At the beginning of the 20th century, when the heat of midsummer was not as unbearable as it was a hundred years later, a piece of sweet and refreshing chilled watermelon was enough to drown out the heat of the sun and the chirping of cicadas outside the window. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

With a plaster leg in his hand, Natsuki sat in a wheelchair and watched the gentlemen at the conference table enjoy watermelons. These people of status and status eat very elegantly, and most of them eat the first piece and then do not take the second piece.

When everyone stopped, Natsuki said unhurriedly: "Business competition has always given people the impression of being fierce and cruel, but sometimes, the market is like a watermelon on the table, supply exceeds demand, whether we continue to maintain the habitual mentality of business competition or not, the facts are here - they are enough for everyone to enjoy." ”

There were ten gentlemen in formal and leather shoes at the table, and they were divided into groups of two, representing the five shipyards that had been awarded orders for the construction of Caesar-class battleships - Kiel-Germania, William-Royal, Hamburg-Volkson, Kiel-Holwald, and Danzig-Schauchen.

At Natsuki's request, each shipyard sent a chief operating officer or a senior manager of equivalent status, as well as a chief engineer in charge of the construction of the new warship.

Natsuki glanced at them, trying to capture their inner activities through their expressions.

"Let's just say that we are building ships now, all of you, which of our shipyards has a dock that is not full of construction tasks?"

The gentlemen have no objection to this.

"To get straight to the point, I have a top-secret piece of information here, because it is related to the safety of our spy personnel and whether we can obtain more valuable information in the future, I hope you can weigh the importance and not disclose it to anyone except for reporting to the top management and board of directors of the shipyard."

Xia Shu unfolded a piece of paper with a stern expression, raised his eyes and swept around, and said slowly and calmly: "The British Fearless battleship, the estimated cost is 1.6 million pounds, and the actual cost of completion is 178. £50,000 for a construction period of 26 months; The estimated cost of a single Palerophon-class battleship was £1.8 million, and the actual cost of completion averaged about £178 per ship. £60,000 with a construction period of 27 months; The St. Vincent-class battleship, with a single budget cost of 1.78 million pounds, has basically completed the hull, and the construction cost has not exceeded the budget, and the construction period is expected to be 25 months; The Orion-class battleship, with a budget of 1.78 million pounds per ship, has now been laid with keels, and the construction period is expected to be 28 months. ”

After Natsuki finished saying this, the ten gentlemen just looked at each other, each pondering the meaning behind the numbers.

After a while, Xia Shu said: "Everyone should be more aware of the situation on our side!" The Nassau-class battleships, which have been fully completed, have a tonnage of 500 tons more than the Palerophon-class, and the actual cost of 12 Krupp 11-inch guns against the 10 12-inch guns of the British is equivalent to 1.91 million pounds, 120,000 pounds more than the British, and the construction period is 3 months longer than that of the British; The Helgolland-class battleships under construction, with a tonnage of 900 tons more than the St. Vincent class, 12 Krupp 11-inch guns against the British's 10 12-inch guns, the budget cost is equivalent to 2.25 million pounds, and the actual cost is likely to increase, at least 470,000 pounds more than the British, and the construction period is 4 months longer; The upcoming Caesar-class is about to cost the same as the Helgoland class, with 800 tonnes more tonnage than the Orion class, nearly half a million pounds more than the British, and an estimated construction period of 32 to 35 months. ”

The gentlemen still just looked at each other, one by one silent. It can be seen that they are surprised that Natsuki can grasp these data, but the gap between the British and German shipbuilding industry has been around for a long time, and they are by no means ignorant of it.

Natsuki moved his wheelchair around the conference table with his hands, and said in a calm tone: "Everyone has their own mission, the mission of the shipyard operator is to make the shipyard as profitable as possible, and the mission of the shipyard engineer is to design and build the most perfect ship possible, these two missions have both similarities and contradictions, and in a well-functioning shipyard, these two missions, and even the different missions of many more characters, must find a realistic balance, I don't need to say more here!" Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us take a look a little more because we have our own professional roles on the one hand, and on the other hand we are all subjects of the German Empire, and we are all glorious members of this great country. The shipbuilding race between Germany and Britain is a fact that there is no need to evade, not to mention for the time being how much difference in the performance of the new warships built by the two countries, nor to mention that the British government has twice the advantage in available financial resources compared to ours, and there is no need to bear the high cost of the army, just talking about the cost of building ships, we have the funds to build four capital ships, they can build five warships of the same class, and they can build these warships much faster than us. In the long run, we have no hope of winning this race. ”

At the place where Natsuki passed, an old gentleman looked sideways at him and said, "But Your Royal Highness Prince Joachim, as far as I know, the construction of a new warship of the same class is more sophisticated and thicker than that of the British Navy, which is bound to increase the cost of building a ship and increase the construction period of a ship." ”

"Yes, you're right, our ships are much more survivable than the British, and this is a wise choice we made when we can't outnumber each other. In fact, it never occurred to me to reduce the cost of building German battleships to the same level or even lower than that of the British, and even less to compress the profit margins of shipyards. ”

After saying the last sentence, Natsuki noticed that several old gentlemen in his sight were slightly relieved.

At the corner of the conference table, Natsuki paused for a moment and said, "You are all the most famous veterans in the German shipbuilding industry, today I would like to ask if it is possible for us to reduce the cost of building ships under the premise of ensuring the quality of ships and the profit margin of the shipyard at the same time?" Is it possible that our shipbuilding cycle will be shortened? ”

Soon, an old gentleman in the distance replied: "The price of all kinds of ship-building materials only fluctuates with the market situation, and the possibility of human influence is very low. As for the shipbuilding cycle, it is very simple, just increase the number of worker shifts appropriately. ”

Natsuki looked at it, and the others didn't make a clear indication of this answer.

"Any other suggestions?"

Suddenly, a not-so-old voice came: "If we want to minimize the cost of building ships, we might as well analyze the advantages of the British in this regard: raw materials, British colonies are all over the world, their factories can obtain industrial minerals at the lowest price, and important materials such as shipbuilding steel can be purchased by domestic bidding, which is a condition that we cannot have in the short term; Labor efficiency, the British shipbuilding industry is the foundation of the country's survival, their shipyards generally have a history of more than 100 years, many shipwrights have been engaged in this industry for generations, and most of the colleges and universities at all levels have opened courses related to shipbuilding engineering, so their labor efficiency is difficult for any other country to achieve; Then there is the internal structure of the ship, as far as I know, the internal compartment of the British is larger than ours for a warship of the same class, the watertight system is simpler, and some protective measures are also relatively simple configuration, so the construction cost is lower and the construction speed is faster. ”

Xia Shu turned in a wheelchair with his hand, and the person who spoke was only four or five meters away from him, a middle-aged man with an unattractive appearance. As he spoke, he took off his round-rimmed glasses and wiped them in his hand, and his seemingly dim eyes had a depth full of wisdom.

"Good analysis!" Natsuki praised.

The man put on his glasses and nodded calmly at Natsuki.

Natsuki made a "please continue" gesture to him.

"At first glance, it seems that there is little room for control over the raw materials used to build ships, but in fact they are not. For example, as long as the purchase price of armor steel, which has the largest proportion of raw materials for building ships, is reduced by 1 percent, the total cost of warships can be reduced by 0.5 percent. After that, the middle-aged man glanced at Xia Shu, and seeing that Xia Shu's expression had not changed, he continued:

"Given by the labour laws and the role of trade unions, it is difficult to find cheap labour, and my personal idea is to make labour as efficient as possible, and in this respect the Royal Friedrich-de-Friedrich-de-Friedrich in Danzig is unique in the country, and His Royal Highness Prince Joachim should have a greater say than any of us here."

In terms of morale, efficiency and stability for workers, the Friedrich shipyard is indeed the best in the German shipbuilding industry at the moment, and its principle is simple, that is, to adopt a reasonable incentive system, but in this era of capital supremacy, it is almost impossible to generalize this model. In addition to this, the Friedrich shipyard was able to quickly become a leader in the field of light ship construction in Germany in just a few years, and Natsuki is proud of the magic weapon that imitates the standardized assembly line operations adopted by the American shipbuilding industry, most notably with large-scale prefabricated components.

At the beginning of the production of the "Thunderbolt" and "Thunder" high-speed torpedo boats, the Friedrich shipyard, like most German shipbuilding enterprises, adopted the traditional workshop-style production based on manual labor and internal support, and after the first expansion and upgrading, the shipyard was greatly modernized and mechanized, and the construction speed of high-speed torpedo boats was more than doubled compared with the previous one. Tasting the sweetness of large-scale production, by 1908, Xia Shu raised funds to carry out the second expansion and upgrading of the shipyard, ordered more mature shipbuilding facilities from the United States, and the assembly line production mode was successful on the 750-ton 1906 class large torpedo boats, and the 19 large torpedo boats contracted by the Friedrich shipyard were completed 10 months ahead of schedule, and the quality and efficiency were significantly better than those of the two shipyards. Next, Natsuki is also preparing to implement the standardized prefabricated parts method on larger tonnage warships, which has been initially recognized by the Navy's top brass.

"When it comes to the operation of the shipyard, although the Friedrich shipyard has performed well in recent years, it is still inferior to the shipyard where you work, which is the value of time accumulation and historical inheritance. Having said that, the construction of our new warships is imminent, and with our current construction standards and construction methods, the budgets submitted by the shipyards are fair and objective, so I have been wondering if there is really no way to change this unfavorable situation and allow the gap between us and the British to continue? ”

As he spoke, Natsuki moved back to the front of the conference table, which was his place.

"In terms of raw materials for ship building, I have asked the Navy Office to discuss the overall procurement with Krupp and Siemens, and I believe that a certain reduction can be achieved on the basis of the original price. As for labor efficiency, I have some ideas, or suggestions: now that each shipyard has a uniform size and process standard, and has its own construction process, considering the 'watermelon principle' I mentioned at the beginning, we might as well implement a comprehensive standardization process in the construction of these new capital ships, and adopt a sectional construction, component prefabrication, and mobile team approach to improve efficiency and reduce costs. ”

After proposing two new concepts, Natsuki unsurprisingly received curious and surprised glances from everyone, he smiled slightly, and explained: "Frankly speaking, the construction process of a shipyard is like a country's military secrets, which is the foundation of its foothold in the market, and sharing it with competitors is like suicide, but each of us stands under the same flag, and our bodies and souls belong to the same nation. Or the 'watermelon principle' I just mentioned, which ensures everyone's existing interests, and under this premise, relative technology sharing should be acceptable. For example, Germania Shipyard and Royal Wilhelm Shipyard have the best gas welding technology in Germany at present, and they have advantages in turret and turret processes, and if all 20 main turrets of five new warships are handed over to them, they will be able to produce a certain amount of scale utility, which will be beneficial to improve the cost, cycle time and quality of ship building. In order to save the hassle and difficulty of transportation, the 20 turrets were not entirely built in the two shipyards, and experienced turret technicians and shipwrights could be drawn from the shipyards. When a battleship enters the turret construction phase, they go to the shipyard to work until the turret is partially completed. In order to ensure the overall quality of the warships, the main engineering personnel of each shipyard will form a joint technical guidance group to be responsible for the construction of the five warships. ”

In order to avoid the suspicion of subjective partiality, Xia Shu immediately pointed out three other shipyards, which have their own strengths in power assembly, riveting technology and watertight construction, etc., so that they can cooperate in groups Although there are such and such troubles, from the perspective of scale, this is equivalent to merging them into a super-large military shipyard, and batch construction is carried out in a way close to the assembly line, so as to make up for the inherent shortcomings of the German shipbuilding industry in raw material cost and labor efficiency with advanced industrial means.

After initial discussions, only the Royal Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven explicitly agreed with Natsuki's proposal, while the rest of the shipyards had their own concerns, but did not show firm opposition or strong resistance.

In order to convince everyone, Natsuki offered a "killer feature", which is enough to make the shipyards tempted by the benefits:

"After my repeated calculations, if everyone can carry out joint construction without reservation, the total cost of the five new warships should be reduced by 4%-5%, and the construction period can be shortened by at least two to three months. I have made preliminary discussions with His Majesty the Emperor and Count Tirpitz that as long as the quality and time of the construction of the ships can be guaranteed, half of them will be subsidized as an additional incentive to the shipyards, regardless of how much the cost is reduced. At the same time, in order to ensure everyone's vital interests, I propose that the five shipyards form a shipbuilding alliance, and the cooperation technology during the shipbuilding period will only be shared within the alliance, and shall not be exported to the outside world in any form. ”

After reaching a preliminary intention at the meeting, Natsuki struck while the iron was hot, and he visited each of the five shipyards' most influential operators or directors and shareholders to persuade them to participate in his joint construction plan. Driven by the honorary call of "all for Germany" and practical interests, all five shipyards finally agreed to join. Soon after, at a more formal meeting, the operators or plenipotentiaries of the five shipyards signed the declaration of the shipbuilding alliance, and as a prerequisite for the shipyards to agree to form a shipbuilding alliance and carry out joint construction, Natsuki, as a member of the royal family and the director of naval shipbuilding, accepted the election of the five shipyards to serve as the chairman of the shipbuilding alliance and coordinate the construction of Caesar-class battleships in a dual capacity.

(End of chapter)