Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

My daughter-in-law Chen Jun came from a steel rolling mill workshop and knows the situation there very well.

In the production workshop, not only the large number of apprentices and regular workers like to slack off, but also the skilled workers and even middle and senior skilled workers.

Because technical workers of the same level get the same salary in a steel mill. If others produce ten products a day and you produce fifteen products a day, wouldn't you be losing money?

Over time, those diligent employees also deliberately slowed down their production speed at work to prevent themselves from being too productive and appearing to be lazy at work and being targeted by their coworkers.

Faced with this situation, the workshop director was very angry but there was nothing he could do.

After all, everyone in a workshop only produces a dozen products a day. It is impossible to say that more than a hundred workers in the workshop are lazy.

If the director really says this, he should not work in this workshop anymore.

Chen Jun had mentioned this matter to his master at the time, thinking that his master was resourceful and might be able to think of a way to solve this bad habit.

In the end, the master had no solution.

In the master's words, the steel mill's wage system is set by the state and no one can change it.

As long as everyone's salary is the same, this production atmosphere cannot be changed.

After thinking for a while, Chen Jun couldn't help but sighed and looked at her husband and asked, "How much can this aspect help private steel mills reduce production costs?"

"At least 20%!" Wang Dong answered with certainty.

The wife nodded, obviously accepting Wang Dong's explanation, and then continued to ask with a puzzled look on her face: "What about the third aspect?"

"The management costs are too high, causing the production costs of the steel mills to be almost 20% higher than those of private steel mills."

Seeing his wife's puzzled expression, Wang Dong explained directly: "A private steel mill with 500 employees normally only has one factory director, several workshop directors, and a few sales and financial management cadres."

"Subtracting the production workers, the remaining management staff may be less than 30 people."

"Look at the steel mill: each workshop has a workshop director and two deputy workshop directors. They usually don't engage in production, but only in management..."

"There are also technical departments, maintenance departments, and production departments above the workshop..."

"All the technicians, cadres, and staff combined are at least 200 people..."

"Not to mention the logistics department... there must be 400 to 500 people scattered around."

"In addition to these departments, the steel mill also has a security department, factory leadership, office, finance department, personnel department... There should be about 200 cadres and staff members here."

"The total number of cadres and staff members who are not engaged in production in the entire steel rolling mill is not much less than a thousand."

"The current size of the steel mill has dropped to less than 8,000 people, which means that one in eight people is a cadre or clerk who does not engage in production but receives a high salary."

"In private steel mills outside, at least one out of fifteen people is a cadre or clerk who is not engaged in production, which is exactly twice as many."

“The management costs of the steel mill will naturally go up.”

"And these management costs will eventually be added to the production costs of the products."

"This results in the production cost of private steel mills being more than 10% lower than that of steel mills."

"If I'm not mistaken, the raw material cost of private steel mills should be lower than that of steel mills, but it's not much lower, so I didn't take it into account."

"In general, as long as they can control the cost a little, the production cost of private steel mills outside can easily be 50% lower than that of steel mills." "With such a big cost gap, do you think steel mills can compete with them?"

"Now that people's production is limited, the steel mills can still eat some of the leftovers that they can't eat."

"When the scale of private steel mills grows larger and the output increases, the steel mills at that time may not even get the leftovers and can only wait for death."

After listening to Wang Dong's explanation, his wife Chen Jun remained silent and didn't want to say anything more.

Because what her man said was reasonable and well-founded, she couldn't find any reason to refute it.

As for the changes...

It's basically impossible.

Take management costs for example. Nearly a thousand cadres and staff members of the steel rolling mill make their livings from the steel rolling mill, and many of them are cadres. It is definitely impossible to dismiss them directly, and they can only be transferred elsewhere.

But the city of Beijing was so small that no unit could accommodate hundreds of cadres and staff.

Let’s talk about the production equipment in the steel mill. No one doesn’t want to replace new equipment, but it costs money.

The monthly income of the steel mill is just enough to cover the workers' wages, and it is obviously impossible for them to replace new equipment on their own.

Although the higher authorities have money, all industries are now in a state of disrepair and require large amounts of funds. Basically, every penny is spent as it is, and there is not enough money to spend on the most important things, let alone replace new equipment for the steel mill.

With this analysis, the steel mill is like an incurable patient who can only wait to die little by little.

…………

The west wing of the front yard.

Without the families of the eldest son Yan Jiecheng and the second son Yan Jiefang, the Yan family suddenly became empty.

Only the old couple and the third and fourth children who were not yet married were left.

Because Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiefang only gave them 20 yuan a month for pension, Yan Fugui's salary was not high, and the prices in the city were getting higher and higher, Yan Fugui, who was already very stingy, became even more stingy.

Before Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiefang separated from them, they would pay 40 yuan per month for living expenses to their family.

Although Yan Fugui would embezzle a lot of money, the forty yuan was there after all. In order to prevent his son and daughter-in-law from gossiping about him, he would buy some meat every now and then to enjoy the meal.

Ever since the eldest and second sons separated from the family, the Yan family has rarely been able to eat meat for half a month.

How many steamed buns made of half a pound of flour, how many bowls of porridge, and how many pickles to eat at each meal were all calculated clearly by Yan Fugui, and no one was allowed to eat more.

As a result, the relationship between the third and fourth sons and their family became increasingly strained.

Yan Fugui also felt the dissatisfaction of his son and daughter, but he had become so stingy that he couldn't help himself.

Faced with the changes at home, there was no solution, so I could only give up and the smile on my face became less and less.

When the neighbors in the courtyard mentioned that his two daughters-in-law worked at Dongjun Hotel and how much they earned, Yan Fugui couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth.

Now, when Yan Fugui heard the neighbor's words about his two daughters-in-law, he turned a deaf ear to them, as if he hadn't heard them, and was even a little angry.

Because he always felt that his two sons were instigated by their two daughters-in-law to separate from him. (End of this chapter)