The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 245 Officially Passes Level Promotion
"Thank you, factory manager."

Director Wang of the Women's Federation took the approval slip for the house, thanked her, and prepared to leave.

Upon hearing Zhou Zhiqiang's words, Director Liu quickly realized what was happening and pointed at Director Wang of the Women's Federation, saying, "Director Wang, you..."

"Director Liu, let's go, I'll go back and pick someone for you."

"Don't worry, the people I've chosen for you are definitely shrewd and capable; they absolutely won't cause any trouble for your factory office."

As she spoke, Director Wang from the Women's Federation grabbed Director Liu and dragged him away from Zhou Zhiqiang's office.

After everyone left, Zhou Zhiqiang shook his head and said, "It's just about allocating a house, yet it's caused so much trouble. I'll have to ask Secretary Li to come up with some rules in a couple of days."

The housing allocation is handled by the housing management department, the labor union, and the factory's Party committee. No one is allowed to plead with any of them; anyone found doing so will be dealt with.

Ding Zhixue, who had watched the whole thing from the side, finally spoke up: "Factory Director, was Director Wang just putting on an act for you?"

"Otherwise what? Who would immediately report on their work after being criticized? And have you ever seen Director Wang argue with our colleagues before?"

Zhou Zhiqiang shook his head and said, "I didn't expect to be angry at first. It was only later that I realized it. I've been at the Second Machine Tool Factory for almost four years, and I've never seen Director Wang get angry with his comrades before."

"Besides, this is such a small matter as borrowing manpower. If you don't want to help, you don't have to. Why make such a fuss about it? I guess Director Liu got provoked. He's using all his cleverness on the factory manager."

After recalling for a moment, Ding Zhixue clapped his hands and said, "That's right, I've never seen Director Wang get angry with his own comrades before."

"Even if she hadn't done that, would Comrade Yu Xiuxiu still have trouble getting a house? I remember this woman; she's a pretty good fitter and works hard."

After hearing Zhou Zhiqiang's words, Ding Zhixue shook his head and said, "Factory Director, it's really hard to say. Comrade Yu Xiuxiu's situation certainly needs care, but there are quite a few people in our factory who need care even more than her."
Besides, there are senior workers too. This time, housing allocation also takes into account seniority and contributions, and many senior workers have been working even harder, which is something Comrade Yu Xiuxiu can't match.

"Besides, this is a house, a place where a family can settle down and make a living."

Ding Zhixue shook his head and said, "It's possible that people will fight over the houses. There might be a lot of fighting during the housing allocation process, and after the housing allocation is announced, there might even be fights due to jealousy."

This is much more valuable than a bicycle or anything like that.

Ding Zhixue casually whispered in Zhou Zhiqiang's ear, "Factory Director, when the housing allocation is announced, you must go and keep things in order. Apart from you, I'm afraid even Secretary Li can't control those workers in our factory."

Zhou Zhiqiang glanced at Ding Zhixue and said, "Don't exaggerate. Let's get down to business. We haven't finished talking about your technical department's tasks yet."

Regarding the bed structure, it's crucial to ensure it doesn't affect the linkage path of the two spindles. Please provide me with a few preliminary plans.

The development time could have been shortened by collecting simulation assistants, but the hardware architecture and multi-process programming required for composite machining CNC machine tools take even longer.

Therefore, Zhou Zhiqiang could only focus on that aspect first, the research and development of the bed frame and internal movement structure. He asked the technical department to try it out and see if they could give him some ideas.

After assigning the tasks, Zhou Zhiqiang told Section Chief Ding to go back to work, and then he also got back to work.

Zhonghaiyuan.

The administrative upgrade of the Second Machine Tool Plant is nearing completion; now it's just a matter of submitting it to the China Ocean Machinery Research Institute for evaluation and discussion.

The Ministry of Machinery Industry has prepared a detailed report. Once the China Ocean Academy's meeting approves it, it will be officially approved to the public.

Whether in terms of production scale, strategic significance, or cadre management capabilities, the Second Machine Tool Plant was the factory under the First Ministry of Machine Building with the greatest potential for administrative upgrading.

It is undoubtedly the largest heavy factory in the country in terms of annual output value, and no one would question that.

The factory will soon have more than 12,000 employees, and there are expansion plans almost every year thereafter.

Even if the ministry does not give the Second Machine Tool Plant a clear investment plan, the Second Machine Tool Plant will still have hundreds of job openings every year.

The increasing production tasks each year forced the Second Machine Tool Plant to expand its workforce; otherwise, if the production tasks increased but the production personnel and machinery did not improve, it would be simply putting people in a difficult position.

If the Second Machine Tool Plant becomes a department-level unit, then future infrastructure investment and equipment procurement will be separately allocated by the State Planning Commission, which will give the First Ministry of Machine Building a breather.

"Distinguished leaders, in accordance with the factory and enterprise upgrading plan and the regulations on state-owned industrial enterprises, we believe that the Second Machine Tool Plant has fully met the standards for a directly affiliated factory at the provincial level as stipulated by the central government."

Therefore, we hope that the leaders will approve the upgrade of the Second Machine Tool Plant's status and provide support in terms of cooperation, finance, and material allocation.

Leader Sheng gave a detailed report to the leaders of the China Ocean Academy on the development of the Second Machine Tool Plant over the years.

There weren't many leaders present at the meeting today. Only two deputy leaders from the specific field came, but all the executive deputy leaders were there, along with the state leaders. That's everyone involved in evaluating the administrative upgrade of the Second Machine Tool Plant.

"In recent years, the Second Machine Tool Plant has indeed developed well, or rather, it has developed rapidly. A few years ago, its annual output value was only over ten million, not even twenty million."

"But this year's output has already approached 200 million, and next year we can steadily guarantee an output value of 250 million. I think it's appropriate to upgrade the Second Machine Tool Plant's level and provide it with financial and material coordination support."

Deputy Leader Gu, who is in charge of foreign economic cooperation, said that he felt the Second Machine Tool Plant could be given better development resources.

It has grown to this point in just a few years. If it received more support from the domestic government, it might become a giant in the field in the future.

"In terms of foreign trade alone, our domestic CNC machine tools have already gained a considerable reputation internationally, and have accounted for nearly 10% of the machine tool market."
This surprised me greatly, considering that the Second Machine Tool Plant has only been around for less than five years.

No one can deny that their outstanding achievements are undeniable.

The Second Machine Tool Plant performed exceptionally well. Although the Ministry of Machine Building had been investing in the Second Machine Tool Plant every year since 1959, and the investment was increasing year by year.

But the Second Machine Tool Plant was like a 'dairy cow king,' eating the 'grass' fed by the First Machine Tool Plant and then continuously producing milk in return.

"The output value is indeed outstanding, but when it comes to the management ability of cadres, I think it is still a bit lacking."

At this point, Deputy Leader Zhao spoke up: "I have examined many people and seen many examples of their management abilities, but a large proportion of those who manage based on emotions are unqualified in my eyes."

"Although Director Zhou Zhiqiang is both politically sound and professionally competent, he is too emotional in his work. You can often see his impulsiveness and willfulness in his actions." "I don't know if you've heard this, but quite a few people here have told me that the housing allocation policy implemented by the Second Machine Tool Factory has caused them a lot of headaches."

Many workers were asking their factory manager, "The Second Machine Tool Factory gets housing, why can't our factory?"

"In terms of hard work, the workers at the Second Machine Tool Plant were indeed very hardworking, but they were no less so."

The same effort yields two different results, which has a very negative impact in our country and under our current system.

"And it's not just this one thing; there are many other instances where emotions are displayed, which I won't comment on one by one."
Regarding the management capabilities of the leading cadres, I don't think the Second Machine Tool Plant has shown much; it's just that the factory's development results are very good.

After a pause, Deputy Leader Zhao continued, "Actually, I think Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang is more suitable to be a technical engineer."

Rather than a factory director position that oversees the entire factory's development—he's currently receiving a technical position's salary, and he's rarely at the factory anyway—it would be more suitable for him to be the chief engineer of the Second Machine Tool Plant.

Upon hearing this, Wu Jianhong from the First Ministry of Machine Building couldn't help but say, "Deputy Leader Zhao, I really can't agree with what you said."

Previously, it was said that Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang, as factory director, liked to make decisions unilaterally and had a tendency to seize power. Now, it's being said that the Second Machine Tool Factory has developed to its current state because Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang hasn't performed well?

"Don't you think these two viewpoints are somewhat contradictory? If Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang hadn't performed well, how did the Second Machine Tool Plant develop to its current state?"

As far as I know, Zhou Zhiqiang spearheaded several process adjustments at the Second Machine Tool Plant; moreover, he personally led the frontline production workers in their efforts to overcome fatigue and achieve nearly four consecutive years of overtime work.

Wu Jianhong paused for a moment before continuing, "This housing construction and allocation was made possible by the hard work of the workers at the Second Machine Tool Factory and the relatively abundant finances of the factory. That's why the factory's Party Committee decided to build and allocate housing."

The ministry has already received the minutes of the Second Machine Tool Plant's Party Committee meeting and has no objections.

The implication is that you shouldn't deliberately nitpick. The factory's Party Committee discussed and approved it, and the Party Committee of the First Ministry of Machine Building approved it. This is impeccable in terms of both democratic process and procedure.

You keep staring at Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang, what are you up to? Do you really think others can't tell?

Sheng Jianhui also spoke up, saying, "Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang is suitable to be the chief engineer and also the factory director. Although he is still young, I have no doubt about his abilities."

If you don't know this comrade, you can look at his file; you can say he hasn't done anything 'out of line'!

Even the instances where the Second Machine Tool Plant disregarded the Party Secretary and wielded excessive power were approved by the Ministry of Machine Building, though no written approval document was kept.

It's unacceptable for those in leadership positions to approve something one minute and then criticize Zhou Zhiqiang the next.

They were the ones who secretly pulled the reins to let Zhou Zhiqiang run away, and then they went and caused trouble for it afterwards—that's just incompetent.

Another executive deputy leader also chimed in, saying, "I think Zhou Zhiqiang is also suitable to be the chief engineer. His abilities in technological research and development are outstanding, and his talent should be fully utilized."

Sheng Jianhui and Wu Jianhong both frowned after hearing what Deputy Leader Chen said.

Can a factory director and a chief engineer be the same? Although if the Second Machine Tool Plant were to become a department-level factory, it would be necessary to have a chief engineer in charge of technology development planning.

However, the chief engineer's power in development was still less than that of the factory director. Sheng Jianhui and Wu Jianhong had no disagreement about Zhou Zhiqiang continuing to control the Second Machine Tool Plant, and both agreed that Zhou Zhiqiang was the most suitable candidate to be the factory director.

As for the chief engineer, someone else can be selected or Zhou Zhiqiang can take on the role concurrently.

"The chief engineer of the Second Machine Tool Plant can be Zhou Zhiqiang, who knows more about machine tool development planning and technical research than anyone else."

Similarly, no one is more suitable than him to develop the Second Machine Tool Plant from a factory with an annual output value of around ten million to one with an annual output value that has increased nearly twentyfold.

Sheng Jianhui said solemnly, "We have high expectations for the development of the Second Machine Tool Plant in the next few years, and even hope that the Second Machine Tool Plant can become an industrial calling card to the outside world."

But what if this industrial brand doesn't develop well, or encounters setbacks during its development? Who will bear the responsibility?

"What if Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang is in the process of development?"

"I'll take responsibility for this!"

At this point, Sheng Jianhui, somewhat agitated, said, "If Comrade Zhou Zhiqiang fails to develop the Second Machine Tool Plant, then I, as its leader, bear direct responsibility!"

"Hey, we're all comrades, why are we getting so angry as we discuss this? This isn't good."

The state leader waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about people anymore. Let's get back to the original issue. Judging from the current scale and future development of the Second Machine Tool Plant, I think it is necessary to upgrade it to a factory at the provincial level."

As for other matters, we cannot use things that haven't happened yet as a standard for judgment; that's not good.

Deputy Leader Gu chimed in, "I agree. Actually, there's not much to judge about this matter. Providing support to the Second Machine Tool Plant right now is the best course of action."

We cannot let this reputation crumble; the development of heavy industry has also greatly benefited foreign trade and diplomacy.

Only after both leaders said this did Sheng Jianhui and Wu Jianhong's expressions improve considerably.

It was inappropriate to skip over the Second Machine Tool Plant and steer the conversation towards Zhou Zhiqiang. Sheng Jianhui now realizes that he has been somewhat drawn into the discussion.

The upgrading of the Second Machine Tool Plant was a perfectly reasonable thing to do; no factory in the country was more qualified than the Second Machine Tool Plant.

Let's talk about the factory. Why are you picking on the factory manager? Besides, Zhou Zhiqiang is doing a good job as the factory manager.

The workers below love us, and the leaders above support us, so what are you nitpicking about?

In any case, Sheng Jianhui and Wu Jianhong's attitude was very clear: they wanted to protect Zhou Zhiqiang, their capable subordinate.

After the meeting at the China Ocean Institute was corrected, the administrative promotion of the Second Machine Tool Plant was quickly approved.

Once the official approval is released, the Second Machine Tool Plant will become a large state-owned factory directly under the central government, at the ministerial level.
(End of this chapter)