Henry. Ford was shocked that the Chinese could produce different models in mixed lines, while the members of the GM delegation were even more surprised by the layout of the assembly workshop: in the huge workshop built of steel frames, even during the day, the assembly line on the right-hand side was coordinated and quiet, and unlike the general assembly workshop seen by Heskeil, the 'one' line assembly line was arranged in an 'S' shape, maximizing the use of space. At the top of the S', there is an air conveyor belt to transport the assembled parts, and at the bend of the line, there is an underground steering tunnel.

Every 100 seconds, a car rolls off the assembly line, and then it is pushed by workers to the vehicle test area on the side of the production line for testing, and finally sent to the vehicle temporary warehouse on the far left of the workshop. It seemed exactly the same as General Motors, but the problem was that the floor of the field glistened in the lights, and he was puzzled when one of the delegates said, "Mr. Chrysler once said that it would be better to have steel floors where the cars came off the assembly line, so that no dust would fly up and dirt......y the new cars."

Chrysler is Walter. Chrysler, now President of Chrysler Motor Company. Known as the 'company doctor', he increased Buick's production from 20 to 550 units a day when he was CEO of General Motors, but he eventually crashed due to a feud with GM boss Dulat, and was replaced by Mr. Sloan, the current president.

After such a reminder, Heskeel found that the floor of the assembly workshop was extremely exquisite, and the lower line, test area, and temporary warehouse on the left side were all polished shiny steel bottom plates - maybe stainless steel floors, anyway, this is also a Chinese invention; The production line and office area are marble floors, and the raw material area is shiny steel floors. Because of this, any dust is seen in the workshop. The marble floor, which has been polished to prevent slipping and diagonal lines, can even reflect a little light. It all seems to prove that this is not a noisy messy and dirty car production line, but a fine dining restaurant on a transoceanic cruise ship.

Heskel, the head of the delegation from a financial background, was just a layman to see the excitement. And was shocked Henry. Ford, on the other hand, wants to quickly take a look at the final assembly shop, and then look at the upstream of the final assembly shop, such as the engine casting shop, the stamping shop, ...... where the mystery of mixed production lies, not here.

“Waht？！” Five minutes later, Henry. Ford glared at the interpreter, then at the Chinese officials who had accompanied them on the tour, and finally at the head of the factory, Wei Ru, but now his eyes were full of hope, like the Lamb of the Lord looking at a priest.

"Yes. Mr. We can only visit the assembly workshop and some parts production workshops, and the other workshops Chinese said that they involve the company's trade secrets and are not suitable to visit. The interpreter had to repeat the words of the head of the factory under Ford's glare. They will invite us to a luncheon specially prepared for us. ”

"No, no need for a bullshit luncheon." Ford shook his head firmly. "Tell them: we need to see the whole line!"

Ford's opinion was also the opinion of the entire delegation, but obviously this is impossible, and even now, they are treated at the level of the world's largest dealers, and if it were not for the Prime Minister's Office himself, they would only go around the scenic factory area.

"General Wei's office. These are the representatives of the American delegation, our guests, and they really can't let them see the whole production line? "Coming with the Americans was Ma Junwu, a waiter of the Ministry of Works, who was very angry at Wei Ru's petty family, and let the Americans see that there would be no less meat. Why hide it? Our country and our people need self-confidence and openness.

"My lord, they're producers." Wei Ru had never met an official who helped foreigners speak. Ma Junwu's request made him very strange. "When we went to the United States as a group, yes. It's Ford that's what they're going to do, and what do they let us see? Look at the boiler room! He also said that it was useless to let us see the production line. Because we can't build cars, we can only build tractors......"

"Don't say this kind of thing, if it's not good, it will affect the diplomatic relations between the two countries." Ma Junwu suppressed his anger, not to mention the rights and wrongs of their grievances with Ford, this is obviously not to give himself face, and he does not take the Prime Minister's Office in his eyes, but this is outside the Guan, and it is a subordinate industry of the Renaissance Association, and he can't do anything with these 'beards'.

Ma Junwu's final defeat disappointed everyone, Henry. Ford even slammed the staff of civilization on the marble floor, and the beard between his nose and lips was about to blow away. Only Heskel, who was not as eager as he was, was talking to the technical supervisor Caitlin, who was curious about everything about the Dalian car factory.

"Henry's old guy is going crazy, the Chinese won't let us see the stamping shop." Far from being disappointed, Caitlin gloated at Ford's frustration - he had been working for Ford earlier, and was fired by Ford for no reason after developing another car based on the Model T.

"Why a press shop?" Heskel asked curiously, "Is this the secret of mixed line production?" ”

"Of course." Caitlin nodded, "From the perspective of the final assembly workshop, most of the Chinese use general-purpose machine tools made in Europe, rather than the special machine tools we commonly use, which makes the lathe have greater processing redundancy and scope." This is an advantage, but there are also disadvantages, such as the final assembly line car off the assembly line is 100 seconds, while the Ford is 10 seconds, and our Chevrolet line is 25 seconds. ”

Caitlin is a technologist, not a management expert, and if Mr. Taylor had been here, he would not have made that judgment. Heskel, who was happy to find the weakness of the Chinese, heard this and asked: "What happened to the stamping shop?" ”

"The stamping shop manufactures car shells and large components, and the stamping machines are the most expensive machine tools in the factory, especially the machines that stamping the car shells, which are responsible for stamping the entire car body, and need to be specially made to be particularly wide." Caitlin said, "If the Chinese really have any secrets, it should be in the stamping shop." But I don't think there's necessarily any secrets inside, and the Chinese are particularly good at using space in terms of the layout of the final assembly line, where it is more likely that three models of stamping machines are installed.

This is also the benefit of their smaller production, and the production line of less than 100,000 units per year can be combined into one production line, but we and Ford obviously cannot arrange it like this. Because except for Cadillac and Ozmobile, the annual output of any other production line is more than 200,000 units. ”

"But the annual output of Dalian Automobile is close to 300,000 units." Caitlyn asked rhetorically. He knows the annual production of Dalian automobiles.

"That's the total production, sir. Even the largest number of Volkswagen produced. Production also does not exceed 100,000 units. "The production of other models is generally between 10,000 and 50,000 units, which is why Chinese cars are not available in stock, and customers have to pay a deposit and then wait for a call from a dealer like a Christmas present."

Sir, based on this result, I don't think Chinese cars pose a real threat to us, they are only small volume car manufacturers with an extremely limited market share. Because once the production is expanded, the production line must be increased, thus losing the original advantage of small production. But if possible, we'd better buy the company......"

Caitlin said and realized her mistake: since the advantage of the Chinese is that they can produce in mixed lines and the output is insufficient, why not arrange a few more small production lines? The cumulative output of these small production lines is completely comparable to that of GM and Ford, so he finally proposed to buy Dalian Automobile - as long as Dalian Automobile is bought, everything will be GM, including this peculiar production technology in front of him.

"It's impossible." Heskeel, who was not aware of Caitlin's vulnerability, objected, "Dalian Automobile's finances are in good shape. It is impossible for the shareholders to agree to the sale, and even if they do, the price will be very high; And our economic situation is very bad, and the board of directors will not approve of our acquisition of another country's car company. Although China is a huge market. ”

After explaining why the acquisition was not feasible, Heskeel began to ask another question, which is the most important concern as a financial executive: "Alfred, why do Chinese cars have a third less insurance premiums than we do?" Can you find out from here? ”

"I think ......" Caitlin didn't expect Heskel's problem to be this, and she was slightly stunned and understood—since the implementation of the compulsory car insurance law in Massachusetts the year before. More and more states are implementing compulsory car insurance. This trend is clearly in favor of Chinese cars, as they have the lowest failure rate of all cars. And the protection measures for drivers: triangle seat belts, airbags, anti-lock braking systems and other patents are in the hands of Chinese, and any car company must pay patent fees if they want to use it.

In terms of insurance costs, the uniform insurance premium for American cars is US$125 per year[Note 140], but because of the excellent quality of Chinese cars and the strict protection of drivers, the insurance premiums issued by insurance companies are only US$83 per year, which is equivalent to a saving of US$420 per car based on the ten-year use of each car, which is almost the price of a Chevrolet.

Diverse, reliable, safe, and inexpensive to use are the advantages of Chinese automobiles. In the final assembly workshop of Dalian Automobile, Heskeel is constantly looking for why the Chinese can make the car so perfect.

Caitlyn paused, 'I think,' and it took him a long time to sort out some ideas, and he said, "Sir, I think it can only be due to the fact that Chinese workers have a stronger sense of responsibility under the relatively higher salaries," he said, pointing to the car workers on the production line who were installing wires in the cars, "Look, there is a sign hanging on each wire, I asked, it has the name of each worker and some special numbers, and if there is a failure, and the fault is found to be caused by their improper assembly, then the consequences are unpredictable." I've heard from other gentlemen on the cruise that Chinese laws are very barbaric, that they like to cut off people's heads, or cut off pieces of flesh from their bodies, and that if one person commits a crime, the whole family will be implicated......"

"Oh my God, merciful Lord!" Heskel couldn't help but draw a cross on his chest. He is now full of pity for the workers on the production line, and if it weren't for the fact that everyone is busy and numerous, he would probably have paid them less than one-thirtieth of the American workers, and subjected to all kinds of torture.

Hesquel drew a cross, and the other delegates did the same under Caitlin's explanation, not knowing that this would later become the only explanation for the quality of Chinese goods.

The final assembly workshop, the spare parts production workshop, and finally the finished product warehouse, which is very small compared to the American automobile factory, gave the delegation three impressions. First: the production of mixed lines of automobiles is barely achieved under the condition of low production efficiency; Second, the car's excellent performance is due to the Chinese government's brutal laws and strict accountability system; Third. Because the first point is that Chinese cars do not pose a mortal threat to American cars. In the U.S., their share of the U.S. auto market is less than 10 percent, and they have no intention of expanding it (due to the inefficiency of mixed-line production).

Yang Rui was a little laughing and crying when he saw this report many years later, especially the second point, which reminded him of the tea eggs of later generations. The governments of the Lighthouse Nation and the satellites of the Lighthouse Nation always look at the people of other countries as priests or priests, thinking that if I don't save them, they will all go to hell. These people have the temperament of a cowboy in the American West, treating everything as a show of justice, while their linear logic makes them lose sight of the whole problem. I always think that the iceberg is only above the sea surface, and the sea surface is empty, and the end result is to harm oneself and others.

In other words, their justice is merely a self-absorbed, self-centered show that has no regard for the actual feelings of others, especially those being helped. At the same time, with the decline of civilization, the proliferation of peace, democracy, human rights, and self-centered but meaningless American-style justice has dragged the whole world to destruction.

It is in this context that the so-called postmodernism, the so-called structuralism, emerged and flourished, and they all sketched a world waiting for Godot or the Matrix. From this point of view, the death of Western civilization is inevitable, and the 'knowledge is morality' of ancient Greek civilization and 'Jesus Christ' of Hebrew civilization. This trend simply cannot be stopped. China only needs to guard its own civilization and watch Europe and the United States follow in the footsteps of ancient Greece and Rome, and be re-enacted by the 'barbarian invasion' of black and green.

As for the first point. That's nonsense. Even if the mixed line production is really inefficient, it is not possible to produce cars on a large scale. Wouldn't it be possible to add a few more production lines? Since there are advantages in one production line, there are also advantages in the additional production line. The reason for the low production of Chinese car factories. It is because of the global economic crisis, and at the same time, it does not want to stimulate American auto companies too much in the automotive industry, so that they will completely lose the American market.

This was Yang Rui's reaction to seeing the report from the Intelligence Bureau many years later, but at this time, he was welcoming his old friend, Mr. Taylor, the true father of scientific management in history, and Dr. Mayo, who visited him with him, on his own territory.

If Taylor only paid a courtesy visit, then Mayo did so with questions, curious about an article published by Yang Rui in the Chinese Journal of Management and reprinted in an American magazine: "The Human Nature Assumptions of Management: On the Influence of Eastern and Western Civilizations on the Theory of Good and Evil in Human Nature".

From Yang Rui's point of view, this is actually a militant text attacking 'Western supremacy', because Christianity preaches that human nature is inherently evil, while most Chinese believe that human nature is inherently good, and even if there is an evil side, they also think that it can be edified. In fact, publishing this kind of article is also a helpless move, in the face of the threat of war, he can not always introduce what logistics management, production management, human resource management these hard goods, and now Tongji University School of Economics and Management has also changed the curriculum, simplified the textbook, and transferred all these majors to the School of Logistics Management of the Army University, but I did not expect this kind of article to still attract Americans.

"Lord Duke, what kind of impact will the difference in the definition of good and evil in human nature have on actual management?" Dr. Mayo's student-like question, a question he has been pondering since reading through the paper repeatedly.

Since it was face-to-face, Yang Rui had to come up with some dry goods, and he said with a smile: "The impact is very large, this is the difference between organic and inorganic." ”

"Organic and inorganic?" Mayo didn't fully understand the chemical term 'organic,' especially when used in management.

"Organic means that all workers are a group who love the factory and are willing to give everything for the factory, not just because of the wage work, the factory is their home." Yang Rui replied, not deeply. "In American factories as far as I know, there is an antagonism between the workers and the factory owners, and in order to oppose them, the workers even organize unions, and then the two sides fight like enemies, and production is thrown aside, and the customers are also thrown aside. Workers have no sense of belonging to the factory, shareholders have no sense of responsibility to the workers, this is inorganic, and the most obvious characteristics of inorganic are strikes and layoffs. ”

"Are there no unions and strikes in China?" The problem of management seems to have become a social and political problem.

"Of course, trade unions are evil, non-Chinese organizations, which do not exist in China, only guilds in China." Yang Rui smiled, "Of course, it is impossible to eliminate the strike, especially in some factories run by Westerners. They are too mercenary and have no entrepreneurial conscience and responsibility, so the workers are very dissatisfied. Chinese companies generally practice lifetime employment, believe in collectivism, workers and shareholders are one, and profit may be the basis of the factory's existence, but it is not the sole purpose of entrepreneurs. ”

"Will there be any workers who can't accept this kind of environment...... "Mayo suddenly thought of what Hoover said on the cruise ship, 'Chinese.kin', in that kind of extremely confined family, there is no individual freedom at all." Everyone wants to have their own way of working, and if a person's talent is very prominent, will it be difficult for him to accept it......"

"He can drink at least, and before the age of eighteen." Yang Rui said with a smile, as soon as this remark came out, all the Americans present laughed, in addition to eating Chinese food, they were happy to eat Chinese food, and the other thing was that they could drink to their heart's content. Mayo also understood what Yang Rui meant, not so much that Chinese were imprisoned under collectivism, Americans were bound by countless moral and religious habits, and alcohol prohibition was one of them.

After everyone laughed, Yang Ruicai said: "If I had never been to the United States, then I would definitely imagine the United States as an authoritarian country, because there is no happiness in a country where you can't even drink alcohol, and this country often says that people are sinful, and that people are sinful from birth." But there are still so many people who like the United States, including me, so many things are relative, not at all like those with ulterior motives preach: the United States represents freedom, and China represents autocracy.

If a person is born with outstanding talents, then according to the Chinese education system, he should enter high school after graduating from junior high school, not a technical school, and then go to university, master's, doctoral, postdoctoral ......, he can become a scientist, a professional researcher, instead of entering a factory to become a worker. ”

Yang Rui briefly said that China's current education system -- it has completely changed, in order to prevent too many children from poor backgrounds from entering universities, compulsory education has begun to be fully marketized, so that the children of the poor can not go to school, they rely on their own efforts to read and write, obtain graduation certificates, and even go to the county government to receive compulsory education incentives with graduation certificates. The consequence of this is that it is difficult for them to get into high school, especially college, especially if college enrollment is no longer expanding on a large scale.

In this way, social classes will be completely separated throughout the educational system, and the ruling hierarchy will eventually be maintained. If you don't distinguish between the 'high and low', everyone speaks based on their scores, and the result is that students with backgrounds have smooth sailing and achievements in their careers after graduation; Students without a background are either useless in their studies or become fruit sellers. As a result, education based on scores is largely wasteful, especially for poor families who are in poor circumstances and urgently need their children to graduate and earn money.

Yang Rui spoke with a twinkle in his eyes, but Dr. Mayo did not know the story behind this flickering gaze, and he asked instead: "If you don't lay off the workers, how will the factory survive the economic crisis?" ”

"From shareholders to workers, everyone is tightening their belts and finding ways to deal with the crisis." Yang Rui said lightly, "The factory belongs to everyone, and bankruptcy is not good for everyone." In fact, for confident entrepreneurs, every economic crisis is a good opportunity to eliminate competitors, and they will find that many competitors who cannot be defeated in the market go bankrupt one by one during the economic crisis. From this point of view, the economic crisis is more of a grind, and it is good to get through it, because every crisis is followed by a boom, just as winter is followed by spring. (To be continued.) )

PS: Note 140: Vehicle Insurance and Claims, p15.