The factory manager's surname is Yu, and his given name is Ziqiang.
He was a middle-aged man in his early fifties with a stocky build. To welcome the high-ranking leader from the capital, he specially brought out his most treasured dark blue Zhongshan suit!
The collar was buttoned up meticulously.
I prepared very seriously.
But his hands were unconsciously rubbing together, and his eyes were full of fear.
Because the leaders of the capital suddenly came to take over their Red Star Garment Factory, saying that it would be used as a pilot project, and the person who came to take over was Chen Qing.
A renowned figure in the fashion industry.
He hoped that Chen Qing could manage the garment factory well, but he was also afraid that Chen Qing might misbehave.
He had heard that Chen Qing dealt with his unsatisfactory subordinates swiftly and decisively.
He was afraid that Chen Qing, as a director and former director of a large factory with tens of thousands of employees, would look down on him, a small factory director, and would fire him.
The factory manager of Hongxing Garment Factory, although only a small factory manager, was the highest position he could reach.
Chen Qing traveled from the capital of Sichuan Province to Hongxing Machinery Factory, a journey that took two full days. The last day was mostly spent on mountain roads, which were not only mountainous but also extremely bumpy. She had originally intended to take good care of everyone, but unfortunately, her body was not cooperating, and she vomited so much that she felt dizzy and disoriented. In the end, she vomited only water.
When she got off the bus, she was helped by two female classmates; she was in a very sorry state.
Chen Qing: "..."
This is really not the scene I wanted.
Yu Ziqiang looked at the group of young people and locked his gaze on Chen Qing. Putting aside her current sickly beauty, he had seen her flamboyant appearance many times in the newspapers: "Director Chen, are you alright?"
Chen Qingqiang forced himself to say, "I'm sorry, due to my health, I can only come back for the inspection tomorrow. I apologize for taking up your time."
"No, no, your health is the most important thing. Do you need to get some glucose to replenish your energy?"
"Yes, I will."
Chen Qing felt that she was really not good enough anymore.
On his first day at the Hongxing Garment Factory, Chen Qing was severely depleted and developed a high fever that night. Fortunately, he regained his senses and was able to speak normally. So, after finishing his IV drip, Chen Qing went straight to the Hongxing Garment Factory without further delay.
Chen Qingxian introduced to Director Yu: "These are all students from Tsinghua University. More than a hundred comrades will come to learn from them later. Don't worry, I will make the arrangements. There's no need to be nervous."
Yu Ziqiang readily agreed: "Director, would you like to go and take a look at the workshop?"
"good."
Upon arriving at the workshop, Chen Qing encountered the most basic problem – electricity.
Even the lights at Hongxing Garment Factory, a company in the textile industry, weren't bright enough.
"Could we install a few more glass windows? At least to make the light a bit brighter."
"This is not easy to do, because it is very difficult for us to obtain glass quotas here."
"I see." Chen Qing told Secretary Zhang to make a note of it.
As for electricity...
Laying electrical wires is a huge undertaking.
Meanwhile, the factory workers were all secretly watching Chen Qing. They had all heard that this was Chen Qing, and they had also heard about who Chen Qing was. She was a very powerful woman who was now the director and was using their factory as a pilot project.
An official in the capital.
Instead of staying in the capital properly.
Those who came to this remote and impoverished place, I wonder if they had been demoted.
Regardless, no one dared to discuss her affairs in front of Chen Qing.
Chen Qing stepped forward and carefully observed the workers' operations.
The workshop was dimly lit, and many female workers had to press their faces almost against the sewing machine needle plate to see the lines. Over time, their eyes and backs suffered.
After making his way around, Chen Qing noticed the specific problems even more.
Like a middle-aged female worker in front of her, who had to laboriously lift a stack of cut fabric from a large bamboo basket at her feet and move it onto the machine.
The movements were very strenuous.
The handling of raw materials and semi-finished products in the workshop relies entirely on manual labor, carrying them by hand and shoulder.
The layout of the production line is very unreasonable.
The cutting area and the garment production area are too far apart. Workers have to walk back and forth in the workshop, which is not only time-consuming, but also makes it difficult to keep warm.
Chen Qing frowned more and more, and his head was spinning. He quickly took out his water bottle to drink some water to calm down, and then went to the toilet.
It would have been better if he hadn't gone to the toilet, but once he did, Chen Qing realized that things couldn't be delayed any longer!
The toilet is more than 100 meters away from the workshop!
Chen Qing was shocked and asked the female worker who had brought her there, "Do you go to the toilet often?"
The young female worker, fearing that she would be scolded by a senior manager, quickly said, "It's not much. It's cold, so we're all holding it in. We'll line up to use the toilet after get off work. Don't worry, our factory manager is a good manager, and we are very hardworking."
Chen Qing gave an awkward laugh.
She always demanded that her employees be diligent.
But she wasn't a pervert.
Holding it in all the time is really bad for your health.
Chen Qing did not criticize it. After returning to the factory, he took Secretary Zhang's notebook and added the toilet item himself.
Afterwards, she convened a meeting with the factory's team leaders and key technical personnel in a corner of the workshop. She got straight to the point: "Director Yu, fellow workers and colleagues, I've looked around and it's not easy for you all to persist in production under these conditions. Our pilot project's first step is not to make everyone work more immediately, but to improve our working environment so that everyone can work more comfortably and efficiently."
Everyone clasped their hands together in front of them.
Their expressions were the same blank stare.
Improve the environment?
Where did the money come from?
Moreover, the newspapers won't say much more; as working people, we must know how to endure hardship.
Seeing their expressions, Chen Qing decided not to discuss it further and would do it himself first.
“I’ll try to coordinate the glass specifications, but that will take time. Right now, can we do it ourselves? Look at the windows covered with newspapers. Can we remove all the old newspapers and replace them with light-transmitting agricultural plastic film? That’s much easier to coordinate. Then we can fix it with thumbtacks. It will be windproof and the light transmittance will be much better than newspapers. Also, we can paint the inside walls of all the windows with white lime to enhance reflectivity. On the left side of each sewing machine, we can make a simple, adjustable reflector using scrap iron and wire to concentrate the natural light from outside onto the needle tip area. Masters, what do you think? Is this method feasible?”
The experienced workers nodded blankly.
Deep down, everyone felt the same way: she's a leader who truly gets things done.
Even the solutions they came up with were not grandiose or impractical.
After inquiring about everyone's professions, Chen Qing selected two people to carry out the task on the spot. Next, he addressed the issue of the laborious moving: "Let's ask the carpentry team to get started immediately and use the existing scrap wood and bearings in the factory to make twenty simple flatbed handcarts."
A fixed passageway was planned between the cutting area and the sewing area, and trolleys were used instead of carrying things by hand.
Then, together with the production manager and team leaders, we will draw up a layout diagram of the existing equipment this afternoon.
Based on the garment manufacturing process, we redesigned the arrangement of machines and workstations, aiming to shorten the distance the cut pieces travel by at least one-third and reduce unnecessary movement.
This adjustment will be completed by the end of this week.
Yu Ziqiang, the workshop director, and the production manager quickly nodded. (End of Chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com