Back to 1980: Please Love Me Again

Chapter 129 The first batch of buttons, off the assembly line!

Shanqian Village, Jingyun Button Factory.

"Third brother, can I refuse?"

Rong Xinyi tried to be coquettish and cute, but Zhao Wenmu was unmoved.

She went to shake Zhao Jing's arm again.

"Since you are still in school, you are only allowed to come three days a week, with a monthly salary of 200 yuan!"

"Ok, deal!"

Zhao Wenmu made a decision immediately.

Zhao Jing was a little moved at first, and wanted to say a few words for Rong Xinyi, but Zhao Wenmu had already made up her mind, and she immediately decided not to say anything.

The little brother still has dignity in her heart.

As long as Zhao Wenmu made a decision about work, she would never say no.

At night, Zhao Wenmu asked for something, although she would be very embarrassed, but she always couldn't resist it.

In short, it was eaten to death.

The difference is that more than a year ago, I was disheartened, but now I am willing, and I still have some expectations.

Seeing that Zhao Wenmu had already made up his mind, Rong Xinyi couldn't hold back her thighs, so she could only submit obediently.

"Second Brother, Second Sister-in-Law is about to give birth, so you can take care of her in the village from now on. After confinement, you and Meiyun will be responsible for purchasing raw materials at Jingyun Factory."

Song Yun was about to give birth, and she didn't come to today's opening ceremony.

When they returned to the city in the afternoon, they were going to take Song Yun away and let her live in the hospital ahead of time.

Zhao Wenguang nodded.

He is now fully focused on his wife, but no matter what, life must go on, and he has to work when he is alive. In order to provide a better life for Song Yun's mother and son, he has to work hard.

Finance, procurement, and sales are all in the hands of the person he trusts the most, so Zhao Wenmu can relax.

"Meiyun, I have brought you two sales talents. One is Li San'er, you should know him. The other is Jin Xiaobao. He will come from the capital in two days. For sales, you should do a good job of summing up."

"Qilu and Jingcheng are the markets that Jingyun Factory will focus on developing in the next two years. You should work hard!"

After harvesting the mushrooms last year, Zhao Wenmu didn't have any suitable jobs for Li San'er, so the latter went back to his old business and wasted bills.

Jin Xiaobao continued to work in his old business in the capital, real estate agency, amateur tour guide, and helped Zhao Wenmu clean the yard and take care of the shop by the way.

These two have some talents in sales, especially Jin Xiaobao, who may be the key help for Jingyun Factory to open up the capital market!
They have always wanted to join Zhao Wenmu.

So it hit it off.

"Chen Xuekun is the chief engineer of the factory."

Chen Xuekun is currently guiding the work in the workshop.

Originally, Zhao Wenmu planned to ask Zheng Meiyun to be cautious and learn Chen Xuekun's skills as much as possible, otherwise they would always be under the control of others.

But now he changed his mind.

There is no other reason, Chen Xuekun is completely trustworthy!
Ever since the chief engineer saw the beauty of the new buttons, he was a little dazed. He wished he could work 24 hours a day and make more beautiful buttons every day.

In order to allow himself more time to develop new buttons, he spared no effort to teach young people so that they can master the skills of operating the machine as soon as possible.

I give them a small stove every day, wishing I had to let those apprentices go home and sleep.

If anyone in the factory wants someone to learn all his operating skills, it is probably Chen Xuekun himself!
"Uh, Meiyun, you also have to pay attention to the health of the old comrades, so you can't wear yourself out."

"puff!"

The already Rong Xinyi couldn't hold back.

Zheng Meiyun, who was only 17 years old, blushed from holding back.

"Ok!"

She could only nod hard to hide her smile.

"Third Brother, how should our products be priced?"

Zheng Meiyun placed 18 sample buttons on the table, 5 kinds of colored buttons, 1 kind of gray button, each style has three sizes.

"Third brother, the temporary production plan is that medium-sized buttons account for 60% of the production, and the other two sizes each account for 20%. After that, the production ratio will be adjusted according to the sales situation."

This is more consistent with the actual demand of buttons in life.

"Meiyun, shouldn't the proportion of small-sized colored buttons be higher? Currently, mainly children and lesbians use more colored buttons, and may use more small-sized buttons."

"And the proportion of gray and black pattern buttons should preferably be higher."

Zhao Wenmu suggested.

Although all kinds of colorful buttons look good, they should also be combined with the actual situation.

After all, most people still wear brown and army green clothes. Does this kind of clothing work well with red buttons?

The 80s is not a prehistoric era, the masses still have basic aesthetics, okay?
Even the beauty of this era is more simple and pure.

Zheng Meiyun carefully wrote down Zhao Wenmu's words in the notebook.

"Pricing is up to you."

Zhao Wenmu fully delegated power.

He hasn't done market research, so he doesn't need laymen to guide experts.

"Third Brother, I plan to set the ex-factory price higher!"

Zheng Meiyun was also inspired by the old Zhao's crayfish restaurant, good things should be more expensive.

Expensive and sometimes easier to sell.

"Oh, tell me in detail?"

Zhao Wenmu waved his hands with interest, and then leaned on the back of the seat.

"The ex-factory price of medium-sized buttons on the market is generally 7 cents, and the retail price is about 2 cents. In contrast, our gray and black pattern buttons have an ex-factory price of 1 cent and 5 cents, and a suggested retail price of 3 cents; The ex-factory price of colored buttons is 2 cents and 5 cents, and the suggested retail price is 4 cents."

Hey, the little girl directly increased the ex-factory price by 1-2 times.

At present, the button production cost of Jingyun Factory will be about 30%-40% higher than that of ordinary buttons, mainly because of higher raw material costs and complicated production processes, and partly because of high labor costs and low output.

As long as the output increases, the amortization of some fixed costs will decrease, and the cost of a single button will decrease.

"The ex-factory price of large-sized buttons has increased by about 50%-100%; in contrast, the ex-factory price of small-sized buttons has increased by 1.5-2.5 times!"

Zheng Meiyun clutched a few small buttons, her immature face was filled with excitement.

Zhao Wenmu understood, the smaller the size, the higher the gross profit.

This strategy is quite good. The buttons of Jingyun Factory are expensive. In contrast, the price of small-sized buttons is lower, which is easier for everyone to accept.

And small size buttons are more aimed at women and children.

Both are the main consumers at any time.

Zhao Wenmu nodded.

"According to this pricing strategy, if full production can be achieved, on average, the net profit of each colored button is about 1 cent and 4 percent, and the net profit of each other button is about 6 percent."

To be honest, this profit level is very high, because it is not bad for other manufacturers to have a net profit of 2-3% per button!

But there is a big problem behind this level of profit.

Because this means that the total cost of each colored button in Jingyun Factory is as high as 1 cent.

Others only have about 5% money.

"Why are our costs so high?"

Zhao Wenmu was a little puzzled. The cost of Jingyun Factory is supposed to be higher, but it can't be so high, right?

"The cost of our raw materials is 2% higher, the production process is more complicated, and the labor and electricity consumption is greater. This will probably add 2% to the cost."

Zheng Meiyun explained one by one without any embarrassment or panic.

"The most important thing is that our machinery and equipment are amortized according to the 7-year service life, and the annual depreciation is 3 yuan, and each button is 3% on average."

"Other machines and equipment are amortized according to 3 or 4 years, or even not amortized at all, only maintenance costs are calculated!"

The so-called amortization and depreciation are all learned from Zhao Jing.

Zheng Meiyun seized all the time to learn accounting knowledge from Zhao Jing and Rong Xinyi, and she also bought a lot of books on finance and management.

Everyone around Zhao Wenmu is trying to enrich themselves.

So far, Zhao Wenmu is very satisfied with Zheng Meiyun's performance.

Not only him, but everyone present couldn't help showing approving glances.

The first batch of test machines produced only 6000 buttons, mainly to test the stability of the machine and the results of worker training.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the production of this batch of buttons was completed, and Chen Xuekun rushed in to report his work with a red face.

"Boss Zhao, Director Zheng, and Captain Zhao, good news! Good news! Of the 6178 buttons in this batch, there are only 144 defective ones, accounting for 2.33%!"

This is indeed good news, after all, this is the first test machine.

"Twelve of them are due to insufficient fusion of pigment particles, and 12 are due to machine problems!"

"The problem with the machine is mainly due to the improper operation of the workers, and there is no problem with the operation of the equipment!"

Chen Xuekun announced loudly.

"it is good!"

There was applause from the office.

This achievement deserves applause.

"Mr. Chen, you did a great job!"

"Meiyun, tell the cafeteria to add extra meals today. I will give 5 yuan and two catties of pork to the workers in Shanqian Village and Shandongtou Village, and give 20 yuan to each of the masters from Linchang County!"

The Jingyun factory had a good start, so naturally all the workers in the factory should celebrate together.

"Mr. Chen, reward 100 yuan!"

The middle-aged talent in front of him is the biggest contributor to all this.

"Thank you Boss Zhao!"

"I'm going back to the workshop now!"

After Chen Xuekun finished speaking, he bowed deeply to Zhao Wenmu, turned around and ran back to the workshop.

Not long after, more than a dozen vendors who had made an appointment with Zheng Meiyun came to the door.

These are hawkers who set up stalls selling thread ends and buttons in various convenience markets in Pingyang County, and some are peddlers who carry burdens and sell things in the streets and alleys.

There are also a few grocery store owners with a presence in Pingyang County.

They fell in love with the buttons that the little girl Zheng Meiyun came to sell.

Although the price is a bit high, they are still willing to give it a try.

What's more, Zheng Meiyun also promised that the unsold buttons can be returned to Jingyun Factory at the original price.

Following the address provided by Zheng Meiyun to Shanqian Village, I discovered that Jingyun Factory is such a big button factory.

Judging by the young girl's age, they originally thought it was just a small family workshop.

Looking at the pile of flower baskets at the entrance of the factory area, with big and scary names on them, these people looked at each other in blank dismay, and some dared not raise their legs to step in.

After all, those large state-owned factories, they have never stepped into it!

(End of this chapter)