The Troubles of Happiness

"Sorry, sir, there are no vehicles in stock. If you place an order now, it will take about half a month before we can manufacture and deliver it."

At a Jiuzhou Automobile dealership, a salesperson helplessly explained the situation to an Old Man in his seventies.

Hearing that he could not pick up the car soon, the Old Man looked deeply disappointed. "Oh, how did this happen? When I came by a couple of days ago, you said I'd only need to wait a day or two."

The salesperson explained at length, "Our product is high quality, so naturally sales are excellent. The factory's daily production schedule is completely full.

Recently, there have simply been too many orders, and production hasn't been able to keep up.

That also proves that this car is truly worth the money. Everyone recognizes its value. Would you like to place an order first? The earlier you order, the sooner you can pick it up. We deliver according to the order sequence."

"I see..." After hesitating for a while, the Old Man finally gritted his teeth and said, "All right, I'll order one first!"

After saying that, he sighed. "Sigh, looks like I can only ride in Old Li's car to go fishing for the next few days."

"Still, if it's only ten-odd days, I can get the car before the New Year. There'll be plenty of occasions to use it then." Following the salesperson, the Old Man paid and placed his order.

Ten days had passed since Jiuzhou Mini first went on sale.

During those ten days, sales had been very good.

At first, many people still had reservations, but as the first batch of adventurous buyers emerged, Jiuzhou Mini was accepted by more and more people.

The product quality was excellent, and it was light and easy to drive. It greatly improved life for families that had previously lacked a car, especially elderly people.

Having a car and not having one truly meant two completely different qualities of life!

Even at an advanced age, people still had transportation needs.

Moreover, the Jiuzhou Mini was not expensive. Many retired old men could easily afford one, which led to Jiuzhou Mini becoming increasingly popular.

Especially over the past two days, families coming in to order cars had arrived in an endless stream.

In just half a day today, more than forty vehicles had already been ordered, with sixty within reach!

The inability to pick up their cars quickly disappointed many consumers, but there was no way around it. At present, Jiuzhou Automobile was the only store in the city selling Old Man Happy vehicles.

They could only place their orders as early as possible and hope to receive their cars sooner later on.

"Can we pick up the car before the New Year?" A middle-aged man in his fifties, who had come with his wife to buy a car, asked Ji Shenghai, the Sales Department manager.

"If you place an order now, you'll need to wait around ten days before picking it up," Ji Shenghai replied.

The middle-aged man's wife did some quick calculations. "There are still twenty-five days until the New Year, so there shouldn't be a problem."

After saying that, she looked at her husband. "We have to buy this car. I don't want to ride motorcycles anymore. It's too cold."

The middle-aged man nodded. "At this price and quality, with no license plate required, there's no other choice. We've driven Zhong Dayou's car before, and it's very convenient to use."

"They'll teach us how to drive when we buy a Jiuzhou Mini. We'll both go then, and I'll learn too!"

"This car is much easier to drive than those manual-transmission cars. As for automatic cars, even decent ones cost over a hundred thousand, and we'd have to spend money getting a driver's license ourselves..."

"Then let's order it!"

After a brief discussion with his wife, the middle-aged man pulled out his bulging wallet.

"The deposit is two thousand yuan, right? Here's the cash!"

After signing another contract, Ji Shenghai smiled broadly as he saw the couple out of the dealership and promised to notify them immediately once their vehicle was produced.

After returning inside, he looked around the Jiuzhou Automobile dealership at people viewing cars, taking test rides and test drives, and entire families coming in to order vehicles.

Ji Shenghai rubbed his brow in frustration.

"This won't do. Sales have been getting better and better these past two days. At this rate, in another two days, production scheduling will be pushed back more than a month!"

"If the wait is too long, some customers may turn around and look for other vehicles of the same type."

"Compared with other Old Man Happy products, Jiuzhou Mini is manufactured according to automotive production processes. Its quality is better, and its batteries and motors use components from major brands. It has many advantages."

"But if customers can't get a car for a long time, all of that is meaningless. They could very well turn around and go to the provincial capital to buy lower-quality products of the same type."

"It's not just the customers who are anxious. We salespeople are anxious too!

Such a huge untapped market, so many sales, and ever-increasing commissions—every salesperson under me is fired up and wants to challenge themselves to earn over ten thousand a month!

We can't let production capacity limit our performance!"

With that thought, Ji Shenghai stopped hesitating and called the factory director.

Once the call connected, he launched into a rapid report.

"Boss, we've already taken orders for forty-six Jiuzhou Minis today!

That's fifteen more than yesterday's full-day sales, and twenty-six more than the day before!

And it's only a little past midday. We're expected to break through sixty vehicles by closing time."

From the receiver came Xu Yifan's calm young voice. "Sales data has really exploded over the past two days. You've done very well!"

Ji Shenghai explained in detail, "A large part of the sales surge came from existing customers bringing in new ones. After using the cars for a while, they were very satisfied with our products and recommended them to their friends.

And with the New Year approaching, it's also peak season for vehicle sales."

Then Ji Shenghai shifted the topic.

"Most customers have remained fairly calm about the long pickup times, but a small number have become somewhat impatient.

That's with waits of just over ten days. If the waiting period gets too long, we could lose a large number of customers.

At the factory's current production rate of twenty-odd vehicles a day, the orders from this sales surge will have to be delivered after the New Year within a few days.

Many customers may not be willing to wait that long, and it would also be extremely detrimental to the company's efforts to capture market share.

The market is right there. If we don't take it, other companies with similar products will eventually come and take our market from us."

Finally, Ji Shenghai voiced his own opinion. "The factory's production capacity needs to be increased!"

Xu Yifan thought for a moment before replying, "The Sales Department has done very well. Everyone has worked hard. I'll treat everyone to a meal in a couple of days, and I'll consider giving everyone a big red envelope at the end of the year."

After a brief pause, he added, "As for increasing production capacity, I'll handle it as soon as possible."

Ji Shenghai was somewhat anxious and spoke again. "Boss, the factory's production capacity must be increased as soon as possible. Based on our follow-up visits and the market response we've observed, things are looking very good.

Conservatively speaking, there are around five thousand potential customer households in this city. At most, there could be around ten thousand.

At the current capacity, it would take a year to meet this city's demand alone.

There are nearby cities, the provincial capital, and even the huge untapped market across the country waiting for us to develop!

There are products similar to ours on the market, but the vast majority still differ from us in certain ways.

Our price is somewhat higher, but our product quality is better. That will distinguish us from other products, and consumers also have demand for better products."

"You don't need to worry yet. I'll find a way to increase production capacity as soon as possible."

After they spoke for a few more moments, the call ended.

Leaning back in his executive chair, Xu Yifan sighed.

"To think I'd run into such a happy problem as insufficient production capacity. But it also proves that our product is truly well suited to this market.

My judgment was good. Rather than directly competing in a market filled with Joint Venture models,

it would be better to switch tracks and focus on an area that still isn't taken seriously."

After being pleased for a moment, he remembered the issue before him. Increasing production capacity is still difficult right now. I need to think of a solution.

After more than ten days of adjustment, the hundred or so workers on the production line had gone from stumbling along at the start, needing to consult veteran workers for many problems before they could proceed,

to now being basically able to complete their respective tasks proficiently. Daily output had also risen from around ten vehicles to more than twenty.

The improvement had been enormous!

However, to get the production line running at full capacity and produce more than thirty vehicles a day would still require another ten days to half a month.

And even a daily capacity of over thirty vehicles would not be enough for the current fifty or sixty daily orders.

"My head hurts. How am I supposed to solve the production capacity problem?" Xu Yifan scratched his head.

"And just as the sales manager said, a mere fifth-tier city has already consumed most of the factory's capacity. How can we talk about expansion and capturing this untapped market?

Not expanding and simply watching the entire market be seized by other similar factories that emerge later is impossible.

Such a huge market, such a blue ocean—how could I just throw it away? What a waste that would be."

After thinking for a long while, Xu Yifan came up with several unreliable ideas.

"Should I lower the production quality standards?"

"If I only made low-quality Old Man Happy products, I could quickly produce more vehicles."

"I could customize some steel frames, hire a few workers to weld them together, then spray on some paint. There would be no need for anything too complicated to make an Old Man Happy. This was also how most Old Man Happy manufacturers would operate in the future.

A dozen or so workers could even complete the production and sales for an Old Man Happy brand. The factory would be in the back, and the storefront would be in the front."

Shaking his head, Xu Yifan dismissed the idea. "No, that won't work. Product quality must be strictly controlled.

We're already making Old Man Happy vehicles. If the quality is poor too, the company's reputation will be completely ruined."

"If quality can't be lowered, then what about outsourcing production?"

Xu Yifan then thought of another method.

Finding someone to manufacture on contract was also a common solution many hugely successful brands used later to increase production capacity.

"With high quality requirements, I could only find companies capable of manufacturing cars and give up part of the profit for contract production."

After thinking about it, Xu Yifan shook his head again.

"Contract manufacturing won't work either. Jiuzhou Automobile doesn't yet have its own core technology."

"Although we've registered an exterior patent for the Jiuzhou Mini, it would still be easy to imitate just by changing the shell.

For now, we've only sold a little over a hundred units in a small city, so it's understandable that those major companies haven't noticed us."

But if he really went to someone's door seeking contract manufacturing, those factories would take one look.

"Hey, this seems pretty profitable. They might all rush into this field. How could we compete then with those major domestic manufacturers that have much greater production capacity?"

"In the end, Jiuzhou Automobile could only become an obscure little factory, with some influence in nearby cities but no name recognition nationwide."

"If contract manufacturing won't work, then what about buying a new production line?"

"Even the company's current outdated production line would cost at least twenty or thirty million yuan to purchase. A mainstream automotive production line today could cost hundreds of millions or even billions."

Xu Yifan shook his head again.

"That won't work either. Not to mention that the factory doesn't have that much money right now, even if I could get my dad to invest.

According to our earlier agreement, he only has a little over thirty million yuan for me to squander.

If that money is used to buy a new production line, the company will have no money left to develop."

Unable to think of a solution, Xu Yifan sighed. He simply got up and headed out toward the production workshop.