The second deputy director of the fifth workshop was announced the following day.
His previous position was as an organization cadre in the factory's Party Committee, responsible for some work related to Party affairs. For example, he assisted leaders in organizing Party life meetings, writing research reports, etc., and had basic management experience.
The second deputy director, Hong Mingliang, was in his thirties, not very tall, and wore black-rimmed glasses, giving him a refined appearance. He was wearing a polyester short-sleeved shirt, navy blue work pants, and his leather shoes were polished to a shine.
He arrived at the fifth workshop, where the deputy director position was merely a nominal one; the real power lay with the fifth workshop's Party branch secretary.
Don't think that the workshop director has a lot of power. Don't forget the policy: everything is under the command of the Party.
Whether it's guns or enterprises, everything is within the scope of policy.
The factory leaders' intentions were clear: Xing Baohua was in charge of research and development and production, focusing on the overall direction; Hou Liwei was responsible for supporting work and system-related matters; and the second director was the one who truly managed the people.
If Xing Baohua isn't promoted to director, research and development and production will definitely be delayed. There are too many backstabbing and sabotage attempts; a single signature or approval can completely halt the production schedule.
In order to start production as soon as possible, Factory Director Li was willing to take risks.
This is a risky move. Despite the current prosperity of the machinery factory, internal crises and problems have already emerged.
Besides him, how many others care about these issues?
If higher authorities don't allocate funds, lower levels can't collect them. Even the largest companies can't withstand the drain on funds; the larger the company, the faster it depletes.
If there are no major new projects, the municipal machinery factory will be in trouble within three years.
It will gradually become like the factory next door.
He has six years left until retirement. Before he passes away, he wants to do something for the factory. First, to find a breakthrough point; second, to provide more housing for the factory's employees.
The breakthrough point has been found, and the house is not far away.
The infrastructure department was also working overtime to meet the deadline. The factory's R&D department was also designing the production line. Although Xing Baohua had joined the production line design team, nobody paid him any attention.
Don't let Xing Baohua's design of the calculator and his position as a director fool you. The R&D department is an independent department, and there are only a handful of people who can manage it.
As for Xing Baohua, who does he even count for? They don't even notify him when they hold meetings to study blueprints.
Xing Baohua didn't care about these things; they were a group of people he couldn't afford to offend.
They can't go home anymore; people come every day, even relatives they haven't seen in years. All they want is for Xing Baohua to get them a job at the factory.
Let alone permanent employees, even temporary workers are restricted in the factory. Of the fifty permanent employee slots available, Xing Baohua only made Liu Quan and Xu Shuai permanent.
They then gave Xu Shuai's temporary worker position to a relative. Factory jobs aren't easy to get; it's a one-person-one-position system.
Zhao Shanhai, who works at Factory No. 4, is in big trouble again.
He had hoped that the speakers he produced would become best-selling products. He took the products and visited several shopping malls and supply and marketing cooperatives throughout the city.
Upon hearing that it was from Factory No. 4, formerly Factory No. 138, they decided to show it to them and let them examine the products. Zhao Shanhai had praised the quality highly. Upon opening the package, the appearance was indeed impressive.
I tried them out in the room, and they were alright. The price wasn't expensive, but it wasn't cheap either; fifty-eight yuan for a pair of speakers.
They each ordered twenty sets, and would pay after the goods were sold. These were all high-level suppliers; when you delivered the goods, the supplier had to call you "sir," and when you asked for payment, you had to call them "sir" even more.
Zhao Shanhai produced a total of 127 sets, but one set was stolen. He never even calculated how high the cost of his production was.
They always assumed production costs were very low. Production only stopped when the generator ran out of its reserve oil.
He was still thinking of selling some to buy oil for electricity to continue production. The factory was without power and water, and he knew who was responsible. He didn't plead with them, but chose to grit his teeth and persevere. The product was back in production; surely spring wouldn't be far behind?
Unexpectedly, a few days later, the shopping mall and the supply and marketing cooperative notified him to return the goods and bring them back.
Zhao Shanhai hurriedly went over to find out what was going on. The purchasing manager led him to the counter and personally played the recording for him.
At first, Zhao Shanhai thought it was a quality issue. He was puzzled because he had personally tested every product, and they all made the same sound.
The speaker does produce sound, but it's very low. Especially with the chaotic background noise in the mall, the speaker's sound is completely masked.
The speakers don't have a built-in tuning feature; the volume is entirely controlled by the player's volume knob.
Even if I turn the player volume up to the maximum, it doesn't make much difference; the volume remains the same.
Zhao Shanhai was dumbfounded; his goods were returned just like that.
He couldn't understand why the speaker's volume had suddenly decreased. It was perfectly fine when he tested it. The product was returned, and he was now penniless.
At this point, someone stepped forward to buy his goods.
The buyer was introduced by the supply and marketing cooperative and came from the south.
This delighted Zhao Shanhai. After testing the equipment, they negotiated a price with him: 15 yuan per set, cash only.
The price was driven down to an extremely low level. Zhao Shanhai was furious. How was this any different from robbery?
The purchasing agent wasn't angry. Before leaving, he left a guesthouse's phone number, saying that if they wanted to sell, they could just call that number and ask for Li Baogui.
Zhao Shanhai was really worried! He didn't have much of the borrowed money left. He was supposed to pay wages in a few days, but he didn't even have that money. Life was also difficult; there were power and water outages. Water was manageable, though, since the water supply in the residential compound was still running.
That evening, he heard from others that the loudspeakers produced by Factory No. 4 had quality problems and had all been returned.
In this era, products rely on word-of-mouth. If your reputation is bad, people around you won't buy from you.
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