Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 221 Is there something wrong with this machine?
"Greetings, Commander!" As soon as they entered the military factory converted from a shelter, someone called out to them. It was Li Zhiwei, the factory director, who led another group of people to join the tour.

When Su Xun came out, he traveled very simply, only asking Jiang Yi to accompany him. He even drove himself. However, along the way, each level of organization sent a few people over, from the Corps' industrial authorities to the park's responsible departments, and then to the factory's leadership. When he entered the workshop, he became a large and imposing group.

"Hello, comrade." Su Xun went up and shook hands with him, and someone next to him snapped a picture of the scene.

Su Xun was used to this kind of scene, and he asked directly, "So, are there any difficulties in the production of the individual power armor?"

On the way here, Jiang Yi had already gathered the details. Su Xun had a general understanding of the situation. Currently, the daily production of this type of individual powered armor is... actually quite dismal, around twenty units. Of course, this number will increase rapidly in the future. This is only the first time it has been developed, and some parts still need to be hand-made by workers. This speed is already quite good.

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief! There are no difficulties our factory cannot overcome!"

Li Zhiwei's slogans were very loud, but Zhang Wei, who was standing next to him, laughed and scolded, "The commander-in-chief told you to speak, so just speak. Why are you showing off at a time like this?"

“Platoon leader… no, director.” Li Zhiwei smiled helplessly: “I really can’t think of anything right now. A set of power armor can be simple in some ways, but it also has hundreds or thousands of parts.”

“Each part is not too difficult to produce. Once our new equipment and molds are produced or debugged, we can basically achieve mass production. The production of this thing itself is not difficult.”

"The problem restricting its production speed is not limited to our factory alone. The communications equipment manufacturing plant provides us with communication components, the special materials plant provides us with the prefabricated plates needed for the armor shell, and the jet equipment plant produces special jet weapons for us..."

"The final assembly of the power armor is in our factory, but the production of every single power armor is done by the entire Temon Legion."

"Our factory is currently making every effort to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the production line, and you should be well aware of this, Platoon Leader."

After saying all this, what I really mean is that there's no way to overcome it. You could say there are no difficulties, or you could say there are difficulties everywhere.

Before the other party could finish speaking, Su Xun already understood that the current low production capacity was not caused by their factory alone. To increase production, they needed to take control of the entire upstream production chain.

If this had happened before the Great Cataclysm, daring to speak like that to an inspecting leader would have meant that one's future career path would likely depend on the leader's mood at the time.

When you're in a good mood, you dare to speak the truth; when you're in a bad mood, you lack the ability and shirk responsibility.

The production chain is a production chain problem. Putting aside the facts, don't you have any initiative at all? Can't you play a more positive role?

Your boss is offering you help, and you tell him you can't help him? What does that mean?
However, Su Xun never cared about such things. He was always very gentle with his comrades, but at this moment he couldn't help but feel regret.

Production chain!
Su Xun sighed softly. Systematic production was once something the East was proud of, an industrial miracle that even the most ordinary citizens would be proud of. After the great catastrophe, they had done their best to preserve industrial production capacity, but it was unrealistic to say that there were no losses whatsoever. Moreover, while machine tools could be preserved, the skilled industrial workers lost could not be conjured up in a short time. Within the Taimon Legion, there was already one region with the most complete industrial system, but there were still many difficulties in fully restarting this machine.

"It's alright. Let's try to solve the problems we can solve first. I didn't come here to ask you for production output right away. I mainly came to check on the work situation here."

So the group led Su Xun inside, explaining the production line to him along the way.

"Before we took on the final assembly of the power armor, we already had some experience in producing individual protective gear. The adjacent production line is a production line for military armor and helmets. Our factory has accumulated some technical expertise in this area, and we can directly utilize mature equipment and workers for many power armor-related tasks."

Su Xun glanced in the direction Li Zhiwei was pointing. He had seen many of the equipment produced on that production line before. After the Great Cataclysm, people discovered that compared to stab-proof and bulletproof protective gear that was easy to grab, some ancient-style metal plate armor was more suitable for fighting ordinary zombies. Therefore, the factory was urgently arranged to produce a batch of similar items, and it seemed that this was one of the production sites.

However, the situation changed drastically after the cataclysm, and the threat of zombies gradually diminished. These plate armors hadn't even been replaced by the entire army, or even equipped on a large scale, before they faced obsolescence.

Of course, the factory has now received orders for power armor with higher technical content and greater impact. The factory is one of the most sought-after units today, the core of the Corps' construction, and a mainstay of social stability. It is unlikely that it would be forced to stop production due to the elimination of a single product.

“Actually, these lightweight protective gears aren’t completely obsolete yet.” Zhang Wei, Li Zhiwei’s former platoon leader and now the director of the production organization department in the industrial park, explained to Su Xun: “The zombies haven’t been completely eradicated. The stages of the struggle vary from region to region. Some areas where the military forces are weak still have a considerable number of zombie remnants. Meanwhile, small groups that operate in cities from the old era still like these things. Based on these factors, we haven’t abandoned this technological path. Instead, we are preparing to research equipment that has more practical value and is more suitable for the current battlefield environment.”

“That’s the right thing to do.” Su Xun affirmed their actions: “Right now, our main focus is on the domestic situation. The situation abroad is more complicated, and we will have to fight zombies in the future.”

“You can transfer some of the relevant processes and technologies to some factories in the Lingnan region so that they can achieve independent production.” Su Xun looked at Jiang Yi, who had been silently following beside him: “Afterwards, you should communicate with the high-level officials in Lingnan. Their representatives who came to attend the summit have not yet returned. Ask them to take some back with them before they leave.”

Jiang Yi nodded in agreement. The group had arrived at the new power armor production line. The noise here was considerable. The ear-piercing buzz of metal cutting, accompanied by the dazzling flashes of welding equipment, was the norm. The hiss of high-pressure gas, which at first glance was not loud, was the most oppressive sound in the background of all the noise.

Just as Li Zhiwei had said, there were people gathered around a lot of production equipment, clearly still being debugged. Many people were walking around with various parts, making it look quite lively.

Seeing this scene, Su Xun felt inexplicably happy. He walked up to a piece of equipment, where a young man was standing in front of the control panel, staring intently at the constantly changing program page in front of him, one hand resting on a red knob and turning it gently, looking very professional.

Behind him, Li Zhiwei opened his mouth as if to shout, but Zhang Wei glared at him, so he swallowed and remained silent.

"What's wrong, young man? Is there something wrong with this equipment?"

(End of this chapter)