In order to keep the new factory running smoothly, Wickham invested another £5,000 in it to fund the salaries of the workers and the purchase of various raw materials. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info this money can be supported for a period of time for the current small textile factory.

Of course, the most important financial power for a company, Wickham did not hand over to Blake, the technical director of the factory, but to his henchman Ruhr.

Ruhl is a very flexible kid with a very quick mind and an unusually sensitive number sensitivity, making him a good seedling in business. The only drawback of Ruhl is that he has a somewhat low level of education and limited room for upside. Wickham was aware of this, so he kept Ruhr with Bert Chelsea on his way back to Britain from the Qing Kingdom.

Bert Chelsea himself had a good sense of the private, named Ruhr, so he was happy to teach Ruhr the most basic English grammar and simple arithmetic. Over the course of a year, Ruhr, a clever boy, had learned so well that he could at least read through the 1611 edition of the British King James Bible, which was why Wickham was determined to train Ruhl.

As for the simple and crude supervision system in the factory, Wickham decided to abolish it directly in his own factory, such a worker management system is too rudimentary, and it is completely useless to improve production efficiency except for some role in maintaining production order. Wickham, who has 200 years of experience, decided to imitate the sweatshops in the Pearl River Delta region and establish a new factory management system to stimulate the enthusiasm of workers and improve the production efficiency of the factory.

There's a reason why Wickham doesn't focus on the development and adoption of advanced equipment, but on the management system of the factory. First of all, he Wickham is just a liberal arts student, and he may understand some mechanical and technical principles very well, but it is not so simple to translate into full-fledged equipment and products, at least he thinks he can't do it. Therefore, the possibility of relying on new technologies to achieve a monopoly on a certain industry in the market is almost zero.

Secondly, in addition to the leading hardware equipment, the soft power of the factory management system is also very important. Wickham understands very well that his advantage is more than 200 years of knowledge, so he can only work the management system and lead the competitors of this era with advanced management concepts. And the new system he is about to implement is his secret weapon.

Wickham's first step was to prepare to promote some honest and hard-working, or slightly skilled textile workers among the more than 300 textile workers, to serve as workshop directors in the workshop, the main task was to maintain the production order in the workshop, and to evaluate the wage rate of the workers in the workshop according to the quality and quantity of the workers' products.

What Wickham didn't expect was that as soon as his decision was announced, it immediately aroused great enthusiasm among more than 300 workers in the factory. Although those workers don't know exactly what kind of position the "workshop director" is, they all know that being a workshop director can manage dozens of workers in the entire workshop, and the salary will be doubled!

These textile workers had little hope of living in the first place, and their daily life was only to work mechanically in factories and earn a salary to support their families. As for the upward passage, it was basically blocked, and the factory owners preferred to hire some vicious overseers outside the factory to be foremen than to promote the workers in their own factories.

But now it is different, the factory owner, Mr. Wickham, has announced that as long as he can become the workshop director, not only will the salary be twice as much, but he will also be able to manage dozens of workers! In the simple world view of the workers, such a position is already very advantageous for them as poor workers, and this naturally arouses the enthusiasm of the workers for competition.

Most of the workers, in order to show their abilities in front of the new factory owners, showed 100% enthusiasm for their work, and devoted themselves to all kinds of spinning and weaving machines, hoping to produce the most and best quality products in the shortest possible time, so that the new factory owners would be impressed with them.

After waiting for the end of the week, Technical Director Blake got the latest statistics, and he couldn't believe his eyes! In just one week, the yield rate of the factory has increased from 78 percent to 91 percent now, and the output has directly increased by 30 percent!

After more than ten years in this industry, Blake has never seen a factory that can make the production efficiency of the factory too high by 30% without adopting new technologies or new machines, simply by revising the management system! It's just incredible! This made Blake realize the power of management system innovation, and also recognized the ability of the young factory owner more, and all the previous miscellaneous ideas were swept away.

"Mr. Wickham, this is the last week's stats, and our productivity has increased by a full 30 percent, which is incredible!" Technical Director Blake respectfully handed the stats to Wickham, expecting the young factory owner to be taken aback. But he didn't expect Wickham to look calm, as if such a result was not unexpected to him. In this way, Blake admires Wickham even more.

Wickham took the statistics, glanced at them a few times, and was overjoyed, but he still deliberately said in a flat tone: "The effect is not bad, but this is also because of the selection of workshop directors, these workers will work so hard." After the list of workshop directors is determined, the production efficiency can be increased by about 25 percent, which is already good. ”

Blake nodded yes, he naturally understood this reason, but it was a huge improvement of 25 percent. Blake handed over a list of workers and said respectfully, "Sir, this is the list of the twelve workers who produce the most products and have the highest pass rate in this work week. As originally agreed, these workers would be appointed as the new workshop directors. ”

Because the cultural quality of those workers is miserable, these data are personally counted by Blake and several technicians these days. This week, in order to complete the statistics of these data, those technicians were almost not laid down by the thunder.

Wickham didn't take the list, but waved his hand and said, "You can handle these things, you don't have to use me to look at them." By the way, the cultural quality of these workers is too low, and when these twelve workshop directors take office, they should ask a priest's assistant from the parish church. Let the pastor's assistant teach them the most basic grammar and math in their spare time at work in the evenings, and change them if they don't learn well! ”

The literacy rate of the workers is so low that it is impossible to pick a general among the short people. And for those who are educated, the post of a workshop director and a salary of two shillings a day are not at all attractive to them. As a last resort, Wickham had no choice but to open a literacy class similar to that of the later Great Celestial Empire, regardless of how well he learned, as long as he could read and write.

After listening to Wickham's proposal, Blake said with a sad face: "Mr. Wickham, I am afraid it will be a little difficult to invite the parish priest's assistant...... Besides, those who are inferior only need to know how to work diligently, so why bother to give them literacy? ”

Blake was born into the burgher class, and although he was far from the gentry and aristocracy who dominated the country, he also had the pride of the burgher class, and one of the Blake family members was serving as a judge in the circuit court, and the inherent class mentality made Blake very reluctant to learn cultural knowledge from those workers.

Wickham knew Blake's concerns, but he didn't have the leisure to be a social reformer. All he wanted was to increase the productivity of his own factory. "Blake, if these workers are illiterate, will you do the assessment of the wage rate of more than 300 workers in the future? Do you still have a clerk in each workshop who is responsible for copywriting, and you pay your salary? ”

A series of rhetorical questions directly stunned Blake, and he didn't know how to answer. The wage rate assessment of more than 300 workers, as well as the data recording work, were all done by him, and he was exhausted to death. As for hiring a clerk, it's a joke that one clerk can pay more than ten workers, and this will only increase the cost of production.

Seeing that Blake couldn't say a word, Wickham softened his tone and said, "You can do this immediately." As for the parish priest's assistant, with a salary of sixty pounds a year, plus the opportunity to preach to the workers individually, I believe that the important is not a fool and understands this. ”

Blake had no choice but to nod and say, "I see, Mr. Wickham." ”

Remembering something, Wickham continued: "This week's wages will be paid to the workers at the high rate, so that the workers can feel at ease with the new system of the factory." ”

Since Wickham took over the mill, he knew that many workers were still suspicious of the new system implemented by the factory, but it was only because of the current economic conditions that they did not leave the European Textile Group to work in other factories. In order to reassure these workers, Wickham had to be generous when he paid his first salary.

"Yes, Mr. Wickham." With that, Blake put away the papers on the table and respectfully exited Wickham's office.

After Blake left, Wickham turned his head and asked Ruhr, who was sitting at another desk as a secretary, "Ruhl, relax, don't sit so upright, tell me what you think." ”

Hearing this, a trace of excitement flashed on his face, and then he hesitated a little when he thought of something: "Young master, the data that Mr. Black brought over shows the feasibility of your method, but ......"

Looking at Ruhr's look of wanting to speak and stopping, Wickham was a little happy, this kid definitely has something to say, but he is afraid of annoying his boss, so he looks like he is stumbling. "Ruhl, if you have anything to say, just say it, I'm not a person who doesn't listen to opinions."

Ruer thought for a while, and then said: "Young master, those workshop directors alone have to manage more than 30 people, they are not like the previous supervisors, as long as they see whether the workers are working hard, they also have to record the pass rate of the workers in a week and the number of products produced, and supervise the production order in the workshop, so whether they can manage it has become a problem." ”

Wickham nodded, he didn't expect Ruhl to think of this aspect, it was really not easy. He had thought of this question for a long time, but there were too few people available now, so it was the only way. In order to test Ruhr, Wickham said with interest: "So what do you think should be done?" ”

Ruhr paid attention to Wickham's face for a moment, and then said: "Young master, in fact, we can assign a manager to each mule machine and power loom to manage all the workers who operate this machine, and these managers are responsible to the higher-level workshop director, so as to enhance the management and control of the workers in the factory." ”

The "production team leader" of later generations? Wickham didn't expect Ruhr to come up with this solution, it seems that this guy is very capable of learning, and what is even more commendable is that this guy can integrate a lot of things. Wickham understands that as long as Ruhr can grow, it will be a big boost to his career.

Wickham glanced at Ruhr appreciatively and said, "There is no rush in this matter, and when those workshop directors are competent for the current job, we will start training qualified team leaders." Tomorrow, you and I will go to the War Department first, and it will be time to find a suitable buyer for the cotton cloth we produce. ”

PS: The British are very stubborn about class, and it is very difficult to make leaps between classes, even in modern society. If you are interested, you can watch a BBC documentary that follows and shoots a dozen 7-year-old children every seven years until they are 56 years old this year. It turns out that the children of the elite are still in the elite class, the children of the middle class are still in the middle class when they grow up, and the children of the poor are still poor. Of those poor kids, only one made it to the university professor, but that's about it.