Chapter 119 - The Difficulty of Outsourcing

Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong Shipyard.

The sea breeze caressed the coastline of Holy Maiden Bay. The beach slipways and simple gantry cranes lined up along the coast looked imposing. Several Harmony-class ships, already taking shape, stood on the slipways, their huge ribs pointing to the sky like rows of saplings. Many workers climbed on the scaffolding, hammering and installing materials.

The keels of six Harmony-class ships had already been laid. The workers were now installing the ribs—the keels and ribs all came from the Ma’niao Iron and Steel Complex. Although wrought iron was used for the ship keels instead of steel to save time, it was still a significant achievement.

Not far from the slipways was a simple bamboo shed, which served as the shipyard’s temporary office. To complete the Harmony-class ships on time, Shi Jiantao had invested all the labor quotas and materials into the construction of the factory area, compressing all “non-essential” infrastructure projects like the office.

“This sample of yours is not qualified,” Shi Jiantao sighed, putting down the tape measure and protractor. He looked at the wooden shelves on one side of the shed, which were piled with samples recently sent for inspection from various native shipyards, and sighed again.

On the workbench in front of him was a rib plate for a Harmony-class ship. It had a standard code compiled according to the newly implemented standard code system: its purpose was an outer shell plate for the port midship section of a standard H-800 Harmony-class ship, and its material was fir.

From the first month of 1631, the shipyard in Heungshan had been building while producing. Before the official task from the Planning Department was issued, Shi Jiantao’s Hong Kong shipyard had already preliminarily completed one H-800 Harmony-class ship.

This ship was experimental, used to test whether his ideas were qualified. The results at that time were quite encouraging. From the start of manufacturing the first standard part to the completion and launching of the entire ship, the entire construction period was less than 50 days. A considerable part of the accessories were still produced by the Lin’gao woodworking factory and then shipped to Hong Kong.

At that time, a new timber processing plant was already under construction in Hong Kong. Shi Jiantao’s wishful thinking was that as soon as this factory was completed, he could make use of the rich timber resources of Guangdong nearby—by directly rafting them down the Pearl River to Hong Kong.

It was precisely based on this consideration that Shi Jiantao had the courage and vision to pat his chest and accept the order from the Planning Department. Of course, the speed shown by the Bopu Shipyard in the 901 project had strengthened his belief. The prototype of the 901 project was claimed to be ready for combat in three months. The Bopu Shipyard lacked sufficient skilled personnel and had no experience in building this type of ship, but with the help of mechanized production and modern management, the first ship of the 901 project was roughly launched within 90 days. Of course, outfitting took some more time.

According to Shi Jiantao’s idea, except for the keel, ribs, and some parts that required higher processing accuracy, which were to be manufactured in Lin’gao, all other materials would be outsourced to the Hong Kong shipyard and the native workshops in the Pearl River Delta.

At present, the installation of the ribs was half complete. The timber processing plant in Hong Kong had been successfully put into production. With the assistance of the Guangzhou station, the procurement of shipbuilding materials such as timber, flax, cloth, lime, tung oil, and hemp fibers in Guangdong was also proceeding smoothly. Through the Guangzhou station, a group of shipwrights and carpenters were also recruited from the Pearl River Delta, who were trained while working.

From any perspective, the Harmony-class ship plan seemed to be progressing smoothly. But the beads of sweat on Shi Jiantao’s forehead were increasing one by one.

The beads of sweat had started to appear on his forehead since the inspection of the first batch of outsourced products last month.

The owners of the shipbuilding workshops recruited through the Guangzhou station were very enthusiastic about outsourcing shipbuilding accessories—who wouldn’t want to get in touch with the Australians and do business! If nothing else, their strength in besieging Guangzhou and burning the Wuyang Posthouse was enough to make everyone want to curry favor. What’s more, the Australians had always been known in the business world as “honest and reliable young masters” who kept their word.

Now that they could supply materials for the ships they were building, it was like a pie falling from the sky. The reputation of the Australians for having all kinds of strange ships had long spread, and everyone wanted to learn a thing or two. And since there were rumors that the court was about to issue an order to blockade trade with Macau, fewer and fewer people were coming to the Pearl River Delta to build ships. Many shipyards had not had any business for several months. Now that the Australians wanted to build ships, everyone wanted a piece of the pie.

Shi Jiantao gave the samples and specific dimensions of the various outsourced ship materials to the outsourcing shipyards. He did not give them the drawings—not for technical secrecy, but because no one among the shipwrights could read them, and many could not even read.

However, the outsourcing of ship materials did not go smoothly. When the first batch of outsourced parts was sent back for inspection on time, the problem of dimensional mismatch immediately appeared.

The tolerance requirements for the parts of wooden ships were relatively loose, and they did not require very precise processing. But for this batch of outsourced parts, not only did the curvature not match at all, but the tolerance was also unacceptably large. Even the three trial products submitted by each workshop had very large tolerances among themselves, let alone when compared with the samples.

Shi Jiantao immediately issued a yellow card, ordering them to go back and “rectify.” He repeatedly emphasized that what he wanted were parts that were “exactly the same” as the samples.

The owners patted their chests and said they fully understood his meaning before leaving. A few days later, they sent back three new samples. The result was still not good.

“However long that board is, you have to make it that long. However wide it is, you have to make it that wide. Not a single bit can be wrong. And the shape must be exactly the same, understand?” he said tirelessly.

And so came the third inspection of the samples. Shi Jiantao felt like a student who was not good at his studies but still had to try hard in the exam, hoping for a result that was at least passable this time.

“This time it will definitely be the same. They were all made by our master foreman,” the owner repeatedly assured.

The inspection result was still much larger than the allowable tolerance. Shi Jiantao looked at the terrified owner, who was craning his neck to see the result, and couldn’t help but shake his head.

“No way, you see, isn’t this piece exactly the same as the sample you gave, sir?” Although the owner was very afraid of the “Australians,” he was a little anxious after failing for the third time. His shipyard had thirty to fifty people waiting for work to eat. They hadn’t had any business for a long time. If they couldn’t do business with the Australians, it would be difficult to even maintain the workshop, let alone make a profit.

Without the aid of measuring tools, just by the naked eye, the shape and size of this one were not much different from the sample. But under the measuring tools, the dimensional difference was still apparent.

“There’s still a gap,” Shi Jiantao said, wiping the sweat from his head with some difficulty. What to do? The wonderful outsourcing business he had imagined was like a soap bubble, colorful but now bursting one by one before his eyes.

If he let them go back to rectify now, the next batch would probably be the same. Shi Jiantao suddenly realized that he had been ignoring a problem all along. Although the parts he outsourced to the native shipyards were the simplest, standard “rough work,” these “rough work” had high tolerance requirements under the premise of standardized manufacturing.

To meet the tolerance requirements, better production tools and precise measuring tools were necessary. And these were not available in these native shipyards. Shi Jiantao had personally inspected the native shipyards. With only the crude saws and axes of the carpenters, it was obvious what kind of products they could produce. Without precise measuring tools, it was of course impossible to accurately grasp the dimensions.

This was not the 21st century, where standardized production equipment and measuring tools were readily available. Even a small electronics or machinery factory in the countryside with incomplete equipment could quickly purchase the necessary equipment from the market and start production as long as the contracting party had enough business.

In contrast, the shipyards of this era had nothing. They didn’t even have the basic concept of standardized production. If he wanted their products to be usable, it seemed that without great effort to help them rectify, and even upgrade their process equipment, it would be impossible.

This brought him back to the old path of training his own workers. Shi Jiantao almost wanted to pull his hair out. He had gone through so much trouble, and if he failed in building the H-800, he would be branded a “braggart” with an indelible stain. It was his proposal to come to Hong Kong to set up a shipyard, build the Harmony-class ships, and outsource production after standardization.

“Starting tomorrow, bring all your workers to me,” Shi Jiantao said, making a helpless decision. “We will teach them how to work, do you understand?”

“Yes, yes,” the owner nodded repeatedly. He muttered to himself: he was willing to come and learn how the Australians worked, but who would pay for the food? Dozens of people coming to this small island to eat, drink, and live would all cost money.

Shi Jiantao of course understood his thoughts, but he was unwilling. According to the rules of the old world, inspections and such were all charged. As for training, you had to pay a training fee. Even in this era, apprentices only got free food and certainly not a salary. However, at this moment, they were in need of people. Although the shipwrights were not very suitable, they were still better than new Guihua who had no carpentry foundation at all. Besides, there were not many Guihua who could be allocated to him now.

“When your people come over, we will be responsible for their food and lodging. They will follow and learn.”

And so, before evening, he reached a “training” agreement with the owners and foremen of the first batch of native shipyards that had accepted the outsourcing work. The agreement was for one month. During this period, the Hong Kong shipyard would be responsible for the food and lodging expenses, and the shipwrights would follow and learn.

Shi Jiantao thought, even if they can’t learn, at least they will have worked for a month. If it still doesn’t work out, he will have to think of other ways.