Rebirth in Hong Kong: From Dessert Shop to Industrial Empire

Chapter 63: Overcoming Difficulties (Seeking monthly votes and recommendations to continue reading!)

"For every 10% increase in production capacity, the bonus will increase by 10%."

Chen Bingwen's words quickly reached the workers' ears.

"Did you hear that? As long as production capacity increases, bonuses will increase."

"Let's give it our all! For the prize money, let's give it our all!"

The workers' tired expressions vanished, replaced by a burning fighting spirit!
In 1978, the treatment at Chan Kee Food Factory on Hong Kong Island was already the envy of many.

Even the most basic jobs, such as loading workers in the cleaning area or moving workers in the auxiliary materials area, offer a steady monthly salary of one thousand Hong Kong dollars!
This is far beyond the average level of seven or eight hundred in factories outside.

Technical backbone personnel, such as team leaders and quality inspectors, earn a monthly salary of 1,200 to 1,500 yuan!

Technical foremen like Zhong Qiang earn as much as 1,500 yuan!

Moreover, Chen Ji never delays wages, provides red envelopes and extra meals during holidays, has a clean and tidy working environment, and its management is relatively humane.

This job is the envy of many residents in Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong!
Now, Chen Bingwen has actually announced that in addition to the basic salary, there will be performance bonuses! And the bonus percentage will increase as production capacity improves!

This is like a windfall!
"Ah Ping! Did you hear that? It's a bonus!" In the mango processing area, a female worker named Ah Ying excitedly grabbed the arm of her coworker Ah Ping next to her. "If we work harder, our production capacity will increase, and we can get more bonuses!"
Let me do the math. If we increase production capacity by 20%, we can earn an extra two yuan a day!

Ah Ping nodded vigorously, her hands instantly twice as fast as she peeled the mango: "I heard you! I heard you!"

My son's school uniform was worn out, and a new set costs several tens of yuan. Now we've found a solution!

Group leader Ah Zhen shouted at the top of her lungs, "Sisters! Cheer up! Move faster!"
Peel and pit quickly! Scoop out all the flesh!

Boss Chen said, "The more you work, the more you earn! The more mangoes we process, the faster we go, and the more bonuses we get!"

"For the prize money!"

The female workers responded in unison and sped up their work.

Driven by the bonuses, the workers were all working like clockwork, whether in the washing area, the mango processing area, or the auxiliary materials area!

The entire workshop was filled with an unprecedented sense of efficiency and urgency.

After seeing Cheng Long off, Chen Bingwen returned to the workshop and frowned slightly upon seeing this scene.

What he saw was not a significant leap in overall efficiency, but a localized prosperity that was forced to accelerate under pressure.

Although the bottles in the cleaning area have a faster turnover, the speed of cleaning, disinfection and drying is limited by the equipment itself, and the bottleneck still exists, so the speed of supplying processed empty bottles can only be improved in a limited way.

The amount of sago and coconut milk prepared in advance in the auxiliary materials area has increased, but the cooling process takes time and cannot be compressed indefinitely.

The most obvious example is the mango processing area.

Sweat beaded on the female workers' foreheads as their fingers flew across the screen. Their movements—peeling, pitting, and scooping out the flesh—were so fast it was dazzling.

But here's the problem.

No matter how fast they are, they can't outrun a machine.

They are human, they get tired, and their movements have limits.

Moreover, mangoes vary in size, shape, and ripeness, making them different in terms of processing difficulty and speed.

More importantly, peeling mangoes is one of the earliest, most manual, and most time-consuming steps in the entire bottled syrup production chain!

Chen Bingwen's gaze fell on the mountain of mango baskets piled up next to the mango processing area, and then on the rhythm of the processed mango flesh being quickly sent downstream.

Then compare the operating speed of the filling line.

"The bottleneck is still in peeling mangoes," Chen Bingwen muttered to himself.

Bonuses can stimulate workers' potential, enabling them to unleash far greater efficiency than usual in a short period of time.

But this is ultimately unsustainable.

Human physical strength has its limits. Prolonged, high-intensity, repetitive labor not only reduces efficiency and makes mistakes more likely, but may even lead to safety accidents.

Moreover, this kind of speed increase achieved through sheer willpower results in a negligible improvement for the entire industrial production line.

"It seems that 32,000 is the ceiling under the current human limit."

Chen Bingwen understood.

The daily output of 32,000 bottles reported by Gao Zhenhai was probably the balance point reached after various bottleneck links pulled each other together under this state of everyone "working desperately".

If we want to make further breakthroughs, we can't rely on exploiting manpower.

"This can't go on like this."

Relying on sheer numbers and working overtime can only solve temporary problems in the short term, but it is not the way to achieve industrialization.

Improving efficiency depends on technological innovation and equipment upgrades!

Although there are no machines on the market that can peel ripe mangoes.

But that doesn't mean it can't be!

If we can't buy it, we'll just have it custom-made!

As one of Asia's important manufacturing bases, Hong Kong Island may not be able to produce high-precision instruments and equipment, but it should have no problem producing small-scale processing equipment.

In particular, there are more than 20 small stainless steel machine repair shops in the Cheung Sha Wan and To Kwa Wan areas.

They may not have a ready-made mango processing machine, but they have the ability to design and manufacture specialized equipment according to their needs!
Even if the initial investment is larger and the efficiency improvement is slower, we must take this step!

Chen Bingwen made up his mind.

the other side.

Following Chen Bingwen's instructions, Gao Zhenhai, along with two subordinates, headed straight to the Labour Department and several tea restaurants where workers gathered to recruit employees.

He originally thought that with Chenji's basic salary being far above the industry average and the attractive bonus for increasing production capacity, hiring dozens of temporary workers to process mangoes would be a piece of cake.

However, reality gave him a heavy blow.

The Labour Department was teeming with people and bustling with noise, ten times more crowded than the busiest market.

The walls were covered with colorful job postings—red, green, and yellow.

The air was filled with various accents of Mandarin, Teochew, and Hakka, buzzing and making one's head throb.

"Urgently seeking skilled female sewing machine operators! Monthly salary of 1,100 yuan! Room and board provided!"

"An electronics factory in Kwun Tong urgently needs component installers! Experienced or inexperienced workers are welcome! Daily wage is HK$30! Overtime pay is extra!"

"Toy factory in Kowloon Bay is hiring packaging workers! Quick and efficient! Monthly salary of HK$1,000! Start work immediately!"

"Construction site hiring general laborers! Daily wage is 35 yuan! Anyone with strength is fine!"

The job fair booths were packed with people, and behind each booth sat several factory representatives, shouting and waving job brochures, trying to pull every passerby over.

Recruiters in overalls would immediately greet anyone who hesitated or looked around with enthusiasm: "Handsome guy (girl)! Looking for a job?"

Come and see! Our factory offers great benefits!

Seeing this salary level, Gao Zhenhai felt disheartened.

He came to recruit workers just last week, and at that time, Chen's had a very competitive wage standard.

Just one week later, prices have increased by 10%, which is clearly due to the difficulty in hiring workers.

However, since we're here, we should give it a try first.

Gao Zhenhai had just arranged for his subordinates to hang up a name tag that read, "Chenji Food Factory urgently needs several mango processing workers, starting salary of 1,000 yuan per month," and hadn't even had a chance to sit down yet.

A man in a floral shirt with slicked-back hair came over, glanced at the Chen's sign, and sneered:
"Hey, Chen's? Hiring mango peelers? 1000 yuan?"

He pointed to the large crowd gathered in front of his stall and proudly raised his chin, "I'm from 'Wing Hing Electronics Factory' in Kwun Tong. I'm hiring component installers. Daily wage is thirty-two dollars!"

Overtime pay is extra! Monthly salary easily exceeds 1000! One meal is also included!

"Young lady, are you interested?"

He shouted directly at a young girl next to him who was looking at the Chen Ji sign.

The girl hesitated for a moment, looked at Chen's sign, then at the busier crowd and higher daily wage at the electronics factory, and finally followed the people from the electronics factory.

"Boss, are you hiring mango peelers? What exactly do they do?" At this moment, a dark-skinned, stocky middle-aged man squeezed through the crowd and asked.

"It's about peeling, pitting, and scooping out the flesh from mangoes," Gao Zhenhai explained in simple terms. "The work environment is clean, and it's in a food factory workshop. The starting salary is 1,000 yuan per month, with bonuses for good performance and additional bonuses for increased production capacity!"

"Peeling mangoes?" The man curled his lip. "Oh, just peeling fruit? Isn't a thousand yuan a bit low?"

The plastics factory next door is hiring injection molding workers. The monthly salary is 1,100 yuan, and they also said there would be a quarterly bonus.

Peeling fruit sounds tedious; my hands are getting sore from peeling.

He shook his head, turned and walked to a stall next to him that was recruiting metal stamping workers, where the asking price was 1,150 yuan.

Just as Gao Zhenhai was about to speak to persuade him to stay, another burly man wearing a vest and with bulging arm muscles came over: "Boss, want a mango peeled?"

Do you need someone strong? I'm strong, I can do construction work! Does your factory have any construction work? Or maybe porter work? Peeling fruit doesn't seem to suit me.

“Our work is mainly manual, which requires meticulousness and dexterity,” Gao Zhenhai explained.

"Oh, never mind then." The burly man waved his hand and walked straight to a construction company's booth not far away, where they were shouting, "Construction site laborer, 35 yuan a day! Lunch included!"

"Brother Hai, this won't do," a subordinate complained, wiping his sweat. "Now it's the workers who choose the jobs, not the jobs that choose the workers!"
Look at this hall, which factory isn't scrambling for workers? Peeling mangoes is tiring and tedious, and the pay isn't particularly competitive, so who would want to do it?
The few we hired were either older or had no other jobs, so they certainly weren't as quick as the skilled female workers.

Gao Zhenhai looked around and saw that it was indeed the case.

The entire Labour Department was like a giant labor auction, with representatives from various factories acting as bidders, constantly raising their bids and vying for the limited labor resources.

Job postings for garment factories, electronics factories, toy factories, plastic factories, and hardware factories are everywhere, with each offering more attractive conditions than the last.

Workers moved among them, carefully selecting and bargaining.

Chan Kee's monthly salary of HK$1,000 seems unremarkable, even somewhat uncompetitive, given the booming manufacturing industry, the proliferation of small factories, and the escalating labor shortage on Hong Kong Island.

The job of "peeling mangoes" is utterly unattractive compared to many other jobs that sound more "skilled" or "easier".

Gao Zhenhai visited several locations, and the situations were largely the same.

Workers have more choices, and their standards have risen.

What troubled him even more was that many young and strong workers preferred to work on construction sites or in newly opened toy or electronics factories rather than do this seemingly "low-tech" fruit processing.

He even met a few farmers who had just swum over from Bao'an. Although they were hardworking, they were rough and clumsy, and their efficiency was far lower than that of the older women. Moreover, training them would take time.

Gao Zhenhai frowned as he looked at the few names on the job registration form.

He returned to the Kwun Tong factory with a heavy heart and reported the bad news to Chan Ping-man.

"Brother Wen, we can't recruit anyone, and the people we do recruit aren't very useful."

Factories are now scrambling to hire workers; all the female workers available in the market have been snapped up by garment factories, textile factories, and electronics factories.

Wages have increased, and benefits have improved, so the competitive advantage of our compensation package is no longer obvious.

Moreover, peeling mangoes is indeed tiring and tedious, and young people are unwilling to do it.

Raising wages further would be too costly.

Gao Zhenhai said with some frustration.

After listening to the report, Chen Bingwen remained silent for a moment.

The female workers in the workshop were busy peeling mangoes. They were already working very fast, but it was still a drop in the ocean compared to the endless mountain of mangoes.

In Hong Kong's booming manufacturing sector, the human resource bottleneck has become an unsolvable problem, especially in processes that are highly dependent on manual labor and repetitive tasks.

The original plan was to spend money to hire more people and increase production capacity in a short period of time through sheer manpower.

Unexpectedly, this easiest route was blocked.

"Since we can't recruit or retain people, and efficiency has its limits, let's use machines!"

Chen Bingwen decided, "Ahai, go and check immediately if there are any machines on the market that can peel and pit ripe mangoes! European, American, or Japanese are all fine, as long as it can solve the problem, price is not an issue!"

If not, try asking at machine repair shops in the Cheung Sha Wan or To Kwa Wan area to see if they can customize one.

Gao Zhenhai perked up after hearing Chen Bingwen's words.

If we can't find people, let's find machines!

This approach is more in line with Chen Bingwen's consistent style.

Solve problems with technology and efficiency.

He immediately replied, "Understood, Brother Wen! I'll get on it right away!"

Over the next few days, Gao Zhenhai and his team visited almost all the well-known machinery and equipment dealers and importers on Hong Kong Island.

He held up a mango sample and described his needs in detail.

It needs to be able to automatically peel, pit, and extract the flesh, and it needs to be highly efficient and stable.

However, the feedback received was like buckets of cold water being poured on him.

“Mangoes? Automatic processing?” A German equipment dealer looked at the mangoes Gao Zhenhai brought, his brow furrowed. “It’s not that we don’t want to help.”

Mangoes have irregular shapes, vary greatly in size, have pits that are not always in place, and have soft flesh, making automated processing too difficult.

The European equipment we distribute is mainly for standardized fruits like apples and oranges.

Mangoes are too niche; there's simply no readily available commercially viable equipment for processing them.

The manager of another Japanese machinery company was even more direct: "Mr. Gao, this kind of equipment requires specialized research and development."

Our company has similar technological reserves, but not specifically for mangoes.

The research and development cycle is at least a year and a half, the investment is huge, and the results cannot be guaranteed.

Can your company wait? Can you bear this risk?

After running around for several days, the answers were all pretty much the same.

Large manufacturers in Europe, America, and Japan either lack readily available equipment or have long R&D cycles, high costs, and significant risks.

Gao Zhenhai's heart sank little by little.

Clinging to his last glimmer of hope, he visited several local machinery factories that claimed to be able to do "non-standard customization".

These factories are not large in scale, but the owners are mostly experienced master craftsmen who dare to take on tough jobs.

In a small factory called "Jinggong Machinery" in Changsha Bay, the boss, Master Huang, examined a mango for a long time, discussed it with the technician brought by Gao Zhenhai, and finally shook his head: "Mr. Gao, in principle, it can be done by using a robotic arm with special tools and a conveyor belt, plus simple vision positioning."

But the problem is, mangoes are too delicate!
Too much force was applied, and the fruit flesh was damaged.
If you don't use enough force, the skin won't peel off cleanly.

The location of the pit varies in depth, making it difficult to pinpoint precisely.

Moreover, different mangoes have different levels of ripeness and varying degrees of firmness, making it difficult to adjust the machine parameters.

The finished product might be slower than a skilled worker's, and the failure rate would be higher.

The key issue is that there are no blueprints for this product. Designing, prototyping, and debugging from scratch would take at least two months, and the cost is not low.

Are you sure you want to do this?

Looking at Master Huang's sincere yet somewhat helpless expression, Gao Zhenhai knew that what the other party said was true.

He returned to the Kwun Tong factory with this less-than-good news.

"Brother Wen, that's the situation." Gao Zhenhai was truly devastated this time.

"The major importers don't have readily available solutions, and there's no time to develop them."

Local factories can make it, but Master Huang said that the production efficiency might be low, the failure rate might be high, and it would take at least two months to produce a prototype, and even then, the debugging might not be successful on the first try.

He estimated the cost to be around HK$150,000.

"150,000? Two months?" Chen Bingwen frowned.

The time and cost far exceeded his expectations.

Moreover, based on Gao Zhenhai's report, even if Master Huang could make it, the result probably wouldn't be very good.

If you spend the money but the product is all show and no substance, wasting time and money, then it's not worth it.

Singaporean businessman Lim Boon Hung's order of 150,000 bottles could not be delivered in two months.

The local market demand for bottled sugar water is also rising steadily. The daily production of 32,000 is already the result of extreme pressure. How can we wait two months?
How can production capacity be increased during this period?

How are orders delivered?

Moreover, after hearing Gao Zhenhai's report, he was also worried about something else.

With wages so high outside now, if Chen Ji continues with its current wage system, will there be a large-scale exodus of grassroots workers?

If a large number of skilled workers, especially core workers in the mango processing area, leave their jobs, it will be a more fatal blow to Chen Ji than the production capacity bottleneck!
That's the real solution!

In the era of low automation, food production was a labor-intensive industry, and the profit margin of products determined the wage level of workers.

Wage increases aren't something that can be decided on a whim; they need to be determined after considering all aspects, from raw materials to the sales terminal.

Even if Chen Bingwen wanted to raise the workers' wages, he would have to do thorough calculations before implementing it.

After all, Chenji now has more than just a few or a dozen people. It has mobile sales points, standard stores, two food factories, plus marketing department and company logistics staff, totaling nearly two hundred people.

Adding 50 yuan per person would mean an extra 100,000 Hong Kong dollars per month.

However, given the current wage rates in manufacturing factories, wages must be raised to retain workers.

At the same time, Lin Wenxiong, carrying a meticulously prepared market analysis plan, once again arrived at the Kwun Tong factory with high spirits.

"Boss Chen! I have not failed you!" Lin Wenxiong placed a thick stack of bound documents on Chen Bingwen's desk and smiled confidently.
"This is a detailed plan developed by Nanhua Trading based on market research in Singapore!"

The target audience, channel strategy, promotion plan, and initial distribution network have all been meticulously planned.

Pointing to the sales forecast chart in the plan, he said excitedly, "We are very confident that the first batch of 150,000 bottles will be sold out within a month."

"There might even be a shortage! So," Lin Wenxiong looked at Chen Bingwen eagerly, "Mr. Chen, in order to ensure an instant success and create a market impact, I strongly suggest that the 150,000 bottles be shipped to Singapore all at once!"
Concentrate our firepower to achieve saturation coverage of all core channels.

This maximizes the advertising effect and is most likely to ignite the market.

We've even finalized the shipping schedule; there's a direct cargo ship to Singapore early next month, the timing is perfect!

　Thank you all for your support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)