Brother Said
Huang Tingting left a five-star hotel five years ago to take over her father's "motorcycle factory".
Unexpected explosions, obstruction of recruitment, transformation dilemma, the ever-changing market environment, the concept of two generations of factory management violently collided, how should the post-90s "keep their jobs"?
Riding a motorcycle across the Yangtze River Bridge has long become her habit, but the mountain city road is tortuous and undulating, and it is not easy to "continue to climb".
Tencent Industrial Internet May Fourth specially planned the second phase of "Youth Factory Building", taking you into the post-90s girl Huang Tingting and her Weifu Mo matching factory.
Lead Writer: Rui
EDIT: Fork fork
The small and flexible motorcycles shuttle through the intricate mountain city, which is a unique landscape of Chongqing.
But Huang Tingting, a chongqing girl, said that when she was a child, she did not like motorcycles at all, and even had some "fears". As a child, she rode in her father's moped and accidentally fell around a corner, leaving a large scar on her left leg and knee.
Today, the scars are still there. But she has learned to drive a "large-displacement" motorcycle over the Yangtze River Bridge, step on the accelerator, enjoy the passion of the fast ignition, and feel the subtle grinding of mechanical operation.
All this change must start from her return to Chongqing Weifu Machinery Manufacturing Factory.
The "controversy" over expansion
Before cars entered thousands of households, motorcycles have always been the preferred means of transportation for Chinese people with increasing pockets. As an important manufacturing base in the period of third-line construction, under the trend of "military to civilian" in reform and opening up, a number of military enterprises, such as Jialing Group, Construction Group and Wangjiang Factory, have transformed into civilian motorcycles, and have spawned a large number of motorcycle maintenance and spare parts manufacturers. With the addition and rapid growth of private enterprises such as Lifan, Zongshen and Loncin, a motorcycle industry cluster with a complete industrial chain and huge output value has been formed in Chongqing, which has become one of the pillar industries in Chongqing.
According to data from the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, Chongqing's annual production of motorcycles and parts to nearly 200 countries and regions around the world, in 2020 alone, Chongqing exports 3.339 million motorcycles, export value of 11.007 billion yuan, the total export volume accounted for one-third of the country's total motorcycle exports (5.02 billion US dollars).
The family factory that Huang Tingting took over produced one of the most important components of the motorcycle - the "crankshaft" of the engine. If the engine is described as the heart of a motorcycle, the crankshaft is the core that supports the heart.
Chongqing Weifu Machinery Factory (Photo courtesy of respondent)
In the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, Chongqing Weifu "unexpectedly" ushered in a period of growth, and every month it was "passive" to meet the explosive orders. Their main customers are located in South America and Africa, and after the epidemic, the production capacity of the Southeast Asian factory is unstable or even stopped, resulting in a large number of international orders for motorcycle parts being transferred to China, and Chongqing Weifu has been in a state of "short supply" for two years.
This year, Huang Tingting has been "in the factory" for three years. Her father let her start from foreign trade and be responsible for sales, compared to directly entering the "difficult conditions" of the factory, Huang Tingting believes that her father's move is intentional, and the sales work is relatively comfortable. But the "explosive list" after the epidemic pushed her to the front line of "conflict".
"Every time you communicate with a customer, the other party will rush the goods." Huang Tingting counted, the factory's saturated output is 100,000 sets a month, but the customer's orders may be 130,000 or even 150,000 sets. "There is no way to solve the production capacity, you can only drag the customer's time, the delivery time to the customer is not clear, and over time it will form a vicious circle." Sometimes, even some orders have to be discarded. ”
For this situation, Huang Tingting, who is on the front line of sales, advocates immediate expansion of production, the introduction of automation equipment, expansion of production lines, and expansion of production. The factory generation Lao Huang, who pays attention to production, advocates "steady" operation and stabilizes old employees.
Whether to expand production, when to expand production, and how to expand production have become the "point of disagreement" between the factory generation of Old Huang and the second generation of Factory Huang Tingting.
Recruit people to get upset
Huang Tingting is willing to return to the factory, and Lao Huang is actually very happy, so he also spent some careful thoughts on this.
Lao Huang knew that girls did not like those greasy machinery, so at the beginning, he did not call Tingting directly back to the factory, but asked his daughter whether she was interested in international trade, and then recommended her to study at a foreign trade enterprise specializing in motorcycle exports in Taizhou, Zhejiang.
Majoring in "French" and minoring in international trade, Huang Tingting entered a five-star hotel in Chongqing after graduating in 2014. She planned to work for a few years before going to Switzerland to study hotel management. Returning to the factory is not in her life plan.
Although people are not in the factory, Huang Tingting has always admired her father and believes that he has the practical spirit of running a business - he is very tenacious and persistent. In 2001, Lao Huang and his friends set up a machinery factory, and as a result, the partners temporarily withdrew. The start was unfavorable, Lao Huang did not give up, and finally chose to take down the entire machinery factory alone and start from scratch. Without professional mechanical knowledge, Lao Huang relied on self-study to understand various mechanical principles, worried that the equipment was old and affected the quality of the product, and he borrowed money to buy new equipment. He likes to delve into products and strengthen the competitiveness of his own products in the same industry by constantly upgrading and iterative production equipment.
Weifu Machinery from scratch, from small to large, growing almost the same frequency as Huang Tingting. Huang Tingting watched Weifu Machinery change from several machine tools to several factories, expanding from a small workshop of one or two workers to a hundred people, from a monthly output of thousands of sets of equipment to a monthly output of 100,000 sets.
"[The factory] is like another child of a parent, so I feel obligated to take care of it and share a little bit of it for them."
Huang Tingting brings products to participate in foreign exhibitions (photo provided by the interviewee)
Emotions are resonant, but the differences in thinking between the two generations, which fall on the factory operation, are "magnified". Lao Huang believes that doing business should be "down-to-earth", sales will fall back after the peak, and "expansion" should still be cautious. Huang Tingting wants to try new equipment and new ways to cater to the rapidly growing demand for orders.
"I feel like my parents are thinking more about workers, and I'm probably thinking about more of customers. Because once sales fall after the expansion, workers' incomes may be affected. ”
Times are changing. Lao Huang opened a factory in his early years, and it was not difficult to recruit workers. The early employees of Weifu Machinery have followed Lao Huang since the early days of the factory, and have experienced marriage and children, buying cars and building houses in the factory for more than 20 years. "Mom and Dad treated workers like a family, and the attrition rate of early workers was almost zero."
But what lies in front of Huang Tingting's generation of factory managers is that it is "difficult to recruit workers". In the second half of 2020, when the production capacity is most tight, Huang Tingting wants to open a new production line, but "recruiting people is really upset", coming a batch of walks, coming a batch and going a batch. "You ask for what reason, and they can't say one, two or three. Young people are willing to send couriers and take-out, but they are not willing to enter the factory, and that's it. ”
In the park where Weifu Machinery is located, small advertisements for workers recruitment are posted everywhere, the average salary of the post is about 6000-7000 yuan / month, and some special jobs and even important positions can reach tens of thousands of yuan a month.
From the traditional small advertisement, to rewarding old workers to recommend new workers, to online recruitment, school-enterprise cooperation, Huang Tingting has tried again. But she still has a hard time finding "new people."
Automated "small steps"
In the factory building of Weifu Machinery, a banner with the slogan "Carry forward the spirit of craftsmanship and promote the quality revolution" was hung in the most conspicuous place.
The crankshaft is a finished product, two cranks plus an intermediate connecting rod rotation to generate power, the size and state of the product and motorcycle counterweight, engine power and other elements are related.
There are as many motorcycles on the market as there are corresponding crankshafts. It does not belong to the traditional mold molding production, different product models correspond to different parameters, the most elaborate is the "finishing" part at the end of the production stream, all relying on the experience of skilled workers, but also the spirit of craftsmanship.
Motorcycle crankshafts (photo courtesy of respondents)
"Because of this, the motorcycle industry talks about full automation and digitalization, no matter how big or how much it is." This is a limitation brought about by non-standard products. ”
Even so, Huang Tingting, who is trapped in the "difficulty of recruiting workers", still wants to make some attempts.
She chose to start in the field of "rough processing", replacing the traditional grinder with automated equipment, in the past, workers had to put up and down pieces and run-in, one person could only operate one grinder, and now as long as the product is put on the line, one person can operate four grinders. In the future, equipment such as taiwan rotation, press installation, and press can also be pushed to automate transformation, although the total investment is expected to start with one million yuan, but Huang Tingting predicts that the production capacity can be increased by more than 20% after completion, effectively alleviating the practical problem of "recruitment difficulties", and skilled workers can also focus more on the later stage of pressing and adjusting these parts.
The introduction of automation equipment has also alleviated the contradiction of the off-peak season of employment to a certain extent, as well as the problem of workers' income that Lao Huang is worried about. In the machinery processing industry, the off-peak season is clear, from September to the following year, the Spring Festival belongs to the peak season, but May to August is the off-season, once the peak season is poor, the income of employees in the off-season is too low, and it has been a dead cycle for many years. However, there is no difference in the off-peak season in the operation of the machine, which can effectively ensure the income of on-the-job employees.
Replacement of traditional grinding machines with automation equipment (Photo courtesy of respondents)
In terms of business philosophy, the factory generation and the second generation of the factory are often very different. The factory generation makes judgments based on experience, and the second generation prefers to speak with numbers and efficiency.
"Our pursuit of product quality is consistent. It's just that I prefer to rely on equipment rather than people. In my cognition, I think that data will not deceive people, and the parents' generation does not have much data awareness, which is a big difference between me and them, and it is also a contradiction. ”
The Digital Dilemma
Lao Huang started a business in his early years and invested heavily in equipment upgrading every year. He attaches great importance to the improvement of product accuracy and stability brought about by equipment updates, and hopes to form a good reputation and brand effect in the same industry through "good products", and ultimately drive sales.
Wesoft Machinery received customer thank you letters
"The higher the accuracy requirements, the greater the investment, and sometimes it may take to invest in millions. There are new investments almost every year. ”
"For the automation part, after I communicated with my dad more, he could slowly understand it, which is the change I can see." I think [automation] must be the trend, because labor costs are too high now. ”
Inside the factory, workers are manually tuning the crankshaft
(Photo courtesy of respondent)
But this is only the first step. Compared with her father's generation, the business situation facing Huang Tingting is much more complicated.
For example, although 2020 "unexpectedly" ushered in a period of sales growth, the profits of factories were not long. "Because all [profits] are covered by the increase in raw materials."
At the end of 2020, the prices of steel, aluminum, copper and zinc almost doubled, eating up the profits of traditional manufacturing, and Huang Tingting coped with the contradiction of production capacity while watching sales growth but not making money. Immediately after, the shipping was tight, the cost was raised, and Huang Tingting had to "grab the cabinet" with the customer. By the end of 2021, the international situation changed, the dollar rose, many currencies depreciated, African and South American customers began to re-examine their purchasing capabilities, and the market suddenly became depressed.
"Every year there is a new situation, and it is very annoying." Huang Tingting said.
These ever-changing external factors are forcing the second generation of factories like Huang Tingting to find a new direction for business externally, and have to rely on new methods to improve human efficiency internally, implement refined management, and promote cost reduction and efficiency increase.
Leaving the five-star hotel and joining the family factory, Huang Tingting took the "logistics" department to use the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, sales, procurement, and financial data first into the library, and then through the ERP to complete the electronic circulation. However, this system cannot enter the "(factory) site", in addition to managing inventory shipments, most of the processes in the production process are filled in through paper lists.
"The older generation of workers is somewhat resistant to the use of new equipment. Some new processes and systems, you know are good, but when you get to the scene, you can only push 30% or 50% first, because all the workers have to run away. Skilled workers are difficult to find, and those who come in behind cannot keep up, and the impact on production is even greater. ”
Huang Tingting and the workers discuss the details of production
A year ago, Li Wei entered Weifu Machinery at the invitation of Huang Tingting. His last job was in an auto parts factory, where he underwent a complete digital system introduction.
In his view, if small and medium-sized factories want to build digitalization, the current dilemma is "all-round": one is to adjust the management mode and model; the other is to assess the input cost of digital construction.
"The profit of traditional manufacturing is three or five points, to be honest, it generally takes three or four years to recover the cost, and there is no short-term benefit." It took Li Wei nearly a year to complete the entire construction process at his last factory. "Three months of research, three months of software development, and several months of on-site debugging and modification, nearly a year."
Starting from experience, Li Wei believes that standardized software cannot solve the problems of the production site well, and can only pass the standard + customized mode in the end, especially in the face of the production of non-standard products such as crankshafts. "But another problem brought about by this is the rising cost, and the standardized ERP that Weifu now uses only needs 40,000 or 50,000, but if it is customized, the cost is more than ten times."
Before the system, the factory also needs to complete the standardized production process sorting out and build a basic personnel structure. "The front-line management of manufacturing enterprises must be skilled plus management. Employees tend to be aging and their learning ability is limited, and behind the difficulty of recruitment is that young people do not enter the factory and do not sink to the front line, and there is a shortage of fresh blood, so this piece is also missing. ”
There are always more ways than difficulties. Huang Tingting, who is moving to a new factory, is still thinking about how to make Weifu go to a higher level. "The two most important things this year are to accelerate the transformation of equipment and gradually reduce dependence on personnel; the second step is to adjust the company's management structure, standardize the intelligent manufacturing, and build a foundation for subsequent digitalization."
"Now, it's just doing it as your own business. To a small extent, it is to do a good job (family business) inheritance, and to look at the big picture, it is to find and continue the competitive advantage of Chongqing Mopi. Just like driving a motorcycle through the steep slopes of the "mountain city" of Chongqing, Huang Tingting is also carrying her crankshaft to continue climbing.
Huang Tingting likes to drive a "large displacement" motorcycle to climb the hill
(Photo courtesy of respondent)