Zhu Gang's Purpose

Afterward, Zhang Yi checked on the other workers and found that although they were all recent graduates from technical schools and the parts they produced were not particularly outstanding, they were at least up to standard. This finally put his mind at ease.

These new employees were basically only handling rough machining, while Xiao Hua and the others naturally took care of the precision work. Still, Zhang Yi had been somewhat worried before.

Zhang Yi and the others quickly finished inspecting all the machines currently in operation. There were only around ten machine tools in the factory, not nearly enough to fill even a single workshop. The workshop they were currently in alone could accommodate at least one or two hundred pieces of equipment, and would eventually employ several hundred workers.

Zhang Yi planned to keep an eye on these new workshop employees during this period. If any performed well, he intended to focus on training them. His factory was desperately short of talent, and recruiting truly capable people was extremely difficult, so he could only train them himself.

For example, positions such as workshop director and production director were currently being temporarily filled by Xiao Hua and Xiao Xia.

However, Xiao Hua and the others were only filling those roles temporarily. They could not keep doing so for long, because placing them here was simply a waste of talent.

After all, although Xiao Hua and the others were merely the lowest-level Scholars in the Multiverse Scholar Hiring System, their actual abilities were already no worse than those of senior technicians in the Great Hua Empire. Even compared with Level Eight or Level Nine technicians, they would not fall short in the slightest.

After some time, Zhang Yi planned to establish a Product Research and Development Department in the factory and assign all the Scholars he had hired to it, while also having them serve as technical consultants for several workshops.

Of course, this was only for the early stage. Once he could hire higher-level Scholars in the future, these Elementary Beginner Scholars could be assigned to positions where they were needed more.

After the factory tour ended, the County Chief, the Development Zone director, the police station chief, and the government staff all left. They could not stay at Zhang Feng's factory for long.

As for Huang Xiru, she hurried back to Hang City immediately after the opening ceremony ended, not even staying for lunch.

Zhang Yi had originally wanted Huang Jie to stay for a while so he could play host, but she refused. In Huang Jie's words, Zhang Yi's factory had officially begun large-scale production, while her shops in Hang City were not yet ready, and negotiations with the Hang City distributors were still ongoing. Therefore, she had to settle everything during this period before the Aerodynamic Bicycles entered mass production.

Even the electric vehicles originally stocked in her stores had begun to be cleared out. From then on, her stores would sell only the Aerodynamic Bicycles produced by Zhang Yi and the others, and would no longer sell electric vehicles. The profits from electric vehicles were simply too low, nowhere near as worthwhile as Aerodynamic Bicycles.

After seeing Huang Xiru into her car, Zhang Yi prepared to return to his office. However, when he reached the factory gate, he spotted someone standing there. Looking closely, he realized it was Zhu Gang, the owner of the Xian County Auto Parts Processing Factory.

This puzzled Zhang Yi somewhat. Even without him saying it, Zhu Gang knew that Zhang Yi could no longer process parts for him under the current circumstances. As for the previous batch of parts, Zhang Yi had delivered them all yesterday.

Though puzzled, Zhang Yi still walked toward Zhu Gang.

At the same time, when Zhu Gang saw Zhang Yi approaching, he hurried forward to meet him. As soon as he reached him, he immediately said, "Boss Zhang, congratulations! Congratulations on your new factory starting operations and becoming the largest machinery factory in Xian County in one stroke. You even have your own flagship product, unlike me, who can only do contract manufacturing for others."

"Not at all, not at all! Boss Zhu, you're flattering me. My factory may look quite large, but you know that there are only around ten machine tools in the entire place, along with just a handful of workers. How could it compare with your factory? You're giving me too much credit," Zhang Yi replied politely.

"Boss Zhu, may I ask why you've come to see me? Are you hoping to have me process parts for you again?" Zhang Yi did not know Zhu Gang's purpose, so he asked directly.

"No, no, no! Boss Zhang, I know that given your factory's current situation, there's no way you could process parts for me. It's like this, Boss Zhang. I want to expand my machinery factory's production scale, but I only have so many orders each year. If I expand, there's a good chance of excess production capacity.

"So I wanted to ask, Boss Zhang, whether your factory might be able to give me some orders in the future?" Zhu Gang asked.

In fact, after attending Zhang Yi's factory opening ceremony that morning and seeing the products produced by Zhang Yi's factory, Zhu Gang understood that their Aerodynamic Bicycles would definitely sell extremely well.

Although Zhang Yi's own factory was currently sufficient and did not need to seek outside manufacturers for contract processing, that was only temporary. Once the Aerodynamic Bicycle was promoted in the future, Zhang Yi's factory would definitely face insufficient production capacity. That was why Zhu Gang had come to him so quickly.

After hearing this, Zhang Yi was truly speechless at Zhu Gang's foresight. His factory had only just begun operations, yet Zhu Gang had already come knocking. However, Zhang Yi had no intention of refusing Zhu Gang's proposal. If the Aerodynamic Bicycle really took off in the future, he would undoubtedly need Zhu Gang's help. After all, the only factory in Xian County capable of taking on large orders was Zhu Gang's.

If the price and quality were roughly the same, Zhang Yi would rather give the orders to Zhu Gang. Besides, Zhu Gang's factory could supply parts to Ji Li Automobile, so its quality should be guaranteed to some extent. Otherwise, why would a world-renowned automobile manufacturer like Ji Li give orders to Zhu Gang?

Thus, Zhang Yi said, "Since Boss Zhu has put it this way, I won't say anything more. I can give you an answer: if our factory needs outside processing, then as long as quality is guaranteed and the price is comparable, I will definitely give the orders to your factory."

After saying this, Zhang Yi thought for a moment before adding, "Of course, if Boss Zhu doesn't mind, I already have a few small orders right now."

Zhang Yi's factory had just gone from being a tiny machining workshop to a proper factory, but its workers were all inexperienced newcomers fresh out of school. Their processing speed was not very fast, and there were only around ten machine tools.

If they relied solely on their own factory workers, producing one thousand Aerodynamic Bicycles would take at least ten days to half a month, perhaps even longer. Moreover, the factory also had Hao Chen Pneumatic's Air Motor order. If they outsourced most of the parts to Zhu Gang, the speed could increase by several times. If all went smoothly, the Air Motor order could be completed in about a week.

"Boss Zhang! How could I possibly mind? It's not as though I haven't taken small orders before. As long as you have orders, I, Zhu Gang, have nothing to say. As long as my factory can handle them, I will take them," Zhu Gang immediately replied upon hearing Zhang Yi's words.

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