Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

After finishing their business, Gao Jianguo left Deputy Factory Director Li's office and headed towards the laboratory.

Gao Jianguo had no objection to the idea of ​​bringing in new people to the research group; on the contrary, he thought it was a good thing.

The initial staff size was indeed determined by Gao Jianguo himself, but there was an unspoken premise—he was a newcomer at the steel rolling mill at the time, with little influence and his words carried little weight, so the staff size he requested was based on "basically enough".

If he starts with a huge project, whether the higher-ups will approve it is another matter. After all, everyone has to spend money, and diverting too many people will affect other work. Besides, if they research for a long time and don't get any results, the bigger the commotion, the more embarrassing it will be. These things will influence the decisions of the department and the factory.

Therefore, Gao Jianguo's initial strategy was to secure the minimum resources first, then let the results speak for themselves, and gradually expand the scale. The current increase in human resources is actually a good thing, since the original manpower was not the most ideal configuration at all.

That being said, the success of this system depends entirely on producing results; if no results are achieved, then it's all for nothing.

Back in the lab, Gao Jianguo greeted everyone, "Once we finish the most urgent tasks, let's take a break and have a short meeting when everyone is free."

When conducting experiments, if someone walks in and immediately tells everyone to stop and say they have something to do, they'll probably be cursed to death by the research team behind their back, and they'll also be laughed at for being clueless—some workflows, once started, can be stopped just like that.

About twenty minutes later, everyone put down what they were doing and gathered together.

Gao Jianguo cleared his throat: "I have good news. The factory and department see that our work is heavy and important, so they've decided to send us a batch of extra staff. They'll arrive this afternoon, so everyone can relax a bit and won't have to work so hard."

He was saying good news, but the research team heard a completely different story – this was a pie-sharing opportunity, and everyone was a little apprehensive.

This is another reason why Gao Jianguo is willing to take on new talent: to introduce some competition and let a few "catfish" (newcomers) in.

When people feel a sense of urgency, they naturally work harder.

As for those who come to have their work gilded but don't do any work? They're dreaming. If you want to gild a copper piece, you have to rinsing it in chemicals, or get a beating, or get an electric shock.

Otherwise, how would that gold leaf be applied?

Those who are willing enter in bronze and leave shining; those who are not willing enter in bronze and leave in bronze as well.

Seeing that everyone was a little hesitant, Gao Jianguo smiled and said, "Don't worry, I understand your concerns. With President Chen and me here, your hard work won't be in vain."

This project is huge; having more people is a good thing.

Those who were in the group from the very beginning absolutely cannot be allowed to suffer losses.

Hearing this, the research team felt relieved. Yes, with these two mentors and apprentices, why worry about anything else? The pie looks pretty big right now, and it seems a waste to have only a few people sharing it. Besides, the workload is really overwhelming, so it's good to have someone lend a hand.

Seeing that everyone had calmed down, Gao Jianguo adjourned the meeting and then called Liang Jianguo back: "Engineer Liang, the test here is running normally, and more people will be joining us soon."

Once everyone has arrived, take some time to devise a repeatability test plan after selecting the positive and negative electrode materials.

After the comparative test is completed and the positive and negative electrode materials are matched, the selected positive and negative electrode materials must be repeatedly tested several times to determine whether the characteristic parameters of different production batches can be reproduced, in order to confirm that the characteristic parameters of the positive and negative electrode material pairing are repeatable and that the degree of overlap meets the standard.

Logically, this step should have been done from the beginning: to directly produce multiple samples of each positive and negative electrode ratio, and conduct repeatability tests along with the verification tests. However, that would have been too costly, and given Gao Jianguo's status, the project would most likely have been rejected.

Gao Jianguo figured that the material ratio had been verified by future practical applications, so he took the approach of directly selecting the positive and negative electrode pairing scheme through comparative experiments, and then conducting repeatability tests on this scheme separately.

Of course, if anyone finds fault with this method, Gao Jianguo's plan also includes a backup test procedure—if the repeatability test of the optimal pair fails, then the second-ranked pair in the comparative test will be used to replace it for the repeatability test, and so on, until the characteristic parameters of the available pairings are so bad that they cannot pass the repeatability test, then we will consider scrapping and starting over.

Ultimately, this project is about taking the answer and completing the process, so Gao Jianguo isn't too worried that the optimal matching solution will backfire.

When Liang Jianguo heard Gao Jianguo's instructions, he not only didn't complain about the heavy workload, but was overjoyed. What did this mean? It meant that I, Old Liang, had been taken under Gao Jianguo's wing.

After informing the existing team members, Gao Jianguo left the laboratory and went to find Lao Chen to get the list of people to be added to the department.

When Old Chen saw him come in, he handed him a piece of paper on the table: "The list is here. If you want to add anyone else to the list, you can decide for yourself."

To be honest, Old Chen couldn't find fault with Gao Jianguo.

Gao Jianguo took the list and went back to his office.

As he passed the desk of the technician who had brought people to him that morning, he called out to him, "Old Xiao, have you been free lately?"

A hint of joy flashed across Xiao Zhiqiang's face. He stood up and said, "So, you've got some free time. Team Leader Gao, what good thing are you thinking of me for?"

Gao Jianguo's expression turned serious: "No good news, just a lot of hard work. Our group is short-handed, but the factory and department are assigning some extra people. Would you like to come?"

Xiao Zhiqiang, beaming, said without the slightest stammer, "Come, come, come!"

Gao Jianguo nodded: "Okay, then we've got the manpower. We'll probably announce it this afternoon."

Gao Jianguo returned to his seat, took out paper and pen, and began to write an application report to increase manpower. Although most of the personnel were decided by others, he was the one who had to do the work.

After the report was written and taken to the laboratory, Jia Dongxu was sent to handle the procedures, while he himself, as usual, stayed in the laboratory working alongside everyone else.

Time flew by and it was already afternoon. The factory gave them the green light all the way, and the procedures were completed very quickly. By 3 p.m., Jia Dongxu had completed all the procedures and also brought over Li, the deputy factory director's nephew who was so excited he couldn't sit still—a second-level lathe operator.

Gao Jianguo asked Xiao Liu to go to the department and invite the people on the list over. Then everyone had a short meeting. At the meeting, in addition to talking about the relevant regulations, Gao Jianguo only insisted on one thing: safety.

High-powered electric furnaces, high temperatures, fitter work, lathe work, metal dust... which of these isn't dangerous? Not to mention that Jia Dongxu, this ticking time bomb, is still here. Contrary to many people's intuition, the most important task of project management is actually safety.

Gao Jianguo's senior in his previous life had suffered a setback in this regard when he was taking the construction engineer exam. He chose quality without thinking and later told Gao Jianguo about it with a regretful look on his face.

After the meeting, Gao Jianguo assigned the new recruits to different groups based on their familiarity with the project. Those with similar or related majors were paired up one-on-one with experienced staff. As for Master Li Guoqiang, he was assigned to Yi Zhonghai.

With everything settled, the well-equipped thermocouple research team resumed full-speed operation.