The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 395 Project Establishment
The chief engineer rubbed his hands: "If you want to confirm, can't you slap yourself? Why do you have to pinch me? You came up from the workshop, don't you know how strong your hand is?"

The factory manager said somewhat shamelessly, "I know what I'm doing. I know how painful it would be to slap myself in the face, so I can't bring myself to do it."

Three days later, Liu Hua flew to Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. At the entrance of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, red flags were waving, crowds of people were gathered, gongs and drums were beating, and firecrackers were exploding.

A large banner was hung at the main entrance: "Warmly welcome Professor Liu from Tsinghua University to visit and provide guidance."

Liu Hua felt incredibly embarrassed. He hated this kind of formalism the most. When leaders came to his factory to inspect the work, Liu Hua would at most ask the cleaning staff to do some tidying up, but he would never hold any welcoming ceremony.

"That's enough, that's enough." Liu Hua waved his hand: "Don't make it so formal. I feel unworthy of it. Director Zhou, I'm here to work. Let's skip the formalities."

The chief engineer smiled and said, "Professor Liu, why don't you take a tour first? It's been more than 20 years since you last visited Shenyang Machine Tool. You can see how much our machine tool has developed over the years."

That's true. If you design a machine tool blindly without understanding the actual production situation of Shenyang Machine Tool Group, it won't do Shenyang Machine Tool Group any good.

Led by the chief engineer, Liu Hua toured the workshop, and the chief engineer gave a general explanation of everything, big or small.

Compared to more than 20 years ago, the provincial-level processing technology has made great progress, but the management is not yet in line with the needs of the times.

Don't underestimate this point. Grassroots production can sometimes reflect many real and tangible problems. If grassroots management does not meet the needs of the times, it can sometimes stifle a lot of positive feedback.

Liu Hua shook his head: "Your management style needs reform. You're sitting in the office now, how can you receive feedback from the workshop? You produce machine tools, if you don't even know how they are used in your own workshop, how can you determine the direction of your research?"

The factory manager didn't look too good. If the problem wasn't technical, then it was his problem.

Liu Hua smiled and said, "I also have my own company now. Although I don't participate in the day-to-day management, I set up the framework for the entire day-to-day management. So I think the fewer the levels between the workshop and the office, the better, as this makes it easier to avoid unnecessary waste."

Seeing that the factory manager remained silent, Liu Hua could only say, "Of course, I also know that changing management methods is not something that can be done overnight. You all know this, right? The factory's production is so dynamic, you will inevitably have to make changes."

On the first day, the work wasn't too strenuous. In the evening, the factory manager warmly entertained Liu Hua. Being from Northeast China, he was incredibly generous with his drinking. Plus, Liu Hua had scolded everyone in the management team during the day, so everyone was now settling scores and getting revenge, determined to get Liu Hua drunk.

After downing two bottles of wine, Liu Hua realized that the men's attack hadn't slowed down, but he was already over forty and hadn't really practiced drinking much. He couldn't handle any more.

Liu Hua then remembered that he had a space that he hadn't touched for a very long time. When he first unlocked the cheat, he thought this space was absolutely perfect, but later he found it less and less useful.

So, Liu Hua developed a new function for the space: blocking drinks. Anyone who came to toast him would have their glass emptied and the drink poured directly into the space. In the end, Liu Hua had everyone at the table drunk. Those who were initially unconvinced were now convinced. They couldn't compete with him in management, technology, or even drinking; what was there left to argue about?
The next day, Liu Hua arrived at the technology department in high spirits, but none of the management personnel showed up.

"Your factory director really doesn't value scientific research at all," Liu Hua joked. "We're supposed to have a project approval meeting today, and not a single member of your factory's management is showing up?"

The chief engineer said helplessly, "I have a low alcohol tolerance. I was knocked out very early yesterday. When I came in this morning, I heard that two people were in the hospital, and four people are still not awake. The rest of the people who can come to work are all people with low alcohol tolerance. They are all in the office drinking strong tea to keep themselves going."

"What should we do?" Liu Hua shook his head: "Even without them, we still need to hold meetings. If they don't come, they don't come. We still need to launch the project."

Liu Hua has attended countless such project initiation meetings. Although the specific work is done by engineers from Shenyang Machine Tool Group, as the honorary chief engineer, Liu Hua still has to take charge.

After reading the project proposal prepared by the Shenyang Machine Tool engineers, Liu Hua wanted to cover his head in frustration. It was full of flaws. He decided to just start criticizing it.

Liu Hua slammed the project proposal onto the table: "When I saw your workshop yesterday, I found that your management had many problems. After reading your letter of intent today, I found that your research approach also has many problems."

Liu Hua pointed to a line in the second paragraph of the project proposal and said, "What's the point of saying 'aiming at internationally advanced machine tools'? How big is the gap between you and them? And what's the use of aiming at them? Aiming without firing is useless."

"Do you know your current situation? Your machine tools aren't selling in the market." Liu Hua retorted, "Can anyone tell me why your machine tools aren't selling in the market?"

Even the chief engineer couldn't give a clear answer.

"Because our technology is very poor. There is a huge gap between us and the most advanced technology." Liu Hua said bluntly, "Under these circumstances, if you want to fantasize about developing the most advanced machine tools, the Western industry has been developing for over a hundred years and it's all for nothing."

The chief engineer said sheepishly, "Professor Liu, what do you think we should do?"

"You must first survive the invasion of foreign capital," Liu Hua emphasized. "Take a good look at how many of the world's most advanced machine tools can be sold in a year. Although those things are very expensive, their actual profit margin is not as high as that of ordinary machine tools."

“If you want to survive, you must occupy the largest market.” Liu Hua sighed: “Let’s set up the project here first. The first step is to do market research. We’ll make the machine tools that are most needed in the market and have the largest market.”

An engineer raised his hand: "Professor Liu, does that mean we shouldn't make the most advanced machine tools?"

"Our ancestors had a saying, 'ambition is too high,' which describes your current mindset. The West can achieve the most advanced level because they have a century of technological accumulation. We also need to make such accumulations, but we can speed things up. They take a century, we take thirty."

(End of this chapter)