Rebirth in 1985

Chapter 702: Inspecting the Base (Part 2)

In one morning, Lu Shaohua inspected two important places, Phoenix Security and Phoenix Automobile. He had a quick meal in the canteen of Phoenix Base at noon, and continued his inspection trip in the afternoon.

According to Lu Shaohua's original idea, he was going to run from the back to the front, but this idea eventually fell through. Since the dining hall of the base was built in the middle and Lu Shaohua had just finished his meal, he didn't want to run too far and could only start from the nearest place.

The production base near the canteen is a carton factory built later, named Phoenix Carton. Don’t underestimate this carton factory, it is the only factory that makes cartons under the entire Phoenix Group. This factory does not accept orders from outside, only orders from the Phoenix Group.

There is no way. Phoenix Group has too many products, and each product must be packaged in exquisite red boxes when shipped. This has resulted in a constant stream of orders to the carton factory, and business is booming.

According to Chu Lei's original idea, when Phoenix Carton was first established, it had to accept orders from outside because of its large footprint and huge daily production volume. However, when it came to formal production, Chu Lei discovered that he was wrong, and very wrong.

There are many products of Phoenix Group in Phoenix Base, such as Phoenix computers, Phoenix refrigerators, Phoenix TVs, Phoenix DVDs, Phoenix beverages and other products. And there are many categories of products, such as Phoenix computers. Each set of Phoenix computers needs two cartons, one for the monitor and one for the host, which are packed in two cartons. And the number of finished products of Phoenix computers shipped out every day is so large that the demand is naturally high.

As for others, there are even more, such as Phoenix beverages. There are three series of Phoenix tea beverages, and two series of carbonated beverages, called Jianliding and Phoenix Lejia. Each beverage requires a carton when there are enough bottles, and the daily output is huge, so more cartons are needed.

No matter how large the area Phoenix Carton occupies, how many employees it has, or how high its output is, Phoenix Beverages alone is enough to keep Phoenix Carton busy, not to mention that there are many other products that need to be packaged in cartons, which indirectly leads to the phenomenon of having too many orders to complete.

So, sometimes when it was urgent, Chu Lei would distribute some orders and let Weng Wende's carton factory start production. If even Weng Wende's carton factory couldn't take over, he would give the orders to Fu Zhenhai's carton factory.

Originally, Weng Wende did not want to be in the carton business, but later, Chu Lei told him that he could make money no matter big or small. So Weng Wende set up a carton factory. While accepting orders from the Phoenix base, he also accepted orders from outside. However, one thing was certain, that is, orders from the Phoenix base took priority.

To paraphrase Weng Wende, I would rather breach the contract and delay other people's orders than delay the order of Phoenix Base. As for the quality and specifications, there is no need to say more, they are absolutely first-class, Weng Wende is never vague.

As for Fu Zhenhai, Lu Shaohua also showed him a clear path. At the beginning, Fu Zhenhai came from Japan and planned to do his old business in Shenzhen - real estate. In the end, Fu Zhenhai succeeded and occupied a place in Shenzhen. However, a company will always reach a bottleneck in its development. When the bottleneck cannot be broken through, it can only maintain the original business and move forward in the same place.

Whether it is Fu Zhenhai or Fu Haitao, both father and son are ambitious people who are unwilling to maintain the status quo. And with the relationship between Lu Shaohua and Anten Chiyoko, Lu Shaohua will show them a clear way forward.

This bright path is no other than the same path as Weng Wende and others, buying a piece of land next to the Phoenix Base, building a factory, and then accepting orders from the Phoenix Base and making money from it.

But then again, Lu Shaohua was pointing a way out for Fu Zhenhai, but wasn't he also giving himself a way out? The requirements for every link in the Phoenix Base were very strict. If Lu Shaohua had given it to someone else, he would still be worried. If he gave it to someone he had a good relationship with, he would be fine with whatever he asked for. He would have the quality and the price.

What's more, Fu Haitao has only one daughter, Chiyo Anten. When Fu Zhenhai and Fu Haitao pass away in the future, their inheritance will all belong to Chiyo Anten.

Chiyoko Andeng is Lu Shaohua's mistress, and she herself doesn't like the business side. By that time, wouldn't all the businesses built by Fu Zhenhai and Fu Haitao, father and son, belong to Lu Shaohua?

With Lu Shaohua's current wealth, he doesn't look down on those industries, but industry is industry, no matter how much or how little, it is still industry. Lu Shaohua would be very happy to add icing on the cake.

"Well, that's good. We can't take the whole order, so it's only right for us to release it to the outside world." After listening to Chu Lei's report, Lu Shaohua nodded in affirmation.

"It's basically like this now. We produce everything we are able to produce ourselves, and some miscellaneous items and some things that we can't finish in time are pulled out to Wende and others to produce." Chu Lei said with a smile.

Lu Shaohua didn't say anything, but the smile on his face told Chu Lei that he was quite satisfied.

What else could Lu Shaohua be dissatisfied with? It was Lu Shaohua who single-handedly arranged for Weng Wende and Ho Ying-tung to set up a factory near the Phoenix Base. Now Chu Lei's arrangement was nothing more than consideration for the development of the Phoenix Base. What else could Lu Shaohua say?

It took Lu Shaohua nearly an hour to turn the Phoenix cartons around before he left for the next stop.

The next stop is the production base of Phoenix Electronic Industry Series, which are the production bases of home appliances such as Phoenix TV, Phoenix DVD and Phoenix refrigerator.

First, Lu Shaohua arrived at the production base of Phoenix TV. With the changes of the times, the current TVs are no longer the 14-inch and 17-inch black and white TVs of the past. Phoenix TV now produces the smallest 21-inch color TVs.

In the past, when Phoenix Base just started producing televisions, Lu Shaohua was willing to produce 17-inch black-and-white TVs. However, in the later period, after bringing the technology from Russia and mastering it, Lu Shaohua resolutely gave up this area and switched to producing color TVs.

By now, all color TVs are flat-screen. According to Chu Lei, engineers at the base are working hard on research and are planning to develop more advanced technologies. In addition to high-definition ones, they are also stepping up research on LCD TVs.

There is no way. This is the trend of the times and cannot be changed by human power. The future development direction of television will be replaced by LCD TVs, and flat-screen TVs will have to stand aside.

At the same time, Lu Shaohua also knew that LCD screens had already entered the market and Phoenix TV had also launched LCD TVs, but the image quality was so poor that it was not worthy of being displayed in public.

"Regarding the screen, we can cooperate with national research institutes to see if they have any advanced technology, and then integrate it with our own technology. Maybe we can speed up the research and development." Lu Shaohua gave a suggestion.

Lu Shaohua did not forget that when Deng Lao wanted to buy long-range missile technology from him, Lu Shaohua put forward a condition that if a state-owned research institute had advanced technology that could be used commercially, Phoenix Group would have priority.

In the field of LCD screens, the national military must be researching it, because the military is in great need of LCD screen devices. Lu Shaohua is also sure that if he looks for it now, there is definitely technology that is more advanced than the technology mastered by the Phoenix Base.

Chu Lei patted his head, suddenly realizing what was going on, and then he said, "I'll go look for it during this time to see if there is any. If there is, I'll find a way to get it here."

"Yeah." Lu Shaohua nodded, and didn't speak for a long time. He looked at the TV production base for a few more times, then turned around and said, "Let's go to the next stop."

After inspecting Phoenix TV, the next thing to look at is Phoenix DVD. DVDs are not mainstream products in the market now. VCDs are still the mainstream products, and DVDs can only be considered the earliest products at most.

Since DVD format discs are rare in the market, DVDs are not very popular. However, Lu Shaohua is not worried at all. After a while, DVDs will replace VCDs and become a truly mainstream product.

Of course, the Phoenix base is also producing VCDs now. After all, it is a mainstream product. If you don’t make money, you are a fool. Lu Shaohua and Chu Lei are not fools, so the production of VCDs has not been given up.

However, after inspecting Phoenix DVD, Lu Shaohua couldn't help but remind him, "The VCD market can't continue like this for long. It will be replaced by DVD sooner or later. You have to keep a close eye on this aspect. Once the market shows signs of not going well, change direction immediately."

This was Lu Shaohua's reminder, and it also set a general direction for the development of the Phoenix DVD production base. In Lu Shaohua's heart, he had one more thing he hadn't said, that is, whether it was VCD or DVD, sooner or later they would withdraw from the market and become common products.

According to Lu Shaohua's plan, in a few years, there will be more DVD brands and the market share will inevitably shrink. At that time, Phoenix Group will end the production of DVDs, vacate the production base, and allow products in need to enter the production base.

However, the time has not come yet, and Lu Shaohua swallowed his words back into his stomach without saying them out loud. He walked around the Phoenix DVD base and, without stopping at all, went to the next inspection site.

"What's down there?" Lu Shaohua asked, turning his head as he looked at the building not far away.

Chu Lei knew what Lu Shaohua was asking, so he looked at the building not far away and answered, "It's Phoenix Refrigerator."

"Yeah." Lu Shaohua nodded, and after a moment's hesitation, he said, "Let's go."

As soon as Lu Shaohua finished speaking, he took the lead and walked towards the production base of Phoenix Refrigerator, with a hint of anticipation in his heart.

In this era, refrigerators are synonymous with novelty. Of course, this refers to China. If a family can own a refrigerator, it represents wealth. It is not about how much money a refrigerator costs, but the fact that the power consumption of a refrigerator is not affordable for an average family.

Furthermore, the current electricity supply in China is still limited and cannot supply too much electricity for households. Therefore, the products produced by Phoenix refrigerators are generally exported and the sales volume in the country is very low.