Zhang Yi had actually started tackling the production line issue long ago. During this time, Xiao Hua, Xiao Xia, and Xiao Liu had not only been responsible for the factory's production problems; Zhang Yi had also assigned them the task of developing a production line for Aerodynamic Bicycles.
However, only a little over ten days had passed so far, nowhere near enough time to build a production line. They had not even finished drawing up the blueprints yet.
As soon as the 1,000 Aerodynamic Bicycles were completed, Zhang Yi immediately shipped all 1,000 to Huang Jie. Yet just after he sent them out, Huang Xiru promptly placed another order for 5,000 bicycles. Huang Xiru's orders were truly growing larger and larger.
Huang Xiru had not been idle during this time either. Not only had she cleared out all the electric vehicles from her original shop, but the store's renovation had also been completed, and she had even secured several distributors.
Will the next order be for 10,000 units outright? Zhang Yi thought to himself.
Like last time, Huang Jie paid Zhang Yi in advance for all 5,000 Aerodynamic Bicycles.
Moreover, under Huang Jie's promotion, the Aerodynamic Bicycle had begun to take off in Hangzhou. Huang Xiru's physical stores were selling incredibly well, and it was said that before the goods had even arrived at Huang Jie's shop, several hundred bicycles had already been reserved. One could imagine just how popular the Aerodynamic Bicycle had become in Hangzhou.
At the same time, the bicycle gradually started gaining popularity online as well, indirectly improving Zhang Yi's online sales. On the very day he shipped the goods to Huang Xiru, the factory's online orders exceeded ten units.
That had been unimaginable before. Since Zhang Yi's online store had opened, it had not sold a single bicycle. Of course, that was partly due to their insufficient production capacity, but there was no denying that online sales had indeed started picking up.
Fortunately, while producing Huang Jie's order, Zhang Yi had made more than a hundred extra bicycles. Otherwise, they would have had to wait at least several days before shipping any online orders. But as more and more people learned about this bicycle, Zhang Yi was certain that the remaining few dozen Aerodynamic Bicycles would not last more than a few days.
After receiving the 20 million yuan payment from Huang Jie, Zhang Yi was thrilled. That was 20 million yuan! With that money, his factory could expand once again.
The first thing he did after receiving the money was order materials for 7,000 Aerodynamic Bicycles. The raw materials alone cost Zhang Yi 7 million yuan. The 20 million had barely arrived before nearly half of it was gone, and that was only for materials. Next, Zhang Yi needed to buy machine tools. This time, with enough money on hand, he intended to purchase machine tools from major brands, whose prices were incomparable to the machines he had bought previously.
Even domestically made machine tools with relatively high performance easily cost over a million yuan each. Foreign high-performance machine tools were even more expensive, costing several million yuan apiece at the very least.
For now, however, Zhang Yi did not plan to buy those advanced foreign CNC Machines. Domestic products would be sufficient. After all, he was only making bicycles, not high-end products like cars or airplanes.
Since the machine tools he was buying this time were far more expensive, Zhang Yi only ordered six CNC Machines of different models. Their average price was around 900,000 yuan each, even after the discount for ordering six at once. When placing the order, Zhang Yi specifically brought Zhang Yang along. As an old hand at turning, Zhang Yang was more familiar with this area.
Meanwhile, once the machine tools and raw materials arrived, Zhang Yi hurried to the Talent Market in Zhou Tai City again to recruit relevant staff. After all, machine tools were useless without operators.
But just like last time, Zhang Yi did not recruit many employees at the talent center—fewer than ten in total. He only found one or two experienced turners, while the rest were fresh graduates from technical schools.
Since recruiting employees was proving so difficult, Zhang Yi went to the Talent Market in Xian County immediately after returning. He wanted to try his luck there and see whether he could find the talent he wanted, but the result still disappointed him. He failed to recruit anyone suitable.
In frustration, Zhang Yi directly recruited nearly twenty to thirty apprentices from the talent center. He even offered them higher wages than apprentices at other factories. Zhang Yi promised that their base salary during their apprenticeship would be 3,000 yuan, and that their pay would increase accordingly as their skills improved.
In other factories in Xian County, monthly wages were only around 3,000 yuan, such as at the Arts and Crafts Factory. Even then, only skilled workers could earn that much.
Yet Zhang Yi was offering such wages while these people were still apprentices, which was already very generous. However, he also imposed a condition: they had to sign contracts with him for at least three years. He had no intention of training them at his factory only for someone else to benefit afterward.
After bringing these people back to Seven Color Stone Mechanical Factory, Zhang Yi immediately arranged for experienced workers to train them. Naturally, most of them followed Xiao Hua and the others. After they arrived, practically every turner in the factory was training one or two apprentices, especially skilled workers like Zhang Yang.
Back in his office, Zhang Yi finally let out a breath of relief. He had been exhausted by all the running around over the past few days. Still, no matter what, he had finally found operators for all those machine tools. Most of them were apprentices, but they were operators nonetheless.
At that point, Zhang Yi had only a little over 6 million yuan left. Fortunately, since the factory had only been operating for a little over ten days, he did not yet need to worry about employee wages, utility bills, and the like. But that did not mean he could keep the money in his hands. There were far too few skilled workers in the factory, and the Product Research and Development Department also needed to develop a production line for the bicycle.
Thus, Zhang Yi had no choice but to enter the Scholar Hiring System again and hire more scholars. This time, he did not plan to hire only scholars in Mechanical Engineering; he also intended to hire scholars in the Electrical Industry and Industrial Software Technology.
Of course, if conditions allowed, Zhang Yi wanted to hire even more scholars from other fields. But that was obviously impossible. He could not spend all his money hiring scholars; the factory needed sufficient working capital for emergencies.
In fact, as long as Zhang Yi offered sufficient pay, he could still recruit talent in Industrial Software Technology in the real world. There were already plenty of computer-related professionals in society. But out of considerations of trust and skill, Zhang Yi was still more willing to hire scholars from the system.
After all, he knew that the scholars hired through the system would not betray him. Even if they were unhappy living here and wanted to resign or terminate their employment, Zhang Yi did not need to worry about them leaking company secrets. They could only return to their own universe and would not cause their employer any trouble.
Moreover, within their respective specialties, even entry-level scholars from the system surpassed the vast majority of ordinary professionals in the same industry. That was something no one Zhang Yi recruited in the real world could compare with.
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