenient to commute to get off work in the old factory. Although they didn't come, the three best apprentices brought up by Master Liu came, and if there was anything that needed his help, Li Daqi could drive him over anytime and anywhere.
After getting off the car, Song Yuanchao and Li Daqi walked towards the workshop. Along the way, the busy workers passing by greeted Li Daqi enthusiastically. Li Daqi smiled and nodded, and sometimes stopped to ask a few questions about the work situation. Song Yuanchao, who was standing aside, did not say anything. He watched all this silently and nodded in his heart.
Li Daqi has been through a lot of experience. In the past two years, he has risen from an ordinary young worker to a workshop director and then to a factory director. Li Daqi has lost a lot of his roughness and impulsiveness, and has been replaced by calmness and temperament.
Seeing Li Daqi's transformation, Song Yuanchao felt gratified. It was thanks to Li Daqi's help and efforts that the factory and their business took off in this year.
"Director Song!" Just as they were about to reach the workshop, Xiao Qi, who came after hearing the news, saw Song Yuanchao who came with Li Daqi at a glance. He was surprised and hurried forward.
"I'm no longer a director. From now on, just call me Yuanchao like Daqi." Song Yuanchao was very happy to see Xiaoqi.
Li Daqi has been through a lot, and so has Xiaoqi. The young man back then is now the deputy director of production, managing more than a hundred people in three workshops. It's not the first time I've seen him as young as he was back then.
Xiaoqi was originally promoted by Song Yuanchao, and when Song Yuanchao left, he specifically instructed Li Daqi to take care of Xiaoqi and give him opportunities to train and improve . This made Xiaoqi always grateful to Song Yuanchao, because if it weren't for Song Yuanchao, he wouldn't have had everything he had later, and he wouldn't be the deputy production director now.
"Director Song, what you said is right. No matter you are still our director or not, you will always be my old leader in my heart." Xiao Qi said sincerely. Seeing him like this, Song Yuanchao and Li Daqi laughed at the same time.
Patting Xiao Qi on the shoulder, Song Yuanchao smiled and said, "I appreciate your kindness, but don't mention the director position anymore. Besides, you have achieved what you have today through your own efforts, not by flattering others. Our factory is not a state-owned factory. We don't rely on relationships but only on ability. If it weren't for this, we wouldn't have this new factory today. What do you think?"
Xiao Qi smiled embarrassedly. Song Yuanchao was right. Their factory was indeed like this. As an old man in the factory, Xiao Qi had experienced the time when the factory almost couldn't survive.
In the eyes of many new employees who have just joined the factory, although the Tengfei Garment Factory is only a collective enterprise, the factory's performance is very good, and the wages and benefits are much higher than those of ordinary state-owned factories. Although their status is not as prestigious as that of large state-owned factories, the real money they get makes some employees of state-owned factories even more envious.
But Xiao Qi knew in his heart that if there was no Song Yuanchao, how could the new Tengfei factory exist today? I am afraid that even the old factory would have gone out of business. As for the employees in the factory, they should be thankful that they can guarantee their basic salary income. If the factory goes out of business, they may even lose their jobs.
All of these are inseparable from Song Yuanchao. In Xiaoqi's heart, Song Yuanchao is still his old leader and director. It's a pity that Song Yuanchao was admitted to university and embarked on a better path. He can no longer continue to lead them in their struggle.
"Then... I'll still call you Brother Yuanchao ." After thinking about it, Xiao Qi used a compromise title instead of director, and Song Yuanchao immediately smiled and agreed.
The three of them walked into the workshop. Xiao Qi, the deputy production director, introduced the production situation in the factory to Song Yuanchao. Accompanied by Li Daqi, Song Yuanchao walked, watched and listened, asking a few key questions from time to time. Xiao Qi answered the questions raised by Song Yuanchao fluently, and it can be seen that he is very competent in this position.
The three workshops are divided into three areas, connected by an internal corridor. In addition, there are passages for raw materials and finished products, which can lead directly to the warehouse at the back. The design of the entire factory is very scientific, which surprised Song Yuanchao.
"My dad asked his classmates from the Municipal Design Institute to help him with this design. How is it? Is it okay?" Li Daqi said with a little pride when he heard Song Yuanchao asking him about the origin of the factory design.
"Not bad. It looks ordinary from the outside, but I didn't expect it to be so nice inside." Song Yuanchao nodded in praise as if he suddenly understood. The design made by the experts from the Municipal Design Institute would naturally not be bad. No wonder he vaguely saw some future layouts in the factory area.
"By the way, the washing pool you asked me to reserve last time has been prepared. Do you want to go and take a look?" After walking around, Li Daqi suddenly remembered this.
"Okay, let's go and take a look!" Song Yuanchao nodded, and under the guidance of Li Daqi and Xiao Qi, he walked towards the right side of the factory building. He walked through a passage and came to a room of about 150 square meters. In the middle of the room there was a huge cement washing pool, which seemed to be no different from a large bathhouse, except that there was not a drop of water in it.
Song Yuanchao carefully looked at the design of the water washing pool, the location of the reserved pipes, etc., and nodded slightly after reading it.
“Not bad.”
"By the way, Yuanchao, what exactly is this thing used for? When I asked someone to design it, I was afraid that it might not be done well. Even the design institute didn't understand it. At first, I thought we had to build a bathing pool in our factory." Looking at this huge bathing pool, Li Daqi scratched his head and asked. Li Daqi was puzzled when Song Yuanchao specifically called him to make this thing. He was even more confused after he finished it. It's just that he never had the chance to ask Song Yuanchao. Today, he just had to ask clearly.
