The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 276 Building Connections and Creating Success

After news of Secretary Li's incident spread, some of the factory's cadres took time to visit him in the hospital.

After all, Li Younian is still a party official in the factory, and even if Zhou Zhiqiang has temporarily taken over the responsibilities of a party official, he has not been formally appointed.

He called to inquire, and Director Ren told him that the Party Committee of the Ministry had submitted the proposal, but there was some debate at the higher levels, so it was temporarily shelved.

Let it be shelved. In any case, during the shelving period, Li Younian will still be a party official of Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory, while Zhou Zhiqiang will continue to temporarily control all the power in the factory.

It would be best to postpone it until the end of the year, so that Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory can achieve better and better results and everything in the factory can flourish.

What reasons do others have for opposing Zhou Zhiqiang holding two positions?
Zhou Zhiqiang is now basically shuttling between two places. Today he is in the branch factory leading project research and development and designing and manufacturing integrated CNC systems; tomorrow he will return to the main factory to handle all the affairs within the factory.

Documents that used to be sent to Secretary Li are now being sent to Zhou Zhiqiang's office. Unfortunately, Zhou Zhiqiang can't show any dislike or anything like that, because if someone finds out, it will be another point that can be used to attack him.

In fact, if Zhou Zhiqiang messes things up, no one will benefit in the end.

CNC machine tools need to be constantly updated and replaced to maintain technological leadership, and a single CNC machine tool involves many fields.

In other words, Zhou Zhiqiang has the ability to collect and analyze data, continuously overcome the difficulties in research and development, and solve problems, which is why China has been able to surpass Xiaomi and catch up with Amazon in the field of CNC machine tools.

But what if Zhou Zhiqiang abandons his responsibilities and someone else takes over?
I'm afraid that in less than five years, we'll be overtaken by the average person.

The research and development capabilities of Xiao Rizi are so impressive that even Amei takes them seriously and ultimately needs to use a 'powerful fist' to punish them.

If we leave the small-scale manufacturing sector unattended and allow it to continue developing, it could truly overwhelm many Western manufacturing powerhouses.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang's abrupt refusal to cooperate was somewhat petty and irresponsible.

With so many leaders in the Ministry of Machine Building taking care of him and trying their best to help him, Zhou Zhiqiang absolutely could not threaten to strike at this time. There was no reason or justification for it.

Now, the leaders Sheng and Wu of the First Ministry of Machine Building clearly see that Jiuzhou Machine Tool Plant can do without others, but it cannot do without a leader to take the lead. Without a leader, it cannot move forward.

After the start of summer, when production and processing were being carried out in the workshop, the surroundings became quite stuffy and hot, making it a little unbearable.

Temperatures are gradually rising in Beijing, and people are switching to short-sleeved shirts. But the workers busy in the factories have to endure the heat.

This is how it's done every year. After June arrives, the factory has the canteen boil a pot of mung bean water every day and then deliver a bucket to each workshop.

One bucket in the morning and one bucket in the afternoon, which is barely enough for all the workers to have a cup of water, but it's better than nothing.

After entering June, Zhou Zhiqiang stayed at the main factory.

The integrated CNC system for the composite machining CNC machine tool has been designed and manufactured, and after testing, its performance has been improved by about 40% compared with the previous generation of CNC machine tool systems.

To overcome the challenge of real-time synchronization across multiple channels, and while also gathering data from the simulation assistant to calculate other technologies, Zhou Zhiqiang spent a long time devising a time-slice polling scheduling architecture that ensured accurate phase synchronization between the milling spindle and the rotary console.
This one problem took Zhou Zhiqiang a lot of effort, and it took him several days to figure it out.

After the CNC system was tested, it was sent back to the main factory for joint debugging and assembly testing.

The final assembly workshop has been busy since yesterday. This system integration and whole machine testing is different from the previous CNC machine tools. The requirement of composite machining has increased the overall difficulty considerably.

Zhou Zhiqiang is also in the final assembly workshop, but he is quite confident.

Before assembling the CNC machine, he had already reviewed all the drawings, and the test results were the same as expected, so there shouldn't be any major problems.

"Director Zhou."

Director Chen from the Beijing Institute of Technology approached Zhou Zhiqiang and asked, "You don't seem worried about anything going wrong at all; you look much more relaxed than us."

"We've already done the experiments, and I've seen the results of the previous simulations, so there's nothing to worry about."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, "If there were any problems, I would have ruled them out during my previous check-up, so there are definitely no problems."

"Yes, you're right."

After Director Chen finished speaking, he lowered his voice slightly so that only the two of them could hear him: "Director Zhou, how did my student perform?"

"Who is it? You mean Zhao Qianbao? He's really good." Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "He's diligent and hardworking, and he's also quite clever and perceptive. I think he'll be graduating soon?"

"Yes, they'll be assigned soon. Xiao Zhao also has a mechanical engineering background, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, he'll be assigned to Director Zhou's machine tool factory."

"What else is there to say? Zhao Qianbao is also my junior."

Upon hearing Director Chen's words, Zhou Zhiqiang realized the purpose of his whispered conversation: to pull strings and give his student preferential treatment.

It's estimated that Zhao Qianbao was a student he valued highly, and Zhou Zhiqiang, the college student, also remembered him; he was indeed quite good.

He was praised for his keen eye because he graduated from the same university as Zhou Zhiqiang, but he never tried to curry favor with outsiders and always addressed Zhou Zhiqiang as "Director Zhou" respectfully.

Only when you privately ask him questions about mechanical motion would you call him "Senior Zhou Zhiqiang" or something similar.

As for Director Chen Guodong's request to pull strings, Zhou Zhiqiang had no aversion to it.

Guo Linhua had previously helped him pull strings, running errands for him and asking Liu Fuhua for favors so that he could get things done smoothly at Dafeng Factory.

If you have the ability, it's no problem to give them some preferential treatment.

"Don't worry, Director Chen. After Zhao Qianbao comes in, I'll have Section Chief Ding mentor him, and then we'll see how he performs."

If he performs well, the position of deputy section chief shouldn't be too difficult for him.

Upon hearing this, Director Chen smiled and said, "Hehe, then thank you very much, Factory Director Zhou."

Not long after Zhou Zhiqiang and Director Chen finished their conversation, the assembly of the composite machining CNC machine tool was completed.

The factory's technicians checked every single part thoroughly, going back and forth twice to ensure there were no mistakes or omissions before they dared to report it.

"Director."

Ding Zhixue, unable to contain his excitement, approached Zhou Zhiqiang and reported, "The inspection is complete, the assembly is correct, and we can proceed to the next stage."

"Let's begin then, Section Chief Ding. This isn't the first time."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, "We've succeeded so many times, what's there to be afraid of? Let's start empty-plane transport."

"Row!"

Upon hearing this, Ding Zhixue immediately announced, "The composite machining CNC machine tool is ready to start!"

The atmosphere in the final assembly workshop froze for a moment, then was replaced by the hum of precision machinery.

The multi-functional CNC machine tool started operating after being powered on, and the CNC machining program had been pre-set. Everyone immediately saw the milling spindle and the rotary control console start up perfectly in sync.
However, this was just the perfect synchronized startup that the surrounding technicians imagined.

The no-load run is mainly to check if it can start smoothly. If it can start smoothly now, the next step is to check the actual processing effect.

After running for a while without finding any problems, Ding Zhixue immediately shouted, "Stop the machine and put the workpiece in."

The technicians then stopped the composite machining CNC machine tool, took a semi-finished workpiece, and placed it on the machining table inside the machine tool.

As the machine started running again, a sharp cutting sound also rang out.

The project team technicians around them were practically craning their necks to watch the composite CNC machine tool process the parts.

Ten minutes later, the mechanical shaft came to a smooth stop.

The technician operating the machine tool immediately stepped forward, carefully removed the finished workpiece, and handed it to Ding Zhixue.

Ding Zhixue then brought the workpiece to Zhou Zhiqiang and said excitedly, "Factory Director, the processing is complete! Our machine tool manufacturing is a success again!"

Zhou Zhiqiang laughed and said, "Haha, why don't you measure the accuracy of the data before making an announcement, Section Chief Ding?"

(End of this chapter)