Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 461 should be revised here! (Second update!)

In the conference room of the telecommunications company's technical department, the projector shone brightly, projecting the content of the computer onto the large screen in front.

Mao Xiaofei stood in the lower left corner of the screen, holding a thin bamboo stick in his hand, calmly looking at the people in the conference room:

"I've gathered everyone here today for a new task."

"Actually, this task is one of our company's more legitimate and serious businesses, apart from communication base stations."

As he spoke, the Xiaomi Group staff responsible for controlling the projector dragged the mouse to switch the projector's content to a concept image of a mobile phone.

The back features a beige color, two cameras, and a metal cross-shaped logo on the lower center. The overall design is somewhat rounded, but not overly so; it's a rounded shape with a touch of sharpness.

The design looks quite ordinary, far less impressive than the designs of today's heavily invested mobile phones.

After the concept art was displayed for about 30 seconds, Mao Xiaofei pressed the switch to stop the projector from playing the image, and pointed the bamboo stick in his hand at the screen:

"Now I'll explain the mission in detail!"

"This phone is codenamed 01 here."

"The phone's design manufacturer is our partner, Xiaomi Group. Remember, it's Xiaomi Group, not Xiaomi Heavy Industry. Don't get it wrong."

"They produced the design drawings and also brought the corresponding accessories."

"Now we need to assemble it, and at the same time, we need our technology to standardize and transform the entire assembly process, forming a complete set of production process documents to guide production."

"This is a task personally assigned by President Lin, and it involves some of President Lin's subsequent work arrangements, so it's very urgent."

"Therefore, everyone will need to work overtime for the next period of time."

"As for the research and development work that everyone is currently engaged in, let's put it on hold for now, solve this problem first, and then come back to complete the remaining work."

"That's all I wanted to say. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them now. After you've asked, remember to follow the procedures."

He had barely finished speaking on stage when someone in the audience immediately raised their hand:

"Boss, could you tell me why you value this phone so much?"

"I think... I don't think this thing is amazing. Once it's produced, I guess... I guess it will be hard to sell."

After asking the question, the person turned to look around and found that others had the same expression as him. He then immediately turned back to Mao Xiaofei with a determined look.

On stage, Mao Xiaofei looked at the employees of Xiaomi Group and said to them with a smile:

"Show me the parameter table!"

The employee complied and switched the projector screen again, changing the image on the projection screen from a preview of the phone to a parameter graph of the phone.

After this parameter diagram was displayed, the somewhat noisy audience immediately quieted down.

These people present deal with various parameters every day and come into contact with all kinds of chips and all sorts of random electronic products, so naturally they can understand this parameter table.

It was precisely because they understood this parameter table that they were surprised.

After a long while, the same person who had asked the question spoke again, but this time, his voice trembled slightly:

"Boss, what's the price of this phone?"

"Less than 2000!" Mao Xiaofei uttered this number, and a collective gasp immediately rose from the audience. Just as they were about to ask again, the Xiaomi Group employee in charge of the projector spoke up:
"This price was agreed upon by your General Manager Lin and our General Manager Lei. They also said that if the price were higher than this, your General Manager Lin would skin our General Manager Lei alive."

After the employee finished explaining, he lowered his head again and switched the projector screen.

Mao Xiaofei followed up with his explanation: "I know many people are wondering why we are focusing on this phone."

"I'll tell you all now!"

"This market is huge."

According to relevant statistics, global mobile phone shipments reached 12.3 billion units last year, including both feature phones and smartphones. Feature phones accounted for approximately 11 billion units, with an average price of about $80 to $100 per unit.

"The shipment volume of smartphones is approximately 1.3 million units, with an average price of about $300 to $400."

"If you do the math, you'll see how big this market is."

"Of course, the revenue from physical phone shipments is just a drop in the ocean compared to the revenue from the smartphone advertising market."

"It's worth noting that in 2008, global advertising revenue was approximately $4800 billion, and in 2009, it was approximately $4700 billion."

"With the widespread adoption of smartphones, a large portion of these advertising costs will shift to smartphones and software."

"Besides advertising, once smartphones become widespread, some unnecessary things can be reduced."

"Take our drones as an example."

"If everyone has a smartphone, then we can reduce the cost of the remote control. We can eliminate the remote control, but the price remains the same. How much do you think we can make?"

"Now, do you understand?"

The conference room was completely silent; you could hear a pin drop.

Finally, the sound of someone swallowing broke the deathly silence:

"Is it that profitable?"

After this question, a cacophony of voices erupted again, but this time, it was agreement—100% agreement.

"This is the direction Senior Brother Lin chose. Senior Brother Mao will lead the charge, so let's charge!"

"Exactly! Senior Brother Mao, how many days will this mission take?"

"Charge! Charge! Charge! Our senior brother has already figured out the strategy, now it's our turn to charge!"

"Senior Brother Mao, please apply for a dormitory for me, thank you!"

"I also want!"

"Give me one too!"

…………

"Are you sure this thing can be turned on?" In the office, Lin Yi carefully squatted down and looked at the prototype that Mao Xiaofei had carefully placed on the desk at eye level.

Opposite him, Lei Jun did the same thing, but after watching for a while, Lei Jun cautiously reached out and poked the prototype with his fingertip, then quickly withdrew his hand, as if he had just touched not a mobile phone, but a bomb.

After listening to Lin Yi's words, Mao Xiaofei, who was standing next to him, licked his lips with his tongue but did not reply.

Because he didn't know how to respond.

The prototype in front of the three people looked thicker than the prototype in the concept drawings, and the gap at the connection point of the phone was also wider.

The physical prototype that was manufactured is like a person who has eaten too much and is stuffed.

The prototype in the concept art is like an artistic photo of someone who has painstakingly put on makeup.

Silence spread among the three of them, until finally Mao Xiaofei reached out and pressed the power button on his phone.

After pressing and holding for 5 seconds, the phone screen lights up, and the boot screen of an Android phone flashes on the screen.

After that brief screen, the boot animation, designed by Xiaomi Group, switched to a different format. The boot process was very fast; after the progress bar completed, the system quickly read the device hardware and began reading the software.

After a while, the software finished loading, and the software icons appeared in the center of the phone screen. There were only two or three apps.

But this thing did turn on.

I don't have a SIM card, so I can't access the internet right now.

Mao Xiaofei reached out to connect his phone to the Wi-Fi network, but Lin Yi stopped him with a raised hand.

After stopping the person, Lin Yi looked up and asked in a low voice, "Why is it assembled like this?"

Having figured out the cause of the problem by assembling the problem itself, Mao Xiaofei turned around, picked up a document from the table next to him with slightly effort, and spread it out on his left arm to open it:

"Actually, it's not the assembly that's the problem, but the parts themselves."

"Among this large group of parts, apart from the chip and the motherboard, the other parts all have some degree of tolerance issues."

"During the assembly process, these tolerances begin to accumulate. In addition, the glue and solder used in the assembly process take up space that is not very large to begin with, and finally this result is achieved."

After briefly explaining the reason, Mao Xiaofei handed the opened document to Lin Yi: "This is the document!"

"If needed, I can also access the laboratory's surveillance video."

"No need!" Lin Yi picked up the documents and looked through them for a while, then handed them to Lei Jun: "Mr. Lei, please take a look."

The document was quite heavy, so Lei Jun followed Mao Xiaofei's example and spread it out on his arm. Only after spreading it out did he understand why the document was so heavy.

Because each page is a table, a table that records in detail the parameters of the parts themselves and the usage process, and Lei Jun remembers very clearly the number of parts in this mobile phone: 1203.

That is to say, there may be 1203 tables here.

Thinking of this possibility, Lei Jun couldn't help but gasp. After all, they had only arrived at Xiaomi Heavy Industry the day before yesterday morning, and the day before yesterday afternoon, Xiaomi Heavy Industry's technical department held a discussion meeting to determine the process.

The day before yesterday, yesterday, and half a day today, they assembled the parts together and made a detailed table like this.

These people...

That's pretty ruthless!
That's extremely ruthless!

After swallowing hard, Lei Jun finally focused his attention on the table and studied it carefully.

[Part number...]

[Part design parameters...]

[Actual parameters of the part...]

[Parts assembly procedures and steps...]

[Cumulative tolerances and phone thickness before parts assembly...]

[Cumulative tolerances after parts assembly and phone thickness...]

【Component……】

The tables were well-organized, clearly showing the data for each part before and after installation. After flipping through more than twenty tables and reviewing the data, Lei Jun finally confirmed that the problem was indeed with the manufacturing process of the parts.

He put down the documents and reached out to grab the prototype, but Lin Yi was faster and grabbed it first.

He weighed the phone in his hand, taking in its thickness. Under the watchful eyes of Mao Xiaofei and Lei Jun, Lin Yi took out a screwdriver set from the drawer, skillfully found the Torx screwdriver, removed the back cover, and then expertly unscrewed the screws.

In just a few minutes, the integrated components inside the phone were evenly placed on the table.

After watching for a while with his arms crossed, Lin Yi suddenly spoke:
"Change it! Replace the plastic frame with a metal one, and the back cover with a metal one too."

"The frame is made of stainless steel, and the back cover... is made of brushed stainless steel."

Upon hearing that the plastic frame and back cover were to be replaced with metal, specifically stainless steel, Lei Jun immediately offered a reminder:
"Costs will increase, and the production process will also need to be adjusted."

"The cost won't increase by much!" Lin Yi said casually, then sat back in his leather chair, turned on his computer, and found the materials list from last month that Liu Daneng had given him.

The price of 304 stainless steel is conveniently listed on the materials list.

[1.875 yuan/ton]

After displaying the price, Lin Yi explained in a low voice:

"In the past two years, several large steel mills in China have replaced their production lines with new ones, including many stainless steel production lines."

"In addition, these steel mills also undertake some special stainless steel tasks."

"With them around, the price of stainless steel will remain stable, and even if it rises, it won't rise too much."

"Moreover, I've seen that if stainless steel coils are directly transported from the steel mill to our company for stamping and manufacturing, the price will be even cheaper."

"And Apple also uses stainless steel metal frames."

"Therefore, I suggest using a metal frame and back cover."

The well-reasoned analysis left Lei Jun speechless for a long time. After a moment of silence, he wrote a line heavily on his notebook with his pen.

[Modified the middle frame and back cover! Changed to 304 stainless steel!]

He had just finished writing this when Lin Yi's voice rang out again:
"Replace this heatsink."

This sentence is like a switch; once it's on, it can't be turned off.

This camera module... needs to be replaced... it needs to be replaced with a camera module that includes both front and rear cameras.

"The screen doesn't feel right, it needs to be replaced. For touchscreen phones, the screen feel has to be good, even if it's not the best, it has to be better than others, so this one needs to be replaced."

"Replace this one..."

The sounds kept changing, echoing in Lei Jun's ears. Each sound was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, hitting him hard on the head.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Yi, who had been talking the whole time, finally stopped, picked up a component, and turned to look at Lei Jun: "If you replace these components, the performance of your phone can be improved by at least 10%."

"The comfort level during use will also be greatly improved."

"If you want to become a leader in the mobile phone industry, you must understand the user scenarios. If you can't even understand that, you might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes."

After hearing the last sentence, Lei Jun shook his head with a wry smile, turned the notebook over, and handed over what he had just written, wanting Lin Yi to see it.

Lin Yi didn't take the laptop, but instead lay down on the leather chair with his arms crossed. "I know you're worried about costs, worried that you need to raise the price to the level of Apple to make a profit."

"But I can tell you that if you replace these parts with better ones, your cost price won't increase by much."

"Even after the product volume is expanded, the cost may even decrease."

"So listen to me, hurry up and make the adjustments I just mentioned."

"By the way, have your people adjust the system as well, and don't give consumers too much authority."

(End of this chapter)