Super Copy of Great Power Technology

"Hello, hello, welcome Chairman Peng, Chairman Kong, and all the CEOs and experts to visit us at Ruida Auto."

Zhong Ruixiang smiled and shook hands with the main figures in the investigation team one by one, exchanging pleasantries. Yao Jiakang was much more reserved, just nodding and shaking hands, and greeting a few experts he knew, looking like a technician who was not good at speaking.

The head of the investigation team, Vice President Kong from the Automobile Association, felt embarrassed when he saw that only a deputy factory director and a chief engineer came out to greet the investigation team. He immediately frowned and asked, "Where is your factory director Shao Heping? Why didn't he even show up?"

"Chairman Kong, I'm really sorry. It's almost the New Year, and our President Shao went to the Beijing headquarters to attend the annual summary meeting. He just left yesterday and missed you all." Zhong Ruixiang bowed and said apologetically.

Of course, the meeting was true, but brain-computer interface devices have been popularized within the Ruida Group. People can wear brain-computer interfaces to participate in online meetings in the virtual world. Combined with holographic projection technology, it is not much different from attending the meeting on site. The reason why Shao Heping made a special trip to Beijing was to intentionally avoid the investigation team. After all, Shao Heping also has a technical background and has made some achievements in product development and management. He is really not good at welcoming and seeing off people. As for the investigation team, it is better to let the eloquent Zhong Ruixiang receive them. This is also a way of knowing people and making good use of them.

"Oh, it's really such a coincidence. Our investigation team just sent a letter saying that they would come to your company to investigate, and Shao Heping slipped away to Beijing for a meeting. Could he be absconding for fear of punishment?"

A somewhat harsh voice sounded in the crowd. Zhong Ruixiang looked over and saw that the person who spoke was a middle-aged fat man wearing a blue suit, with a slicked-back hair and a huge beer belly. Zhong Ruixiang vaguely remembered that this man was called Ma Haochen, the deputy general manager of a state-owned car company. This state-owned car company was the one that went to the Automobile Association to complain and was also the culprit of this investigation. Since he is an enemy, there is no need to be polite.

"Mr. Ma, you are joking. We are a company that does things in an upright manner. Why would we be afraid of being investigated? We are not like some domestic car companies that produce ugly and expensive cars with poor performance. When they cannot compete head-on with their rivals, they go and make accusations and try to defeat their rivals with tricks. In my opinion, instead of making trouble, they should calm down and listen to the opinions of their users to optimize their own cars. That would be more useful."

"Mr. Zhong, who are you talking about? What do you mean by making a complaint? Our report is well-founded. Several entry-level models sold by your Ruida Automobile have a range of 500 kilometers and come standard with an automatic navigation system, all of which are sold for less than yuan. And you still say that you are not hurting anyone with your own capital and are maliciously lowering the price." Ma Haochen was not to be trifled with. He immediately confronted him with his beer belly. You know what, with his tonnage, he was still quite oppressive.

"Whoever is identified will be criticized. To be honest, your company's reporting behavior is really despicable. It's like two teams playing a game, and one team loses. Instead of looking for the reasons in itself, strengthening training, and practicing hard to defeat the other team one day, it goes to argue with the referee and slanders the other team for fouls. It's disgusting."

Seeing that the two sides were arguing and ready to fight, Vice President Kong quickly stepped in between them, separated them, and said soothingly, "Calm down, both of you. Our investigation team came to Ruida Automobile Factory today to find out the truth, not to quarrel. Let the facts speak for themselves."

Vice President Kong can be considered a veteran in the domestic automobile industry. He participated in the research and development of Hongqi cars, presided over the introduction of Japanese car production lines, went to Wolfsburg, Germany for further studies, and later introduced investment from Volkswagen of Germany to form a joint venture, to which he also contributed. Even when he was old and retired, he still couldn't let go of the automobile career he had worked hard for most of his life, so he joined the Automobile Association as vice president and continued to shine in the automobile industry. Zhong Ruixiang naturally did not dare to neglect such a respected senior like Vice President Kong. He adjusted his mood and said, "The two presidents, and everyone, you have worked hard along the way. Do you want to go to the lounge to sit down, have a cup of hot tea, and take a rest?"

Vice President Kong waved his hand and said, "We came here by car, so it's not hard at all. Time is precious, so let's get straight to the point. Take us to the assembly workshop first. I heard that you, Ruida Automobile, have developed a fully automatic automobile assembly production line that can achieve zero manual participation and automatic assembly. Is that true?"

"Okay then, please get in the car again and we'll go straight to the assembly workshop. There is a fully automatic automobile assembly production line, but it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that there is zero human involvement. There are still some workers on the production line who conduct equipment inspections, tolerance corrections, and quality spot checks." As he spoke, Zhong Ruixiang waved his hand and called over a dozen electric sightseeing cars, which drove everyone towards the assembly workshop.

Ruida Automobile Company produces and sells dozens of models of cars, so there is naturally more than one assembly workshop. Zhong Ruixiang took them to the assembly workshop of the controversial Ruida SUV entry-level model. Under the control of the automatic driving system, the electric sightseeing car quickly moved along the road in the factory. On both sides of the road, there are some very tall trees, with trunks as thick as two people hugging. It can be seen that they have been planted for some years. In addition, some newly painted buildings with obvious Soviet style are exposed from time to time in the shade of the trees, which fully demonstrates the profound historical heritage of Ruida Automobile Factory.

"It looks like the predecessor of Ruida Automobile Factory was also a state-owned enterprise. It must have been established for at least 30 years?" One of the elderly experts felt extremely familiar with the scene in front of him, as if he was back in his youth, working in a state-owned automobile factory and seeing the scenes on his bicycle to and from get off work. He couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, the predecessor of Ruida Automobile Factory was Decheng Automobile Factory, which has been established for more than 50 years. It was originally a factory that produced tractors, and even produced tanks and tracked vehicles on an OEM basis. When the reform and opening up just started, our factory introduced technology and production lines from the island countries, and the vans produced were quite popular. We could sell thousands of them a month, which was also the most glorious period of our factory. At that time, I was still an ordinary worker who had just graduated from a technical school not long ago. I worked from dawn to dusk every day and could only get a salary of more than 30 yuan a month. Even so, I was always happy to go to work every day and felt that I had endless energy. Whenever I saw a brand new van coming off the production line, I had an indescribable sense of pride." Speaking of the history of Ruida Automobile Factory, Yao Jiakang, who had always been taciturn, was in a rare mood to talk and said several words in one breath. "Since the factory's benefits are so good, it should be developed and expanded. How could it be sold to a private person?" Another member of the investigation team asked curiously.

"It's the old problem of state-owned enterprises. They are reluctant to spend money on research and development, and blindly add more production lines to expand production capacity. As a result, the models are old and can't keep up with the times. A large number of products are piled up and can't be sold. In the end, they are insolvent and go bankrupt. If it weren't for President Qiao's timely action to buy the Decheng Automobile Factory, this factory would have been sold to a real estate company and developed into a residential community. As for us workers, we can only be laid off and unemployed. In order to make a living, we left our hometowns and went to work in the south."

Speaking of this, some people who came from state-owned enterprises all sighed, because the automobile factories they worked for had also experienced similar stages to a greater or lesser extent. If the state had not intervened, continuously injecting funds, talents, and technology, and introducing external investment, the results would not have been much better than the former Decheng Automobile Factory.

As they were talking, the electric sightseeing car had already arrived near the assembly workshop. From a distance, a large number of material transport vehicles were seen going in and out of the workshop gate in an orderly and parallel manner. A large number of auto parts, raw materials, and production consumables were transported to the workshop via these material transport vehicles for use in auto assembly. When the sightseeing car got closer, the members of the investigation team were surprised to find that these material transport vehicles were all unmanned, which was incredible. When the sightseeing car was parked in the designated parking space outside the assembly workshop, Zhong Ruixiang led the investigation team into the workshop, and everyone was once again stunned by the scene in front of them.

"Oh my god, all these material trucks are unmanned. Vehicle dispatch, route navigation, cargo loading and unloading are all done automatically by intelligent systems. There is no human worker involved in the whole process. It's so scary!"

"Yes, Mr. Zhong, your Ruida company's intelligent system is already so advanced that it can complete such complex multi-machine and multi-equipment collaborative operations?"

"Haha, this whole unmanned control system was developed by President Qiao and the Ruida Research Institute. We at Ruida Automobile are just a user of the technology. As for the specific technical details and how it was achieved, I can't explain it clearly."

The crowd walked along the tour passage and continued to go deeper into the workshop. They saw a huge assembly workshop with an area of ​​several thousand square meters, which was equipped with three automobile assembly lines and thousands of large and small equipments, working in an orderly manner. The people operating these equipments were not ordinary workers, but robots that were either fixed or equipped with pulleys for easy movement. They were skilled and quick in action, and they worked more skillfully than experienced old workers who had worked for many years. Whether it was welding, assembly, or screwing, they could do it in one step, and the efficiency was very high.

Seeing this scene, many car company CEOs among the members of the investigation team were so envious that they almost drooled. Everyone knows that in the field of industrial production, robots are more accurate, more durable, and almost never make mistakes compared to human workers. They don’t need to be paid, and their advantages are too great. There is almost no need to worry about quality issues in the production steps completed by robots. However, the automobile production process still cannot do without a large number of industrial workers. Why is this? Isn’t it because industrial robots are expensive to purchase, but have simple functions and poor intelligence. They cannot complete more complex tasks, let alone handle some emergencies, and are far less useful than human workers.

But now the humanoid robots they see in the workshop are completely different from traditional industrial robots. These humanoid robots are more flexible and freer in movement, and can do almost anything that humans can do. Moreover, these robots have complete bionic arms and hands, and can choose to pick up a variety of different tools to complete the corresponding work. During the assembly process of the car, some emergencies occur, and the intelligent system can also intelligently analyze and handle them, which is even better than many new workers. There are also some human workers in the workshop, but they do not participate in the front-line work, but patrol the production line nearby to deal with some problems that the intelligent system cannot handle in time.

"Although I don't quite understand it, I am deeply shocked! When did our domestic robotics technology become so advanced? With such powerful robots, what do we humans need to do?"

"Just by using intelligent robots to replace workers, the production of a car can save a lot of costs, no wonder Ruida Automobile's entry-level models are priced so cheaply."

"Boss Zhong, I remember seeing a piece of news about your Ruida Automobile Company last year, saying that your company has tens of thousands of industrial workers, and the welfare benefits are also top-notch in the industry. Now that you are using robots to replace workers in large numbers, what about the original industrial workers? Will they all be fired?"

"Those workers are the technical backbones cultivated by our factory for many years. They are the precious wealth of our factory. How can we bear to dismiss them? They are all assigned to other production lines to produce some non-popular models. Our company sells dozens of models, of which less than ten models have monthly sales of more than 20,000 units, which are hot-selling cars. Most of the remaining models are high-end cars or high-end cars. The sales volume is not large, but the profit is not small. We have carried out a comprehensive automation transformation on the production line of hot-selling models, replacing workers with robots, which can improve production efficiency, ensure the quality of cars, and reduce production costs. However, the production volume of non-hot-selling models is not large each month, and often two or three models share one production line. In this case, it is too difficult to automate the production line, and it is not worth the loss. It is better to continue to use skilled workers for production. In this way, our high-end models can also have the gimmick of being assembled by masters purely by hand."

"Mr. Zhong, these humanoid robots used in your production line were developed by your company, right? Do you sell them to the outside world? How much do they cost?" A member of the investigation team asked impatiently. The other members also looked at Zhong Ruixiang with burning eyes, waiting for his answer. (End of this chapter)