Chapter 138 She was absolutely "wronged" for accusing someone of strangling her. ...
In order to complete foreign exchange orders as soon as possible, Feiyan Textile Factory quickly moved in a batch of brand-new imported machines after being allocated by the province. In addition to industrial sewing machines, there were also several imported industrial buttonhole machines.
A buttonhole machine is a machine that makes buttonholes. Before the invention of buttonhole machines, buttonholes were made by hand by female workers, which was very troublesome and time-consuming. With buttonhole machines, buttonholes can be made in just a few seconds.
This type of buttonhole machine is suitable for making button-up garments such as shirts.
When Qin Xiangxiang was a child, there was no such thing as a buttonhole machine. The aunties in the textile factory were all skilled at buttonhole making. She had also learned how to buttonhole. She remembered that among her mother's colleagues, there was a peculiar person who liked to buttonhole to pass the time.
"Director Qin, everyone can pick up industrial sewing machines relatively quickly, but no one really knows how to operate these imported buttonhole machines."
Assistant He: "...Why do we still have buttonhole machines in our factory?"
Qin Xiangxiang sighed: "They were transferred here from the same unit, and they probably want us to try making shirts."
They originally applied for an industrial sewing machine, and a buttonhole machine was given as an extra bonus... I guess you could call that lucky?
Assistant He went to inquire and returned with a beaming smile: "Factory Manager, we've hit the jackpot! Many factories can't even get their hands on industrial sewing machines and buttonhole machines, but thanks to our million-dollar foreign trade orders, they prioritized transferring them to our factory!"
After saying that, Assistant He's tone was somewhat smug; they had cut in line and overtaken others!
Qin Xiangxiang then recalled the phone call from Director Liao and realized the implications: prioritizing the allocation of machines would inevitably offend many people.
However, this is bound to offend people. In the past, when fighting a war, each regimental commander would ask his superiors for guns and cannons, and that was a matter of each person having the ability to do so.
Their factory received an important mission, so they prioritized the allocation of resources, including guns and cannons.
"Factory manager, nobody knows how to use this imported buttonhole machine."
How do you use this thing?
"There's a problem with this buttonhole; it's too narrow here and too wide there."
...
Many people don't know how to operate imported buttonhole machines or adjust their parameters. "They even said they wanted to try making a shirt, but that won't work."
"Can this machine really make buttonholes?"
Assistant He said to Qin Xiangxiang, "The province said they've brought in an eighth-grade sewing worker from the Hongxing Textile Factory to teach how to use the buttonhole machine. In the whole province, only this eighth-grade sewing worker knows how to operate and adjust the imported buttonhole machine."
“I contacted the Hongxing Textile Factory, and they said they were unavailable at the moment and would come next month.”
Upon hearing Assistant He's tone, Qin Xiangxiang immediately sensed something was wrong—someone was trying to trip her up. "Is he too busy or unwilling to come?"
“They used to be the ones ordering industrial sewing machines and buttonhole machines from their factory. If nothing had gone wrong, these buttonhole machines should have gone to their factory. Now they’re unhappy, but there’s nothing we can do. We have to politely invite them over to adjust the machines, otherwise no one will know how to use them, and they’ll just be decorations.”
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Our factory isn't in a hurry to produce shirts right now, so we don't need them for the time being."
"Just because we don't need it for now doesn't mean we'll never need it. If the operator doesn't come, are we just going to leave the machine idle forever?"
"Could they be forcing us to send the machines to the Red Star Textile Factory in this way?"
Assistant He quickly said, "Factory manager, we can't let go of what's already in our mouths. We must keep this imported industrial buttonhole machine."
"Of course we have to keep them!" Qin Xiangxiang thought, how could she let a cooked duck fly away?
With the imported buttonhole machine, making clothes will be much more convenient from now on.
But in the whole province, only that level eight sewing worker knows how to adjust the imported buttonhole machine. He is unwilling to help. Does she have to ask her mother, Zhou Aodong, to see who knows how to adjust the imported buttonhole machine?
...Just thinking about finding her mother, especially something related to textiles and sewing, sent a chill down Qin Xiangxiang's spine; she had a bad feeling.
Especially since Feiyan Textile Factory has received orders worth millions, if she goes to her mother at this time, her mother, Zhou Aodong, will definitely go completely crazy and urge her to complete the target of millions of orders.
Isn't this just pushing yourself into a fire pit?
No, no, that won't do.
Assistant He: "How about we have Master Li and a few others ask if there are any technicians in Shanghai who know how to adjust imported buttonhole machines?"
Qin Xiangxiang: "...Shall I give it a try?"
Assistant He and the others burst into tears of joy: "That's perfect! Factory Director, we can't do without you!"
This imported buttonhole machine is actually quite easy to operate. The main thing is to adjust it to the right parameters, otherwise the buttonhole size will be wrong and it will look strange on the clothes. You can't figure out what parameters are needed for what kind of clothes.
This requires the experience of an old seamstress, and also knowledge of the machines.
Qin Xiang tried to operate it herself. Since she also knew a little foreign language, she figured out the basic operation of the machine by guessing and then started adjusting it to the appropriate speed.
She spent half a day adjusting the parameters, and the buttonholes on the shirt she made were already quite good.
And it's so addictive to play!
"With this machine, buttonholes are so fast!"
"With this buttonhole, making shirts will be much faster!"
"This machine is so fast, is it even possible for humans to live like this?!"
The next day, Qin Xiangxiang personally cut and made a white shirt. Using a buttonhole machine to make buttonholes, she could quickly make a shirt. If industrialized assembly lines were established in the future, with specialized buttonhole machines, the production speed would be much faster.
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Our factory must train its own experienced sewing workers and send a few people to operate the buttonhole machine skillfully."
"The scraps of fabric from the factory are used to practice buttonhole making, to try out different sizes of buttonholes."
"It says on the label that this machine can buttonhole all kinds of fabrics, including silk! It can be used to make suits!"
Different fabric thicknesses and buttonhole sizes require adjusting appropriate parameters, which relies entirely on production experience.
Feiyan Textile Factory currently has no production experience and can only learn by trial and error.
Meanwhile, the Red Star Textile Factory was still complacent, thinking it had the Feiyan Textile Factory under its control.
"What use is this imported buttonhole machine to them? None of them know how to use it!"
The factory director of Hongxing Textile Factory was Zheng Jianguo, who had also been a model worker and had studied in the same batch as Zhou Aodong. He knew about Zhou Aodong and her daughter Qin Xiangxiang. Zheng Jianguo disliked Zhou Aodong from the beginning, thinking that she was a woman and wondered why she thought she was better than a man.
Now Zhou Aodong's daughter has become the factory director and even snatched imported machines from Zheng Jianguo by relying on foreign trade orders. Isn't this a slap in the face to Zheng Jianguo?
Zheng Jianguo had clearly heard before that Zhou Aodong's daughter was completely different from her biological mother, spoiled and arrogant, and had even been lazy at the textile factory. There must be something fishy about how someone like that could become the factory director.
"Director Zheng, don't worry, they won't be able to use any of them without me." The only level eight sewing worker at Hongxing Textile Factory, and the only master craftswoman in the entire factory who can operate an imported buttonhole machine, is 52-year-old Zeng Jinfeng.
What Zheng Jianguo didn't know was that the imported buttonhole machine wasn't that complicated to operate. The reason why only Zeng Jinfeng knew how to operate it was because she was unwilling to train new workers.
When ordinary workers encounter imported machines, they are afraid of damaging them and dare not touch them. In addition, they cannot understand foreign language manuals, so they naturally do not know how to use the machines.
Even if the machine is very simple, I dare not operate it.
Furthermore, Zeng Jinfeng also rigged imported buttonhole machines, such as adding something to the machine oil, causing needles to break or other problems when others operated them—this kind of seasoned veteran has plenty of "technical" ways to tamper with machines.
Adding additives to the sewing machine oil is an old skill of these sewing workers.
As the saying goes, "Teach your apprentice and you'll starve yourself." For older sewing workers like Zeng Jinfeng, the only way to ensure that everyone in the factory treats her like royalty and that she lives a life of luxury is to find a way to control the factory's technical bottlenecks.
Thanks to Zeng Jinfeng's actions, other factory workers, seeing how troublesome it was to import buttonhole machines, dared not apply, which allowed this batch of imported buttonhole machines to fall into the hands of Feiyan Textile Factory.
"The Feiyan Textile Factory is full of greenhorns. What do they know? They don't have any skilled sewing workers at all!"
Upon hearing this, Zheng Jianguo became smug. "Several veteran sewing workers from the factory have said they won't go to support their factory. Let's see if they can complete this million-dollar order and make a laughing stock of themselves!"
Qin Xiangxiang was dumbfounded. She felt like she was questioning her life. "Assistant He, I think this imported buttonhole machine is very easy to operate! Why is it that only an eighth-level sewing worker in other textile factories knows how to operate it?"
Assistant He was also stunned. "Factory manager, this shows that you are capable, and no one else has your operational skills."
Qin Xiangxiang still felt like she had a fishbone stuck in her throat, thinking, "No way?"
Is she really a textile genius?
"Director Qin, I heard that none of the veteran sewing workers are willing to come and help. Will your production be delayed? We can still spare two people in our factory." Director Liao felt sorry for Qin Xiangxiang when he learned about this. Even the leaders couldn't help with the issue of the veteran sewing workers holding them back.
Many senior skilled workers in factories, especially older ones like Zeng Jinfeng, have more airs than the factory manager and the manager has to beg them to do work.
It's not that the factory manager is controlling the senior technicians, but rather that the senior technicians are controlling the factory manager. They earn more than the factory manager and have more seniority, so they can't be ordered around.
Qin Xiangxiang was stunned for a moment: "Fortunately, we haven't encountered any technical problems yet..."
What technical difficulties could they possibly encounter? They're just making a regular T-shirt. Aside from putting some extra effort into the collar to prevent the round neck from flopping, there aren't any other major problems.
From God's perspective, Feiyan Textile Factory's advantage at this time was that there were no old sewing workers who relied on their seniority to manipulate the machines and cause trouble.
Their textile factory didn't have a garment workshop set up from the beginning, and it was a makeshift operation that was put together, which resulted in a lack of experienced sewing workers.
This time, they received a large order, but the veteran sewing workers were unwilling to come and help. So Qin Xiangxiang and the others figured it out on their own and quickly learned how to operate the industrial machines.
These industrial machines are designed to serve production; once you learn how to use them, they will only become simpler and more efficient.
Factory Director Liao: "??????!!!"
He said incredulously, "Director Qin, have the people in your factory really learned how to operate imported buttonhole machines? You don't have any level eight sewing workers!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "Yes, I did it myself. I took the lead in trying it..."
She thought this imported buttonhole machine was really easy to operate...
Liao Shoucheng: "Director Qin, are you really a genius??"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
There's something fishy going on here! She's definitely been "wrongly accused".
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