Burning Money, Burning Money!

Jiuzhou Automobile Factory, factory director's office.

The game character wandered aimlessly around the map on the computer screen, but Xu Yifan's mind was hardly on the game.

Everything in the factory was now proceeding in an orderly fashion. With a large injection of funds, product development was advancing rapidly as well.

More than a month ago, the product had completed all its tests and entered the mass-production stage. Once the production line was properly adjusted, manufacturing could begin.

Actually, if they did not hold themselves to such high quality standards, the current model could already be mass-produced and sold.

It would still be far better than the vast majority of similar electric four-wheeled Old Man Happies!

The previous vehicle made by Jiuzhou Automobile Factory did not count. Since they had decided to make something of themselves in the automotive industry, they had to be serious and responsible with every product from now on.

Aside from the core three-electric system, this product had achieved nearly the best possible standards in both materials and manufacturing processes.

"The battery uses Chaowei Lead-Acid Batteries, with a battery voltage of 96V. The low-end version has a capacity of 60AH and a range of around eighty kilometers. The mid-range version has an 80AH battery and a range of around 125 kilometers. The high-end version has 100AH and a range of around 150 kilometers. There is also a top-end version with 150AH and a range of around two hundred kilometers.

"All configurations use a Doctor 4kw motor, with a maximum speed of forty-five kilometers per hour. The controller is a Gaobiao sine-wave controller."

"A weakened three-electric-system version of the Wuling Hongguang Mini, but it is definitely stronger than ninety-nine percent of Old Man Happies."

"Only by ensuring product quality can we leave a good impression in the minds of more consumers.

"It will pave the way for our future true new-energy vehicle products."

Of course, under such strict standards, money was truly being burned.

Even with the blueprints and some guidance Xu Yifan had provided from his memories, they had pushed the product's mass-production progress to ninety-nine percent. Yet that last one percent had remained stuck for three days.

That remaining one percent involved technology that even Xu Yifan did not understand, so he could only let Zhou Fengyan lead the factory employees through it.

"Compared to the original plan of spending around two hundred thousand to get the production line running again, the higher standards required replacing some equipment. In total, it cost over a million."

And it was not just the experimental Old Man Happy model that was burning money. Another newly established department in the factory had also consumed a huge amount of funds recently.

After draining the more than one million in the company account, Xu Yifan had also poured in more than one million of his own spending money.

He had no choice but to call for outside support, squeezing another five million out of his father before they barely had enough.

The newly established department was the Battery Research Laboratory.

Eight highly skilled talents from Xiamen University arrived one after another and initially set up the battery laboratory.

At the same time, they spent a great deal of money purchasing all kinds of experimental equipment.

Even then, they could only establish a relatively crude laboratory. If they wanted better experimental conditions, they would have to throw in a great deal more money.

Whenever Xu Yifan thought about money, his head began to ache.

"All I see is investment, with no source of income in sight..."

Even with the system and his memories of the future, the money burning away made his heart tremble.

For an ordinary small or medium-sized company, the sheer cost alone would scare off countless companies interested in entering this field.

That was also why Jiuzhou Automobile Factory had gone bankrupt twice before. After their initial impulse faded, the investors realized this was not a field they could handle and decisively withdrew!

One wrong move, and even he—a transmigrator with a factory system and memories of the future—could suffer a major setback.

He sighed again.

Xu Yifan closed the game window on the computer, sat in his office chair, and silently called up the system panel.

Nearly three months had passed since his transmigration, and most of the data on the system interface had been updated.

Though there had not been any major changes.

[Super Factory System: Level 1]

[Funds: 3.82 million]

[Buildings: Production Workshop Level 1, Research and Development Center Level 1, Battery Research and Development Center Level 1, Employee Dormitory Level 1, Cafeteria Level 1, Warehouse Level 1, Office Building Level 2.]

[Employees: 136 people (Satisfaction: 66)]

[Product: Jiuzhou Shenxing Sedan (Industrial Waste!)(Discontinued)]

[Technology: None (A trash company with no core technology of its own!)]

Even after receiving an additional five million in funding, only a little over 3.8 million remained.

"The more than one million from the company account, the more than one million in my spending money, and the more than one million spent from the five million.

"That adds up to around four million already invested. If things keep going like this and there is still no revenue after another three months, I'll have to ask for outside help and cry poverty again.

"The pressure is huge. I have to generate income as soon as possible."

As he muttered, Xu Yifan opened the Production Workshop sub-panel under Buildings.

The product developed by imitating the Wuling Hongguang Mini was still stuck at ninety-nine percent mass-production progress.

"It looks like it could be completed at any moment, but this progress has been stuck here for three days already. It is practically as bad as Xunlei was during a certain period!"

"The later the progress gets, the slower it becomes. I wonder how long it will take before mass production can finally begin."

"Still, with every component being refined to the utmost, the product quality is pretty good."

Aside from the three-electric system, the other aspects were basically no worse than the Wuling Hongguang Mini they had researched previously.

On the system panel, aside from changes in money and wealth, the greatest changes were in personnel.

Over the past three months, the company had grown from its original fifty-seven employees. They had fired a batch of deadweight and hired many new workers, reaching a total of 136 employees.

On the employee page, besides each employee's name, small stars now appeared after their names.

At a glance, most employees had two or three stars after their names, while a few had only one star or as many as four.

More than a hundred of them were newly hired employees who had gone through two rounds of screening.

After around a month, Xu Yifan could use the system to determine whether a newly hired employee was capable and whether they could handle the work required by their position.

Those who were competent naturally stayed, while those who were not were replaced during their probationary period.

Most employees now remaining in the factory's various positions were Two-star Employees or even Three-star Employees!

Employee star ratings appeared after an employee had been in the factory for around a month.

Based on the system's evaluation of their abilities, it could more clearly show whether an employee was suited to their current position.

For example, an employee with no star rating proved that they knew absolutely nothing about the work in their current position.

A One-star Employee could initially handle the job, but was not yet proficient and needed guidance from more experienced employees.

A Two-star Employee corresponded to a skilled worker in that position. They could complete their work with virtually no problems.

A Three-star Employee was proficient in every aspect of the job and could perform their duties exceptionally well.

Of course, employee star ratings were not innate. In many positions, for instance, most employees initially had no star rating at all.

With guidance from senior employees, their star ratings would continue to rise.

The speed of improvement varied depending on whether an employee was quick-witted, how strong their learning ability was, and whether they studied diligently.

If, after a month, an employee's improvement was clearly below the average, Xu Yifan would have the Human Resources Department optimize them accordingly.

This function had left the Human Resources Department employees utterly amazed.

The company's new young factory director looked very easygoing and usually did not interfere much with the work of each position.

Yet every time, he could effortlessly grasp the work of every department in the factory. He was unfathomable, no less capable than those old hands with decades of work experience!

Because of this, none of the departments dared to slack off in the slightest.

Employee star ratings could better evaluate workers in every factory position and promote those with genuine technical ability.

While employees with better technical skills were not necessarily better suited for certain management positions, it could at least prevent laymen from directing experts.

Besides that, the other change on the system panel was in research.

The newly added battery laboratory under Buildings had cost more than two million to establish. Several master's students and doctoral students who had joined were responsible for researching electricity.

It had to be said that the students from that university were all of extremely high quality.

All the master's students were Three-star researchers. Of the three doctoral students, two were also Three-star, while one was even Four-star.

He was also one of the two highest-rated employees currently in the factory.

Lu Jingping: ★★★★

Male, thirty years old. Education: Doctor of Physical Chemistry, Xiamen University. Specialty: electrochemistry-related fields.

As for the other Four-star employee, it was Wang Xinwen, who was still researching engines.

Although the company's future strategic direction was centered on new energy.

With such a research talent available, Xu Yifan did not really want to give up on traditional engine manufacturing either.

Traditional fuel engines could also be researched if the opportunity arose, and hybrid vehicles were a good direction as well.

Four-star talent was already extremely rare. If he could be paired with a group of capable assistants, perhaps he could give Xu Yifan a pleasant surprise.

Engine research was still continuing and had now reached eighty-six percent progress.

The newest research project in the newly established battery laboratory was Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Technology.

The project was currently at five percent progress.

This speed was already quite good. If he thought it was too slow, he could manually spend money to accelerate the research progress.

If Xu Yifan was willing to spend around one billion yuan, he could unlock Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Technology capable of rapid charging and discharging in around one month.

It was roughly equivalent to the technology mastered by most battery manufacturers before his transmigration.

By spending more money, he could further improve its performance.

One hundred billion would allow him to go even further down the lithium iron phosphate path.

It seemed as though, as long as he had money, employee star ratings did not need to be particularly high.

No, high-star research personnel were still extremely necessary.

A laboratory led by a Four-star researcher could not only speed up research.

At the same time, the money required to accelerate research progress was different.

If the person leading a research project was a Zero-star technician with absolutely no relevant knowledge, then even spending one trillion or ten trillion would not yield a single result.

One-star and Two-star researchers also required different costs to accelerate research progress. Even after spending a huge sum, they could only increase progress by a tiny amount.

In short, research projects led by higher-star employees cost less money to accelerate.

Xu Yifan suspected that, for certain technologies, the system would require researchers of a specific star rating before certain technologies could be developed.

High-star researchers were an extremely important resource!

After exploring the system over this period, Xu Yifan had also found a trick that could speed up research without spending too much money.

That was, when research progress stalled, he could manually spend a small amount of money to quickly overcome a particular obstacle and increase research progress by one percent.

As for the money spent, it did not simply disappear. It was distributed to the relevant researchers as bonuses.

And now, Xu Yifan stared at the ninety-nine percent mass-production progress on the system panel.

He hesitated over whether to spend one million to raise that final one percent.

Just as he was about to make up his mind and spend the money, the progress bar jumped.

Mass-production progress: 100%!