The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 225 Discussions at the Machine Tool Factory

"Comrade, look at the camera. It won't look good if you keep your head down."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang quickly said, "I'm sorry, comrade, I was just spacing out."

After saying that, he straightened his posture and let the photographer take his picture.

After filming was finished, Zhou Zhiqiang stepped forward and asked, "Comrade, how long will it take?"

The staff at the photo studio casually said, "It's hard to say, come back next month to pick it up."

"Is it going to take that long? I'm in a bit of a rush. Could you see if you can bring it up earlier?"

While asking the man questions, Zhou Zhiqiang also slipped him a pack of cigarettes.

"I already said next month. It's not that we can't bring it up earlier. I'll put you in the queue, and you can come pick it up next week."

The photo studio staff's expression quickly changed, and they chuckled as they put the large bottle of liquor into their pockets.

These good cigarettes are not only expensive, costing 35 cents a pack, but cigarette coupons are also very hard to come by; most people don't even have a Class B cigarette coupon.

The county official's slogan, "Da Qianmen," directly made Da Qianmen the representative of Grade B cigarettes.

"Okay, I'll come pick up the photos next week. Thank you for your help."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he left the photo studio, got into a car driven by the security department, and drove towards the factory.

When the staff at the photo studio saw Zhou Zhiqiang get into a jeep, their hearts skipped a beat.

"Who is this guy? He even came in a car to take pictures. I'll take his cigarette."

After a moment of worry, the photo studio staff decided, "Oh well, he offered me the cigarette anyway. I'll just get the photos developed better."

On his way back, Zhou Zhiqiang was still thinking about the Second Machine Tool Plant.

The Second Machine Tool Plant sold all of its more than 2,000 CNC machine tools that it planned to produce next year.

Based on the expected output of the Second Machine Tool Plant next year, if production is gradually converted, it will only produce about 3,000 CNC machine tools per year.

This was in the second half of this year, when the Ministry of Machine Building invested more than 20 million yuan in the Second Machine Tool Plant to expand its precision workshop.

Otherwise, producing seventy or eighty units a month would be considered good.

Therefore, after learning the number of CNC machine tools to be exported next year, Zhou Zhiqiang's first thought was to build a CNC branch factory to produce integrated circuit CNC system components needed for CNC machine tools.

Although it's called a branch factory, it's actually no different from our own CNC workshop.

The Second Machine Tool Plant now produces CNC machine tools, but its core "brain" is controlled by others.

Each time, coordination with semiconductor plants under the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry was required, which not only resulted in long cycles and high communication costs, but more importantly, it greatly limited the further expansion of production capacity and the speed of subsequent research and development of new CNC machine tools.

It's like putting reins on a thoroughbred horse, preventing it from truly galloping.
The planned economy has both advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that the production system is somewhat rigid. If Zhou Zhiqiang wants the Second Machine Tool Plant to expand production, then he needs a certain degree of autonomy.

As for whether the Fourth Ministry of Machine Building is willing, that's something Vice Leader Wu and his team need to consider.

Without its own CNC machine tool manufacturing plant, developing other CNC machine tools in the future will still be a hassle.

Zhou Zhiqiang has already thought about production plans for more than ten years from now. If he wants to become the world's number one machine tool manufacturer, he has to consider many things.

He can't go back now; he can only return to the factory next year after the heavy machine tool project is completed.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang was somewhat surprised to see so many CNC machine tools exported at the Canton Fair. He had initially thought that exporting more than half of the factory's total production next year would be sufficient.

The remaining half can meet the needs of domestic factories and also boost domestic industrial development.

However, Director Ren told him that this decision was made after the Ministry of Foreign Trade consulted with its superiors.

The Ministry of Machine Building expressed its opinion that more CNC machine tools should be reserved for the domestic market, but after considering this, the Ministry of Foreign Trade decided to follow the instructions of its superiors.

It seems that the higher-ups plan to earn more foreign exchange and then use it to buy grain or fertilizer to compensate domestic farmers.

Over the past two years, rural areas in China have indeed faced considerable pressure, and in accordance with my supervisor's consistent approach, I will certainly take care of rural development.

After all, they are still a major agricultural country, and rural production has not yet been mechanized. All industrial development has been driven by the development of the rural economy.

Two thousand four hundred and thirty units—this is not the production limit of the Second Machine Tool Plant; they plan to continue expanding next year.

Before Xiao Risheng fully confirmed the export of machine tools, and before their machine tools were of inferior performance to those produced by the Second Machine Tool Plant, they definitely needed to seize the market share first.

Back at Liaoyang Heavy Industry Plant No. 1.

Upon seeing Zhou Zhiqiang return, Shen Changlin asked, "Zhiqiang's back. Are the photos taken?"

"Okay, I'll pick it up next week, and then send a letter home to explain."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he saw the blueprints for the spindle box in Lin's hand and asked, "So, when will it be time for the spindle box to be produced and tested?"

"Next month, I think. The layout of this cross-stiffening plate is quite complicated to produce, especially since the heavy machinery plant's production is already fully booked."

After adjusting his glasses, Engineer Lin pointed to the blueprints and said as if to reassure himself, "Based on the high-strength cast iron parameters we anticipated in our previous research, the static stiffness of the spindle box can definitely be improved. I just don't know if it can reach the maximum load." "Don't worry, Engineer Lin, I think it's definitely possible; moreover, we have plenty of time. We've already conducted so many tests ahead of schedule, so even if there are deviations, we have time to try and make mistakes."

"It's always good to succeed on the first try."

After Lin finished speaking, he continued to compare the calculation sheets with those of the other technicians.

Heavy machine tools require so many beds and large parts that it is estimated that processing them alone will take six to eight months.

Zhou Zhiqiang and his team wanted to develop and manufacture the heavy machine tool as soon as possible, so they could only try to save time in design and calculation.

"Team Leader Shen."

Zhou Zhiqiang sat down at Shen Changlin's table and said, "After the New Year, I plan to go to the CNC group. Although they have successful experience there, their previous CNC systems were designed for servo linkage of small and medium-sized CNC machine tools."
"For example, in the development of servo linkage for heavy machine tools, let alone in China, even Russia probably doesn't have any experience to draw upon. So I plan to go there personally to oversee it."

"Let's conduct performance tests on a few components, such as the spindle box, after the New Year. If there are no problems, I'll go to the CNC group to oversee the R&D progress."

After hearing this, Shen Changlin thought for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it this way. When Deputy Team Leader Liu comes over in a couple of days, let's tell him about this as well."

If you have any problems, please feel free to contact me anytime.

"I understand, Team Leader Shen."

After finishing his speech, Zhou Zhiqiang returned to his desk and continued working on the project team's affairs.

The heavy machine tool project did not initially have CNC requirements, but at that time, Zhou Zhiqiang was basically close to completing the CNC machine tool project.

The servo linkage of a CNC system can be used on this heavy-duty machine tool, which can make the grinding of complex curved surfaces of the blade more precise.
Previously, Zhou Zhiqiang had been busy with the overall design scheme and component drawings. Now that this phase of work is nearing completion, it's time for him to take charge of the CNC group's R&D tasks.

------

Four Nine Cities.

After National Day, all residents received good news.

This year's harvest is good, and the country has used foreign exchange to purchase a batch of grain, so the ration for urban residents has been restored to about 90% of that in 1959.

The last 10% is because the ratio of coarse to refined grains hasn't fully recovered, but the weight is about right.

Perhaps next year, even the rationing of pork and oil will be reinstated, since there will still be a considerable amount of foreign exchange reserves next year.

When it comes to foreign exchange, the most discussed topic in Beijing during this period was still the Second Machine Tool Plant.

After all, workers are the main force in Beijing, and when talking about workers, one cannot avoid the news in the newspapers some time ago.

Whenever there is significant progress in domestic industry, it is released immediately to encourage and inspire people.

The CNC machine tool is still a bit lacking. If we wait until Miss Qiu successfully explodes, it will be broadcast on radios all over the country.

However, this was also the most glorious moment for the Second Machine Tool Plant.

Today, Monday, a cadre meeting was also held at the Second Machine Tool Plant, which is held every Monday.

Secretary Li chaired the meeting as always.

Previously, Secretary Li had an order from his superiors to delegate power to Zhou Zhiqiang. Later, after being singled out by Deputy Leader Zhao, Zhou Zhiqiang, despite putting on a good show, still managed to schedule all the big and small matters in the factory.

After Zhou Zhiqiang left, Li Younian was criticized by Director Ren for his lack of responsibility, and now he has taken on the factory's responsibilities.

"Comrades, before we begin the meeting, I would like to commend our colleagues who participated in the research and development and manufacturing of CNC machine tools!"

After the meeting began, Secretary Li immediately praised the people who participated in the CNC machine tool project team, saying that these people had truly brought honor to their factory.

"The foreign trade orders worth 89 million US dollars are roughly 210 million RMB. If we complete these orders next year, our factory will undoubtedly be number one."
The ministry has clearly instructed that those who participated in the research and development of CNC machine tools should be commended and rewarded.
Regarding the employee bonuses at our factory, I discussed it with the department during a meeting, and we'll issue an extra month's salary. We'll also establish a collective labor award this year, which will be given to employees who participated in the research and development and manufacturing of CNC machine tools.

On this point, probably no one in the meeting room would object. Such a great contribution would directly make their factory the number one in the country in terms of output next year.

This reward is well worth it.

After pausing for a moment, Secretary Li continued, "Let me mention something in advance. I also spoke with Director Zhou on the phone a couple of days ago about this matter."

The factory workers on the front lines have indeed been working very hard this year; no one would deny that. Apart from their weekly rest days, they've been working basically 15 hours a day.

"Therefore, Director Zhou suggested that at the end of the year, the factory's retained profits be used to give all front-line production workers an extra month's salary as a subsidy and reward."

At the same time, we will give half a month's salary as a writing allowance and bonus to those in cadre positions. What are your thoughts on this? Let's discuss it.

"While the factory's Party Committee cadres are all here, let's hear your opinions. If the majority agree, then the New Year's Eve lunch will be distributed together."

After Secretary Li finished speaking, everyone in the meeting room had a sudden flash of inspiration.

Paying out money? That's great! Who would complain about having too much money?
As for the frontline workers who get paid a month's salary and the others who get paid half a month's salary, in the end, they will definitely get more.

The lowest-ranking cadre can be compared to the highest-ranking worker.

(End of this chapter)