Siheyuan: Steel Mill Engineer

Chapter 110 Tradition
After returning to the office, Yang Zhenyu was called to a meeting.

As the technical director, Yang Zhenyu does not need to attend many meetings, but there is no way to avoid meetings involving technical matters.

"Today, I have some good news to share with you. We have received a large export order from the Planning Commission. In terms of agricultural machinery, our factory needs to produce 3000 harvesters and 2000 rotary tillers this year. According to the information from the Planning Commission, this number is not the final number and there may be more later." Director Yang said with a smile on his face.

"This news is indeed exciting. Last year, our factory only produced a few hundred agricultural machinery, which made other factories think that our project was worthless. Now let's take a look. With a large export order, who can still say that our factory is not good enough?" Secretary Liang said happily.

Secretary Liang also has his own channels to get some information, and it is obvious that he has already known this news.

"To be honest, I was under a lot of pressure before. The agricultural machinery factory didn't have many production tasks, and the branch factory often came to me. Now, we can let them run errands." Deputy Director Wang was very happy to hear the news. With production tasks, the branch factories and workers below felt more at ease.

"There is not much demand for agricultural machinery in our country, but developed countries abroad are still very optimistic about these machines. Such export orders are not easy to come by. It took us half a year to get them, which is already very good," said Director Yang.

During this period, the West was doing its utmost to blockade flower growers, both in terms of technology and products.

It is difficult to export and it requires going through many channels, but as long as you can open a gap after a certain period of time, you can achieve a great victory.

"The second good news is that the Planning Commission has given us a quota of 4000 excavators. Our task this year is relatively heavy. The branch factory can only start construction in the next two days, and it is estimated that it will take until June to have real production capacity. During this period, we should start production at the main factory first. The task cannot be left behind." Director Yang said.

"In fact, we can provide some training for the workers in the factory, especially the third and fourth level workers. They are the backbone of our factory, and most of the production tasks are done by them. Moreover, this level of workers is different from senior workers. Senior workers really need talent, perseverance and experience, and they can't be trained just because you want to. Levels three and four are different. There is still a chance to achieve them with training." Yang Zhenyu said.

"Yes, it is very important for our factory to train our own workers while producing. Our factory has made big strides in the past two years, and the proportion of apprentices is relatively high. Although simple production work will not have much impact, it will still hinder our factory as a whole." Director Yang said after hesitating for a moment.

"There is definitely no problem with the technology. Now the engineering department has begun to focus on training workers. Except for some jobs with relatively high technical content, all other tasks are handed over to the workers in the factory. It is expected that by May, several hundred mature assembly workers will be trained. When the branch factory starts production, we can transfer a few technicians there."

"There are no major problems with production. Now the main job of apprentices is to do some simple things, and the main production work is still done by skilled workers. Even for apprentices, with half a year, there will be no problem in producing some simple accessories." said Deputy Factory Director Wang.

"Comrade Zhenyu, if you have any good ideas, please share them with us and we will discuss them. If they are feasible, it will be helpful to our factory," said Director Yang.

Yang Zhenyu's answer was relatively steady. He did not use any professional terms. He just used simple words to make everyone present understand.

"We can try to let senior workers train lower-level workers, especially theoretical knowledge. After mastering the theory, with opportunities to practice, there will always be people who can make rapid progress," said Yang Zhenyu.

Yang Zhenyu also knew that people of this era still had the old mindset and took apprentices with the attitude of keeping some skills in mind so that their jobs would not be taken away by the apprentices. This was a tradition left by their ancestors.

But the times are changing, and there are still many people who learn skills but starve their masters to death. But for ordinary workers, this phenomenon does not need to be worried.

"Although this method is very good, it is difficult to implement. We have tried this method before, but the effect was not very ideal. Most of the old masters will keep some tricks up their sleeves, and we have no way to force them, so in the end it came to nothing." Secretary Liang said with a frown.

"It's not that there is no way to solve this problem. It depends on how we handle it. If we handle it properly, we can still give it a try."

"Oh? What's the method?" Director Yang asked curiously.

"It is actually very simple. We still have quite a few senior workers in our factory. Senior workers can guide junior workers. This will not only allow a large number of junior workers to be promoted, but also give senior workers the opportunity to improve themselves," said Yang Zhenyu.

"It is commendable that Engineer Yang is able to consider the factory at such a young age. However, this method has been tried before with little success." Deputy Director Wang said with a smile.

Yang Zhenyu looked up at Deputy Director Wang. He was a little confused as to what was wrong with this guy to step on him at this time.

As a cadre and leader, at such meetings, a seemingly casual remark might have a deeper meaning, so Yang Zhenyu couldn't help but think about it.

However, after thinking about it, Yang Zhenyu understood that Deputy Director Wang was the deputy director in charge of production, and he had the final say on production matters. He was just stealing some of the company's food.

"I have also learned about the situation of old employees mentoring new employees. Although the idea is good, they did not seriously investigate the actual situation and were out of touch with the basic needs of the masses. The workers and masters all have the most basic needs, which is life security..."

"As the old saying goes, if you teach your apprentices, you will starve the master to death. We can't just let the masters teach us. We have to solve their worries. How do we solve this problem?"

Yang Zhenyu slowly expounded his views, and the other factory leaders went from pretending to listen carefully at the beginning to actually listening carefully.

The reason is very simple. As long as they have learned it, this method will still work even if they no longer work in the steel mill and go to other factories.

"Mr. Yang, please don't keep us in suspense. Can't you see that everyone is getting impatient?" Factory Director Yang said half-jokingly.

Director Yang didn't want to speak, after all, it would seem unprofessional, but everyone's eyes were on him, so he had to speak.

(End of this chapter)