The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 210 Increasing Investment in the Second Machine Tool Plant
"Leaders, look, this is a CNC machine tool that has already worked for 360 hours. It can now perform a variety of machining operations."

After Zhou Zhiqiang led Deputy Leader Wu and Director Ren to the precision workshop, he introduced them to the CNC machine tools that were performing processing operations.

There are many processing methods, and seven different types of parts have been manufactured so far, including some slightly more complex curved surface parts.

"It seems to be much smaller in size. Is it troublesome to disassemble and reassemble this CNC machine tool?"

Director Ren's first thought was transportation. They don't have those particularly large heavy trucks in their country yet, and ordinary trucks can't carry this machine tool. Trains would also be a bit of a stretch.

If it cannot be disassembled and reassembled, then transportation becomes a major headache.

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "The transportation of disassembled and reassembled components is not a problem at all. It's just that the semiconductor components of the CNC system are very fragile and need to be well protected during transportation."

"That's fine."

After Director Ren nodded, he saw that Deputy Leader Wu was looking at a component, so he went over and took a look as well.

However, he quickly remembered that this was a core component of a ground artillery aiming device commissioned by a military factory, which Zhou Zhiqiang had asked him to apply for a few days ago. The accuracy requirements were extremely high.

Even a highly skilled master craftsman would find it extremely difficult to manufacture this part; it would take a very long time.

However, a qualified one was found at the Second Machine Tool Plant.

Deputy Leader Wu asked, "Comrade Zhiqiang, how long did it take to process this splitting cone? What was the production efficiency? Was it measured?"

"The measurements have been taken, sir. This part you're holding is perfectly qualified. As for production efficiency, it will take about two days to process and produce one."

Zhou Zhiqiang handed over a record file and then continued, "In fact, it might be even faster, because sometimes we need to stop the machine for testing."

"So fast!"

Director Ren was quite surprised when he saw this production efficiency. He remembered when he assigned this military task to the First Machine Tool Plant.

The First Machine Tool Factory told him that even if they called up all the senior workers in the factory, they could only pay a maximum of two hundred a year.

Moreover, a skilled worker needs to be extremely focused to produce one, and the processing time is long; even a slight lapse in concentration can lead to failure.

Therefore, the pass rate for this component is not high.

However, the CNC machine tools recorded here at the Second Machine Tool Plant have a 100% pass rate. After seeing this, Director Ren sighed inwardly that the production efficiency of these CNC machine tools was truly exaggerated.

"Let's start production as soon as possible, produce more units, Comrade Zhiqiang."

Before Deputy Leader Wu could speak, Director Ren said somewhat anxiously, "These components you tested are urgently needed by various factories and units."

They didn't care about production quality before; they just dumped the task on me and then ignored me. It meant that Comrade Nianjun and I had to keep sending people to various machine tool factories and machinery plants to inquire.”

Many machine tool factories also handle some parts processing tasks. At this time, the factory does not only do one production task and does whatever the superiors assign.

During difficult times, the factory would also produce its own agricultural and sideline products.

Director Ren suffered from the shirking of responsibility by other units. For example, the machine tool task of the Ninth Bureau of the Second Ministry of Machine Building was fortunately solved by the Second Machine Tool Plant, otherwise they would have had to initiate a project for research and development and production.

"The CNC machine tools you developed have been a huge help. They can process and produce so many complex parts, and many machining plants and bearing factories need them."

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Director Ren, we need to wait at least until the long-term processing and testing are completed before production can begin. There are still one and a half months left to complete the testing."

Furthermore, Factory 190 needs to cooperate. Director Ren, you'd better first formulate production targets and communicate with the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building. However, even so, the amount of production capacity that our factory can spare won't be much."

Their factory's production schedule is already full, and they won't be able to start large-scale production of CNC machine tools until at least next year.

We can only squeeze out some extra production capacity now, producing one or two units a month, and that's the limit.

Director Ren sighed and said, "That's true. I forgot your factory is already very busy. Leader, how about giving the Second Machine Tool Factory another thousand job openings next year?"

“I need to go back and discuss this with Comrade Jianhui. I might also need to report it to the China Ocean Design Institute.”

Deputy Leader Wu did not immediately agree. The domestic economy was not developing well, and many places had reduced recruitment. The recruitment quota for the entire Ministry of Machine Building was not much.

Giving all 1,000 slots to one factory is a big deal; the Ministry of Machinery Industry must have reported the reasons to its leaders.

However, if the leaders knew the production efficiency of CNC machine tools, they would probably agree to this.

After learning about the CNC machine tool, Deputy Leader Wu watched the machining operation for a while before patting Zhou Zhiqiang on the shoulder with a happy expression and saying...
"Comrade Zhiqiang, well done, you did a great job; I'll have someone deliver the cigarettes and tea to your home, hahaha, I'll have to quit smoking for a while from now on."

Deputy Leader Wu said with a happy smile that he no longer cared about the special supply of cigarettes and tea, even for the next thirty years, as long as he continued to receive these surprises. "We can allocate some production time to the CNC machine tools. I'll ask the ministry to allocate more supplies to your factory, and then we can give the workers extra meals."
Ideally, we should produce thirty CNC machine tools by September; I know it's difficult, but Zhiqiang, your factory will have to work hard.”

"Thirty machines will probably require the entire factory to operate around the clock. I'll try my best to arrange it. If it's really impossible, we'll have to ask other factories to help with the production of other machine tools."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he suddenly remembered something and continued to say to Deputy Leader Wu and Director Ren: "Leaders, I suddenly remembered that I made an appointment with Director Wang of the First Machine Tool Factory to have their factory's technicians come and learn as well."
They should be able to control production and assembly in about two months. The rest depends on whether Factory 190 can keep up with production efficiency; the output of the CNC system depends entirely on them.

One factory can't possibly dominate the domestic CNC machine tool market, and neither can two factories.

If those two factories combined keep producing and keep producing, it would be quite good if they could increase the CNC rate of domestic machine tools to one-fifth within ten years.

CNC machine tools can also be exported to earn foreign exchange, so the demand is even greater. With the continuous development of new CNC machine tools, five-axis linkage machine tools may also be developed in the future.
With production tasks already completed for over a decade or two, Zhou Zhiqiang wasn't worried about the development of the Second Machine Tool Plant at all.

"Okay, you two factories can discuss it, but make sure you don't produce more than thirty units. That's all for now."

After finishing his speech, Deputy Leader Wu looked around and felt that he had said everything that needed to be said and that he needed to go back to the department to discuss it.

"That's all for today, Comrade Zhiqiang. Comrade Licheng and I need to go back to the department to discuss some matters. We'll let you know once we've finished our discussions."

You should focus on your work at the factory first. By the way, you might need to go to Liaoyang next month, so be prepared.

"Don't worry, boss."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he escorted them to the factory office building and left the Second Machine Tool Factory.

When they left, they also took with them a copy of the parts recently processed by the CNC machine tool and a production record sheet.

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On the way back in the jeep, Director Ren even switched places with Deputy Leader Wu's assistant so that he could ride in the same car as Deputy Leader Wu.

As soon as the car left the Second Machine Tool Plant, Deputy Leader Wu asked with a smile, "What's the rush, Comrade Licheng? It's only a little over half an hour to get back. Can't you wait any longer?"

"I've actually thought about this for a long time, but I still want to talk to you about it now."

Director Ren began, "Could we increase our department's investment in the Second Machine Tool Plant by a little more each year, perhaps by another 1.5%?"

"Comrade Licheng, isn't 1.5 percent a bit too much?"

When Deputy Leader Wu heard this number, his mouth twitched.

How much fiscal funds does the Ministry of Machine Building control each year? Last year, the total fiscal investment reached more than 60 billion yuan, of which more than half was used for investment.

Although it's a little less this year, it's still around 40 billion.

As the core department of national construction, the First Ministry of Machine Building was a key planning department during the Second Five-Year Plan period, and at its peak, the Ministry's investment accounted for one-fifth of the national budget.

It is estimated that the Ministry of Machine Building's fiscal investment this year will be between 3.3 billion and 4 billion yuan.

One percentage point is more than 30 million!

"Do you plan to expand the Second Machine Tool Plant to a factory with 10,000 employees this year, Comrade Licheng?"

Deputy Leader Wu shook his head and said, "This is too hasty. Comrade Jianhui probably won't agree. Even if it's reported to the China Ocean Institute, it will probably be rejected by the leadership."

"I don't deny the importance of the Second Machine Tool Plant and their contributions to the Canton Fair, but to think they could suddenly become overweight or even obese would be too exaggerated."

Director Ren had a different opinion, saying, "But leader, the more production tasks the Second Machine Tool Plant has, the better. You've also seen the advantages of CNC machine tools."

Producing 300 units a year is completely different from producing 2,000 units a year; if we have any surplus, we can take them to the Canton Fair, and not only will we be able to complete our sales target, but we can also recoup our investment.

After listening, Deputy Leader Wu was somewhat tempted, but still shook his head and said, "What you said makes some sense, but expansion may not necessarily translate into productivity."

We'll have to wait at least a while. Never mind, I'll discuss this with Comrade Jianhui when I get back. Besides, the investment plan is already finalized, and the department doesn't have much money left."

He was somewhat tempted, feeling that Ren Licheng's words made sense and that the performance of the Second Machine Tool Plant was worthy of the ministry's increased investment.

But Wu Jianhong felt that things shouldn't be developing so fast, as this was showing signs of a leap forward.

The Second Machine Tool Plant has made several investments and expansions in the past two years, and its current scale is quite large. Moreover, the Ministry completed this year's investment budget last year, and all the funds due this year have been distributed.

Those who haven't received their payments yet are waiting; they'll be issued when the time comes. We can't let them cut the investment funds that were planned last year.

(End of this chapter)