Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

"This is our tank power workshop. We currently produce two tank engines. One is a low-power version based on the GAA V8 engine core, the MD-500 gasoline engine. It is 8% lighter than the original GAA V30, and its output power remains basically unchanged, with a maximum of 500 horsepower. This is produced for the infantry fighting vehicle ZB55. The other is a high-power version, the MD-720 gasoline engine, which has a total output power of 720 horsepower through optimization and increased maximum output power per cylinder. This is produced for the Dragon Tank IIA." Zhao Tianbao took Ren Zhong into the first workshop.

The gasoline engines inside are running on the assembly line, which looks spectacular.

"What is the current quality of components such as cylinder liners, bearings, and gearboxes?" Ren Zhong asked.

Although Taiyuan Heavy Industry's power plant is one of the largest assembly factories producing engines in China, it does not produce every component by itself. A gasoline engine has hundreds of components, most of which are provided by component manufacturers in the industrial chain.

Taiyuan Heavy Industry mainly produces large parts such as cylinder blocks and assembly parts.

"The quality inspection pass rate of parts is good now, maintaining above 98%. We adopt a full inspection method and return all unqualified products." Zhao Tianbao said, "Now that we have a unified production acceptance standard, our pre-shipment inspection work has also been strengthened a lot, from 95% in the past to 98%."

"It seems that this is not enough. For key parts such as piston connecting rods, flywheel crankshafts, transmission mechanism parts, and camshafts, we must inspect the raw material supply of the manufacturer and the production process of the production line. We cannot let the weight problem stay at the source." Ren nodded and instructed Zhao Tianbao and others, "98% pass rate is not the limit. In the future, we require it to be above 99.95%. The current difference shows that there are still signs of laxity in the inspection process. With the same inspection equipment and the same inspection standards, there should not be so many defective products."

Standardization and quality standards have been implemented very early, since the first five-year plan, and a new generation of standard requirements has to be updated every two years. In Ren Zhong's view, nothing can save costs more than improving quality, so he consciously instilled the concept of quality first since the early days of Yangcun.

Now, there are many achievements, which are much better than the main world in the same space and time quality.

At least there won't be the joke of parts of the same specifications and models not being able to be assembled on different products.

In this way, when weapons and equipment are damaged on the battlefield, they can be repaired by disassembling similar products, which greatly increases the battlefield repair capabilities of heavy equipment such as tanks and vehicles. It should be noted that it is impossible to prepare all spare parts on the battlefield and pull them to the front line for standby. In many cases, it is necessary to disassemble parts from equipment with more serious damage to solve the problem.

Judging from the actual experience of the Korean Peninsula War and the counterattack against India, this basic requirement of common parts has now been fully met.

Zhao Tianbao on the side could only nod in response, but seeing his troubled expression, Ren Zhong knew that after ten years of optimization and improvement, the quality had basically reached the pinnacle of this kind of mechanical processing.

"Tianbao, you think it is difficult to improve product quality under the current quality mechanism, right?" Ren Zhong asked.

"It's indeed a bit difficult, teacher. Not only our sister parts suppliers, but also the parts produced in our own factory have multiple quality inspections, and the final results are almost the same." Zhao Tianbao told the truth.

He knows Ren Zhong's habits. Don't be afraid of problems if you have them. Hiding them is a big problem.

"Quality improvement is indeed a systematic issue. I will give you an idea. First, you have to include the entire process in quality management. Each link, including research, design, trial production, process and tooling design and manufacturing, raw material supply, production and manufacturing, and inspection and delivery, must have quality management requirements and standards. Second, all employees must be required to participate in quality management. Adhering to the principle that "the next process is the user", each process recipient must conduct strict quality inspection and acceptance of the previous process from the user's perspective to ensure that defects in the previous process will not continue to flow into the next process. The efficiency we require is efficiency under the premise of quality assurance. If the product is unqualified, the efficiency is zero!" Although Ren Zhong was a liberal arts student in the main world, with such a big responsibility, he had to pay attention to too many situations outside of his major.

For example, in quality management, we learned the thinking and methods of total quality management from the main world and introduced them into this world of Bright Sword.

This has saved Dongda a lot of detours in quality control of large-scale industrial production.

"Yes, teacher, we have written it down." While speaking, Zhao Tianbao instructed his office director to write it down quickly.

"I will give you a booklet with all this knowledge later. It contains concepts and basic methods, but how to actually implement it and achieve results must be summarized and refined by you after your careful implementation. You can summarize it yourself after half a year. If you have achieved results, you can promote it to the whole industry. If not, you should go to advanced factories and learn more!" Ren Zhong's purpose of coming here today, in addition to getting a thorough understanding of the latest level, is to improve quality awareness and methods on the basis of ISO.

Now I'm just taking this opportunity to hammer it out.

After all, Taiyuan Heavy Industry's power plant is already an excellent factory in the country.

The tank power has been re-optimized and redesigned based on the legendary GAA V8, and now there are three products. In the short term, this is enough, as the power problems from main battle tanks to combat vehicles and self-propelled artillery have all been solved.

However, gasoline engines are not the mainstream direction of tank power development, and the next step is to transition to diesel engines.

泰源重工的动力分厂柴油发动机自然也有，现在生产最大功率的6缸柴油发动机6K13-500型已经达到了最大的500马力的水平，几乎都要赶上传奇GAA V8的水平。最新研制的一款6缸柴油发动机6K13-600目标是达到600马力，而计划研究最强一款840马力的6K17-840，已经拿到了原始设计尺寸数据。

These are mainly prepared for heavy trucks, 6X4 tractors, large vehicles such as buses, and the prototypes are from the main models of several major diesel engine manufacturers in the main world, such as Weichai, Yuchai and United Power.

Back in the main world, it was not difficult for Ren Zhong to buy these mass-produced diesel engines, but it was very difficult to realize the turbocharged version now. The difficulties of diesel engine turbocharging technology mainly include high failure rate, high maintenance cost, poor power output stability, poor handling, low durability, energy efficiency loss, engine durability issues, increased costs, and safety hazards.

It can be said that apart from increasing the maximum output power, all other aspects are shortcomings.

These are difficult problems in the main world, and they are even more serious in the world of Bright Sword.

Even if the original design size is met, if you want to manufacture it to achieve stable output, the greater the power, the more troublesome it will be.

The technical difficulty is no less than that of modifying the new version with the legendary GAA V8. Only after the diesel engine has achieved 600 horsepower can the tanks and war vehicles in the world of Bright Sword start the engine replacement.

However, in terms of high-power power, Ren Zhong was very satisfied after seeing it. After all, in the world of Bright Sword, a model with 500 horsepower is already a leading model.

"For high-power engines, just follow the plan. This part will not be too large. The demand for tanks has been reduced. The future demand will mainly come from trucks and buses. Next, you should work closely with truck and bus manufacturers to customize the engine to better match our heavy truck and bus applications, especially in terms of maintenance-free mileage. The overhaul time should be at least 20 kilometers." Ren Zhong saw that the situation on the scene was basically consistent with the report he saw, and he still recognized Zhao Tianbao's work. "The power plant of Taiyuan Heavy Industry will undergo a big change next, Tianbao, you must be mentally prepared."

"Ah, teacher, why has it changed?" Zhao Tianbao was a little surprised. He really hadn't heard any news about this.

"It's a good thing." Ren Zhong glanced at Zhao Tianbao, but didn't elaborate. "At least it's a good thing for you."

Instead, he walked into the workshop of small and medium-sized diesel engines.

"We now produce more than 5 models of single-cylinder, double-cylinder, three-cylinder and four-cylinder diesel engines. They are now our main products, with an annual output of more than 100 units. From agricultural machinery power with more than ten horsepower to small and medium-sized truck power and tractor power with more than horsepower, we can now provide very good supporting services." Speaking of this, Zhao Tianbao is still somewhat proud.

After all, the country's largest power plant is actually supported by these diesel engines.

"We now have four diesel engine plants, and our production capacity is undisputedly the largest in the country."

"For gasoline engines, we now have three factories with an annual output of more than 3 units."

After the inspection, Ren Yuan was very satisfied with the current status of the assembly line. It was worthy of being managed by his direct student. The production quality standards were implemented thoroughly. It can be seen from the inspection pass rate of the products leaving the factory that there has been no compromise.

"Tianbao, your current production capacity is far from enough. In a while, the Power Research Center will produce two new automobile gasoline engines. The production capacity in the next five years will be more than one million units. Now we need to plan the production capacity."

"Next, your branch will be separated and established as Northern United Power Co., Ltd. With the current branch as the base, we will first expand the area in Taiyuan to more than 100 acres to build a new factory building, and expand the production line with a production capacity of 50 units according to the second and third phases in the next three years; next, United Power will expand the production base to Jinling and Yangcheng, and build factories with an area of ​​more than 100 acres in each place, prepare space for 50 production capacity, and gradually expand the production capacity to more than 50 units according to the first, second and third phases in the next five years."

In the office, Zhao Tianbao almost felt suffocated when he heard the news for the first time!
It will soar from 150 units to million units in an instant!

What a huge leap this is! Although it will take five years to expand, the size of this step has exceeded his imagination.

"Teacher, are they going to start a new round of preparations?" After a long silence, Zhao Tianbao recovered and asked weakly.

Apart from expanding the military and preparing for war, Zhao Tianbao could not think of any other reason to expand production capacity in this way.

But with such a large number, does it mean that the whole nation needs to prepare for war? Zhao Tianbao feels completely unprepared mentally.

"What war are we preparing for? This is for the mass production of civilian cars!" Ren Zhong saw that Zhao Tianbao had misunderstood him and shook his head. "Next we need to make a large-scale breakthrough in the automotive industry."

"Oh, so that's it. Is it related to the four major automobile companies that were established independently before?" Zhao Tianbao suddenly realized. "But our country's automobile production capacity is basically enough to meet the growth of market demand. Can we consume such a large production capacity through exports?"

In front of his teacher, Zhao Tianbao had nothing to be embarrassed to ask, so he asked directly.

"We will launch four newly designed civilian car models for export. The main market will be the automobile market in Europe and the United States. Of course, domestic sales may also increase." Ren Zhong did not hide anything and briefly told Zhao Tianbao about the plan for the development of the automobile industry.

Only then did Zhao Tianbao realize that the higher-ups were planning a big game for the automotive industry, but did they need to take such a big step?
Zhao Tianbao had no ability to distinguish, but Ren Zhong had created countless miracles, so he just had to believe in Ren Zhong without thinking.

What's more, when it comes to planning issues, everyone knows that Ren Zhong is the final decision maker behind the scenes.

But such a huge task is weighing on his shoulders. Thinking of the arduous task of building three large bases, Zhao Tianbao felt a little scalp-tingling. He didn't know if he could handle it. Now the scale of workers for a production capacity of 100,000 units is tens of thousands, and the daily management is enough to give him a headache; if it is expanded to one million units or one and a half million units in the future, the scale will require more than 100,000 people, which can be called a behemoth enterprise.

"You don't need to worry about the infrastructure construction of the three bases. Your task is to add more people to each position based on the existing personnel to train key talents for the new production line. Make sure that after the production capacity is expanded, there are sufficient people to take over the new production line and produce new engines according to the design.

In other words, what you need to do in the future is talent training and production management of the new factory."

Only after Ren Zhong finished speaking about his request to Zhao Tianbao did he breathe a sigh of relief.

If that's the case, then a lot of workload that is not related to production will be reduced. For him, it is equivalent to infinite replication of the production line. Zhao Tianbao feels he can still handle it.

Thinking about the fact that he will be in charge of a super-large factory with a military scale in the future, Zhao Tianbao feels both fearful and proud.

For Ren Zhong, building such a super factory was not too beyond the scope. He let Zhao Tianbao continue to train talents and take over the management of the production line. The most important thing was that he recognized that the management model here was basically close to the modern production line management in his mind. Using a manager with military qualities like Zhao Tianbao to replicate it could maintain the greatest consistency and it would be easier to pass on the successful production management experience than starting from scratch.

The development of the automotive industry is imperative, and it will not be a waste to build good infrastructure now.

(End of this chapter)