The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 8: To Improve, You Must Cause Trouble

"Comrades from Group 1, come here for a moment."

After studying the matter for an hour or two, Zhou Zhiqiang quickly came up with an idea and summoned the other technicians to his desk.

"I studied the parts for this batch of production tasks for a while. According to the other party's process requirements, it is not difficult to process them. However, Yituo also said that we can make reasonable process technology optimizations."
Generally, we should use cast iron or carbon steel, but I've looked at a lot of documents and found that parts made from these two materials don't have a long lifespan either.

"So we can temporarily split into two directions. The first direction is to continue using cast iron and carbon steel to complete this batch of production. I will tell you what we need to pay attention to during production and manufacturing later. You should take a look around the workshop."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then took a sip of water and continued.

"On another front, I'd like to see if there are any new breakthroughs in materials and processes. I already have an idea, but whether it can be successfully implemented still needs to be tested."
However, this idea of ​​mine cannot delay production, so I plan to proceed in two directions simultaneously.

After hearing Zhou Zhiqiang's words, the others looked surprised. They exchanged glances but didn't say anything.

"What's wrong? Just say what you want to say. We're all in the same department, and you've all been working here longer than me."

Ping Zhenxuan, a member of the technical department, spoke up: "Zhiqiang, then I'll say it."

Logically, the materials and manufacturing processes should be the responsibility of the steel mills with which we have business dealings; we are only responsible for the mechanical processes.

"You're going to work on materials and processes now, isn't that a bit beyond your scope? What if some problems arise?"

The implication is that he's meddling too much; if things succeed, there's not much benefit, but if they fail, then all the blame falls on him.

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded after hearing this, and then explained to Ping Zhenxuan: "Brother Ping, this time it's just a few parts of agricultural machinery. The dimensions are all fixed, so there's not much room for optimization."

If we want to make changes and improvements, we can only focus on improving the product's lifespan. As for the issue you mentioned, I'm just trying to optimize and improve it without affecting normal production tasks.

They cannot make any changes to the parts; if the parts are changed, does the whole thing need to be changed?

When the factory finds out about the order, they'll definitely bang on the table and yell at us.

The only area where improvement is possible is the lifespan of the materials. While this is beyond their job responsibilities, it's the only area they can work on.

If you do a good job, you'll definitely get credit; it just depends on whether you're confident you can do it well.

Fortunately, Zhou Zhiqiang was confident in this regard.

The more you do, the more mistakes you make, but on the other hand, if you can guarantee 100% accuracy, then doing more is a great achievement.

Ping Zhenxuan shook his head after hearing this and said, "Then I have no problem, as long as it doesn't affect normal production tasks."

"Okay, then I'll talk about the things we need to pay attention to during production."

Zhou Zhiqiang then told them about the things to pay attention to in the production tasks.

Improving materials and processes is no small matter; to be honest, Zhou Zhiqiang, as a technician, doesn't have that much ability.

After he came up with a concrete plan, Section Chief Lü stepped in, found the deputy factory director in charge, and then communicated with the steel mill, which made it possible to realize the plan.

Zhou Zhiqiang felt there was no problem in getting the deputy factory director in charge of the technical department to make a decision.

As long as the technology he presents is convincing enough, Deputy Factory Director Liu, who is in charge of the technical department, will definitely support him, even if it's just for the sake of his father-in-law.

Guo Linhua arranged for Zhou Zhiqiang to come to Dafeng Machinery Factory because the deputy factory director, Liu Fuhua, was his friend, and they had a relatively good relationship.

"Zhiqiang, let's go eat."

"They're here." After a busy morning, when it was lunchtime, the other members of the technical department also grabbed their lunchboxes and prepared to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

Dafeng Machinery Factory has two canteens, each responsible for feeding five to six hundred people.

The taste is the same everywhere, it's edible!

However, it's impossible to eat anything really good with the communal cooking, since the best cooks in the two canteens are only level nine chefs.

In the kitchen, a kitchen helper can be promoted to level 10 after a few years of working with large pots.

However, the factory provides meal tickets as a subsidy, so we can save some money on lunch and don't have to worry about the taste; as long as we're full, that's fine.

After queuing in the cafeteria for a while, Zhou Zhiqiang finally got his turn. He glanced at the cafeteria window, handed over his meal ticket, and said, "Two bowls of mixed noodles, one serving each of cabbage and radish."

"okay."

The staff quickly scooped two spoonfuls of food for Zhou Zhiqiang, making sure the portion was just right.

There's not much oil or fat available now, so if the kitchen staff dare to shake the ladle around, they'll definitely get a scolding from the workers.

There are only a few people in the kitchen, how many workers are there?

No one would dare to do that, at least not at Dafeng Machinery Factory, because the factory director and secretary eat in the canteen, and only someone in the kitchen would be crazy enough to flip the wok.

However, the taste was indeed just average. Zhou Zhiqiang took two bites and found it rather bland.

There was no oil or water, and it looked like not much salt was added either.

However, the portion was quite large, and Zhou Zhiqiang felt full after eating.

After finishing my meal, I washed my lunchbox, then went back to the technical department office to rest for a while. When it was time to start work, I immediately got to work.

After listening to the key points of production, the rest of the technical team went to their respective workshops to assign production tasks.

Zhou Zhiqiang also needs to pay close attention to the direction of the workshop these days. After all, changes in materials and processes cannot be effective in a short time. At this stage, we are still using the old cast iron and carbon steel materials.

This is their most important production task. Only after completing this task can they consider material and process innovation.

It's not that Zhou Zhiqiang insists on doing things outside of his job duties; he has the desire to improve, but he's restricted by the rules and regulations.

If you want to make a contribution, you have to perform beyond what ordinary people do. Besides, he's confident he can do it, so why wouldn't he?

After touring the workshop, Zhou Zhiqiang returned to his office and continued to summarize his material manufacturing process and metal proportions.

He was busy until the end of the workday. Seeing his fellow workers get up and go home on time, he didn't make an exception and worked overtime at the factory.

In those days, staying at the factory to work overtime only increased the workload for the security department; they didn't care at all whether you had tasks to complete.

Anyone who remains in the factory after the designated time, unless they have the aforementioned tasks, is simply causing trouble for their mission, and they will be taken away with them.

"It seems like we don't have many vegetables left at home, and we're out of chili peppers too."

While riding his bicycle, Zhou Zhiqiang suddenly had an idea: he planned to make some chili sauce. The food at the factory was too bland, and he couldn't eat it without chili sauce.

Fortunately, chili peppers are not yet considered essential commodities under the planned economy, and you don't need coupons to buy them. Otherwise, it would be quite a torment for someone like Zhou Zhiqiang who loves spicy food.

(End of this chapter)