Big Factory of Da Bing Part II

Big Factory of Da Bing

(Part II)

Photo by Ning Zhouhao

Source: Popular Photography

A New Enterprise Forging Ahead amidst the Economic Downturn

The new equipment was installed and tested successively. However, since the operating power of 「computer-controlled cutting machine」 was 28 kilowatts and the cleaner ran under 5 kilowatts, once the carving machine was turned on at the same time, the power would be tripped. Worse still, the full-automatic edge bonding machine could not make slots due to the voltage instability, and yet a special transformer cost over 100,000 yuan, which was beyond Da Bing』s reach. Thus, he could only buy a stabilized voltage supply at an expense of more than 3,000 yuan. Adding the everyday cost of the booth rental, 1,200 yuan, workers』 wages, 1,500 yuan, and electricity fee, at least 100 yuan, Da Bing was really stressed, even waking up thinking of these figures every morning.

Da Bing utilized the carving machine to cut special-shaped panels and sealed edges of special-shaped table boards with specialized edge bonding machines. With these seemingly more advanced techniques than what the other factories adopted, Da Bing took orders that could not be taken before due to technical limitations, and enabled the factory to weather through the slackest times of June and July. Not only the daily expenses were earned, but the money required for developing new products for the fair held in August was in place. Seeing these achievements, Da Bing recovered his confidence.

The home-furnishing industry downturn forced one third of the village』s factories to 「be on holiday,」 which was just a fancy saying of 「suspending production.」 Confronted with the market depression, Da Bing had been adhering to the belief that opportunities always went hand in hand with crisis. In his view, furniture enterprises, facing the possibility of being shut down though, would never vanish. The current market depression was only a representation of the actual changes of market demands: The customers, different from the situation several decades ago, were willing to pay a higher price for better products and services. Cost raised by 20%, he could totally produce products up to the standards of the 「Guangdong Furniture,」 hence receiving more orders.

Gong Wanrong was looking after his granddaughter. He never stopped worrying about his son』s leaping development until Da Bing signed up 12 orders at the fair held in August.

After work, Da Bing and his sister were playing with the kids at the factory gate. They two have always been on good terms. And it was also for his sister』s help that Da Bing started his business smoothly.

In the warehouse of the second floor, Gong Wanrong spared an activity space for the kids, installed a swing and prepared some other toys. The kids love to play here and name the space 「square.」 Once having some time, Da Bing would come here to play with them.

For the country roads are narrow, riding on father』s electro-tricycle to buy spare parts in surrounding areas is even more convenient than driving a car.

Whether Da Bing could win over some orders from wholesalers on the fair held in August bore great importance to his factory. To attain a better result, Da Bing, adopting Ma Fei』s suggestions, applied for a domain name in a downtown network company, designed a website, and opened a public WeChat account for his factory. He also prepared publicity pamphlets, customized souvenirs and drafted key customers』 reception plans. The most critical thing, in his eyes, was to make a batch of quality samples that would impress the well-informed wholesalers.

However, things did not go as smoothly as he had anticipated. On the one hand, the factory operation required a large amount of money; on the other hand, the buyer』s market remained sluggish. Therefore, he had to go all out for every order, even though the margin might be narrow. When discussing business and measuring pace for 92 sets of wall units to be used for a five-story apartment built in a coal harbor』s railroad wharf in Rizhao City, the couple traveled forth and back between Jinan and Rizhao for several times. In order to save time and expenses, they chose to return within a day, leaving home at four or five o』clock in the morning and getting back at midnight. The period of furniture installation coincided with the hottest days in summer. Da Bing led the workers to carry every piece of furniture upstairs on their backs. It took the six of them six full days to carry all of the two trucks of goods. To close this deal, Da Bing spent over 7,000 yuan solely for the transportation fees and accommodations during the installation period, leaving himself only enough money to pay for wages. However, to ensure timely delivery, he delayed sample production for the fair. Meanwhile, the working period of furniture installation in Qufu City had to double due to the foreman』s negligence. To pacify workers dispatched there, Da Bing had no other choice but to suppress his anger and let the foreman arrange accommodations for all workers properly. He blamed this for the lack of responsibility of the foreman, but deep inside he believed it was a result of his incomprehensive management. To make things worse, the contradiction between Mr. Wang, the factory director hired at a high cost, and Mr. Jiang, the former workshop manager, was getting increasingly acute. So many problems arising out of management were all beyond Da Bing』s expectations.

Da Bing divided the workshop into eight quarters, each strictly designated with a responsible person. The responsible persons shall be held accountable for the cleanness of his quarter as well as the arrangement, repair and maintenance of materials and equipment there. Their performance would be evaluated with certain standards. Furthermore, the workers must follow the management of the workshop manager Mr. Jiang. Through workshop sanitation efforts, Da Bing started to manage all aspects of the factory in a strict and delicate manner.

In the General Manager』s office, Da Bing, together with Ma Fei and Mr. Jiang, was calculating the product cost. Mr. Jiang, a native of Jiangxi Province, was a veteran worker of the factory and was responsible for implementing the production scheduling.

A Small Factory Struggling in the Big World

In 2015, the 14th Jinan International Furniture Fair kicked off. It was the first time for Da Bing to participate in such a big-scale fair as an exhibitor. He rented a booth in the Office Furniture Exhibition Hall on the third floor. Covering an area of around 200 square meters, his booth was one time larger than the others nearby, which cost him around 60,000 yuan for the three-day showcase. The design of the over 50 samples demonstrated was Da Bing』s 「core secret.」 To ensure that nothing would go wrong and no trouble would be caused by a long delay, Da Bing willingly paid high overtime wages to ask workers to work overnight, so as to shorten the manufacturing period to the largest extent.

Da Bing registered on the Internet with his real name in a network company. Under the suggestions of Ma Fei, he applied for a domain name and opened a public WeChat account for his factory. Though familiar with networks, Da Bing still had no idea about how to do publicity and marketing on the Internet. Network building was only the first step he took toward this direction.

After the domain name was registered, Da Bing chose not to do network marketing as the network company suggested. For one thing, it was costly to market online; for another, he still believed that a company could only thrive with quality products.

On the early morning of August 20, the fair was inaugurated. For the past three days, Da Bing and his workers had been busy preparing. However, the traffic was considerable only on the first day, while just a few visitors came on the second and third days. During these three days, Da Bing reached cooperation intent with 12 parties. Though incomparable with the pomp last year, the results, largely attributed to the samples specially prepared for the fair, were still better than what the others had achieved. The samples were so popular that about half of them were bought on site by some customers. Simply with the orders placed this time, the factory could continue with its production till the end of the year.

Hearing from his friends that there would be two international furniture fairs in Shanghai in the early September, both of which exceeding the one held in Jinan, adding that all of them had never been to this metropolis, Da Bing thought it might be great to learn something on the fairs and go for a sightseeing by the way. While in Shanghai, Da Bing was really excited to appreciate the night views of the Bund and see so many foreigners on the Nanjing Road for the first time — the scenes once could only be seen in the TV series The Bund appeared right in front of his eyes at the moment.

The Shanghai International Furniture Fair was really massive. From finished products to materials and spare parts to processing machinery and marketing methods, the fair showcased everything of the furniture industry. However, Da Bing was more and more depressed, because many new things were displayed on the fair, which made him realize that the equipment and techniques he adopted back home for no more than three months were already out of date. A great number of large-sized southern factories had started to develop panel furniture, and even those paint vehicle factories were introducing plywood furniture of self-owned brands. All of these factories adopted environmentally friendly materials and sophisticated techniques to manufacture low-priced goods on large assembly lines. How could small factories survive! Here really came the wolves! No longer daring to see more of it and having no intention to idle around in the city anymore, Da Bing bought a train ticket and went back home the very night.

Da Bing hired a worker specialized in carving machine operation. A native of northern Jiangsu Province, the newly hired man exceled in his workmanship. Satisfied with his work, Da Bing planned to assign him with the job of operating the newly installed 「computer-controlled cutting machine.」 Nowadays, it is not that easy to find a skilled and dedicated technician.

Sometimes, the factory could run short of trucks. On such occasions, Sun Jiayuan proposed delivering goods with an automobile. Though it might take several times for delivery, at least they would ensure timely service as agreed upon with customers.

It took them two days to finish the installation and testing of the computer-controlled cutting machine. At half past seven at night, they finally succeeded. Da Bing took this photo with the electrician Chen Fugui and the installation technician Mr. Wei. The equipment is said to be the first computer-controlled cutting machine adopted in the northern area of the Yellow River. Once put into service, it can not only increase the working efficiency fivefold, but also significantly improve the product quality.

On the train back home, Da Bing was reading the book Partners he just bought in the train station, trying to find power between lines.

After attending the fair, Da Bing realized that the techniques and equipment popular last year had started to go out of style this year. Many large-sized furniture factories had already set foot in the field of panel office furniture, further squeezing the living space of his own products. The excitement he felt upon the arrival at Shanghai was fading and a sense of anxiety took over.

On the train back home, Da Bing was reading the book Partners he just bought in the train station, trying to find power between lines. Shortly after he arrived in Jinan, Da Bing recommended several books to villagers via the QQ group, including Psychology Knowledge You Should Know in Doing Business and Ma Yun』s Philosophy of Life for Young People. However, no one responded. Later, he proposed to establish a furniture association of Maojia Village, still receiving nothing in response. For the large-sized factories in South China, the key to manufacturing quality products at a low cost was the adoption of assembly lines, which could not only improve working efficiency and product quality to a large extent, but greatly reduce the labor cost. Advanced in techniques and equipment, abundant in capital, and experienced in design and management, the large-sized southern factories far exceeded the one of Da Bing. More equipment was needed for the formation of an assembly line, but the new factory building was not suitable for this kind of operation. All these plights seemed to have confronted him four years ago when he failed in the office desk business. Merely the thought of future frightened him greatly.

Therefore, he started to fish all day long, getting much tanned under the sun.

After the National Day holiday, Da Bing reckoned that, with an annual output value of around three million yuan, he could barely repay the loans for the construction of new factory buildings, and the money used for buying equipment could only be earned back in the next year. At this point, he had a divergence with Ma Fei: While Ma Fei wished for continuous revenue, thus recouping the capital outlay and getting some profits, Da Bing maintained that she was only seeking for economic benefits and did not understand his thought of preparing for the future market that had more serious competition.

Taking the large-sized furniture factories he saw at Shanghai International Furniture Fair as his opponents, Da Bing, instead of settling for the 「reputation」 as the largest factory in Maojia Village, is determined to carry forward his father』s business that has gone on for over two decades. To do this, it is essential to make the production team more unified. If he can achieve the operation goal of this year, Da Bing will focus on promoting the factory management to a new level. Apart from figuring out how to establish an assembly line, Da Bing plans to certify his products for environmental protection certificates and to increase the workers』 salaries and welfare. In the future, the company shall develop into a joint-stock one, with everyone being the owner of it and fighting for the future of oneself, instead of earning some salaries as now. Ultimately, Da Bing wishes to found his own corporation through cooperation, manufacturing not only panel furniture but also office chairs, sofa and every other thing usable in offices. By that time, the livelihood of Maojia villagers will have been even better than that of Jinan dwellers, everyone living in commercial residential buildings, every child studying in urban schools, and the elderly dancing merrily in squares at nights…

According to Da Bing, the construction of factory building has finished; the equipment has been installed; and the fair has concluded. However, the factory management still lags far behind. Though the piece wage system has already been in place at the beginning of the year, nothing has actually been put into practice yet. The importance of workshop cleanness has been emphasized for several times, but the situation is still frustrating. Da Bing has to halt production and ask workers to clean their quarters, the total labor cost adding up to over ten thousand yuan.

Da Bing finally comes to realize that problems awaiting solutions cannot be tackled within half a year or a year. At present, even Da Bing himself is uncertain about what he wants to do with the village』s largest factory he has set up. He can only set a long-term goal and move toward it step by step as the ants endeavoring to move their houses.

Da Bing has a photographer to take photos of his new samples. The photos are to be used on his website, public WeChat account and product catalogues. It is Ma Fei』s idea to take quality pictures of their products and post them online. Though still uncertain about online marketing, they understand that the Internet, powerful as it is, will be of great help to their factory』s development.