Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 373: The Aura Took Effect
3:00 PM.
At Tengda Group's warehouse on the outskirts of Jingzhou City.
Xiao Sun got out of the car with Pei Qian, with Tang Yishu timidly following behind.
She didn't know why her senior had brought her along, but she didn't dare to ask.
Zhang Yuan was already waiting to greet them outside the warehouse.
The warehouse wasn't very big. Zhang Yuan had reported before that its total area was a little over 4,000 square meters. It had only one floor, and the rent was ¥0.7 per square meter per day.
All in all, the monthly rent came to more than 80,000 yuan.
Some larger warehouses were ten to twenty thousand square meters in size, and their rent was naturally much higher. But this warehouse mainly stored various computer components, and even these 4,000 square meters were far from fully utilized.
At present, Against the Wind Logistics existed mainly to handle the "last mile" problem. Packages were delivered by other courier companies to the Against the Wind stations first, and then delivered to customers' homes by those stations.
Therefore, the Against the Wind stations took on most of the warehousing functions, and Against the Wind Logistics itself didn't have a particularly strong need for storage space for now.
Still, some goods were temporarily stored in this warehouse for various reasons.
For the Moyu Internet Café and ROF PC assembly businesses that Zhang Yuan was responsible for, their relationship with Against the Wind Logistics was mutually beneficial. Against the Wind Logistics provided ROF with door-to-door delivery service, while the warehouse rented by ROF was shared with Against the Wind Logistics. Since they were all "on the same team" and the money spent wasn't really their own, it was easy to work things out.
Originally, the warehouses around Jingzhou were pure money sinks and a great help to President Pei.
But now ROF has already turned a profit. The profits not only covered the warehousing costs but could also be used to continue expanding the business, which made Pei Qian feel pretty miserable.
Zhang Yuan had initially treated this visit as an inspection by President Pei and was a little nervous.
But Pei Qian had said on the phone that he was just dropping by on a whim to take a look and that they shouldn't make a big fuss about it.
Zhang Yuan knew that President Pei was a very down-to-earth person and didn't like his subordinates putting on superficial shows. So Zhang Yuan had only come ahead of time to direct his staff to tidy up a bit so the warehouse would look relatively neat. He hadn't gone all out with any big cleaning campaign.
He was very confident about the state of the warehouse.
Zhang Yuan led President Pei and the other two inside.
This was Pei Qian's first time visiting this warehouse, and his first impression was good.
Clean, tidy, and well-lit.
All kinds of computer components were stacked on shelves in different sections. The arrangement was a bit messy, but overall it could still be considered fairly orderly.
After all, they were mainly assembly components. The largest items were just computer cases, which didn't take up much space.
"President Pei, over here are the shelves for our various components. Since we purchase parts in large batches, there are dedicated trucks that deliver them regularly."
"After the parts arrive, there are staff members responsible for moving them onto the shelves."
"After that, we also have an assembly line."
"It's purely manual and fairly rudimentary. Sorry to let you see something so crude," Zhang Yuan said as he walked Pei Qian around and introduced the setup.
It was clear that he was quite proud of the ROF PC assembly business, after all, this was his area of expertise.
The so-called assembly line consisted of several long worktables.
There were conveyor belts on the tables, with several people spaced out along them. Behind each person were various components, and in front of them were the machines being assembled one by one.
Each person was responsible for a specific step, and the time required for each step was roughly the same.
Some steps took longer, such as the more complicated cable management. Those were handled by two people, with each person working on one machine.
There was a button in front of each person. After finishing their own step, they would press the button. Once everyone had pressed their buttons, the conveyor belt on the worktable would automatically move one position to the right.
This way, each person only needed to keep completing the step they were responsible for. If they worked quickly, they could even rest for a bit. Compared to having each person assemble an entire computer on their own, efficiency was greatly improved.
From the first step of installing the CPU onto the motherboard to the final step of installing the system and powering it on, everyone carried out their tasks in an orderly, methodical way.
Once a machine was powered on and tested with no issues, a dedicated staff member would pack it up and prepare it for shipment to the various distribution points around Jingzhou City.
After a customer placed an order, the delivery staff from Against the Wind Logistics would pick up the goods directly from the distribution point and deliver them to the customer's home.
Watching all this, Pei Qian felt a strong sense of crisis.
This Zhang Yuan was really something, he had managed to turn a plain, unpretentious PC assembly business into something with so many clever touches…
"Very nice," Pei Qian said against his true feelings, which made Zhang Yuan beam with joy. Then he led Tang Yishu and Xiao Sun around the warehouse to wander about.
After making a full round, nothing at all happened.
Pei Qian was a little surprised, and a wave of disappointment washed over him.
Logically speaking, a place like a warehouse would usually have at least some safety hazards.
For example, electrical issues, fire safety issues, general safety issues, and so on.
As Pei Qian wandered around the warehouse, he stayed on high alert, half-expecting something to suddenly catch fire, the power to go out, or something to fall from one of the shelves.
But after a full circuit, nothing happened at all!
He had to admit, this was a bit unscientific—no, un-mystical.
After taking a closer look, he realized there really weren't any obvious safety hazards in this warehouse.
Because the warehouse was so large, the shelves were spaced out quite generously.
All of these shelves had only been purchased a few months ago and were extremely sturdy. They were loaded with digital accessories, so there was no chance of them collapsing or things falling off for no reason.
As for the power lines, they were clearly installed in strict accordance with safety standards and relevant electrical safety regulations. The power was divided into separate circuits, the main switches were installed outside the warehouse, and everything was inspected and maintained regularly.
In short, at this stage, it was really hard to find any safety hazards at all.
After walking around, Pei Qian felt rather dejected.
I even brought Tang Yishu along here, am I still completely powerless?
Zhang Yuan, Zhang Yuan… are you really going to defy the heavens?
Having found nothing after circling the warehouse, Pei Qian could only return to the computer assembly area and find a chair to sit down.
That was when Pei Qian noticed that the production line used specially customized height-adjustable worktables, and each assembler had a chair behind them.
At regular intervals, the worktables would raise or lower. After sitting for a long time, the assemblers could stand for a bit; when they got tired of standing, they could sit again. Their physical well-being had clearly been taken into account.
Zhang Yuan said with a proud look on his face, "So, President Pei, I didn't disappoint you, did I?"
Pei Qian replied somewhat gloomily, "Mm, you did very well…"
Before coming, he had never imagined things would turn out like this. Zhang Yuan had made everything practically flawless.
Even with the so-called 'misfortune aura' in play, he hadn't managed to find a single flaw?
That just wasn't reasonable!
Tang Yishu sat nearby, instinctively feeling a bit constrained by the environment.
Someone passed over a can of iced cola and a bottle of warm green tea.
After all, this was a warehouse, not an internet café with top-notch facilities. Zhang Yuan had specially set up a convenience-store-style fridge and a temperature-controlled warming cabinet, so that when everyone got tired from work, they could grab a drink to refresh themselves.
Pei Qian sipped his iced cola, and in his heart, he began to think about retreating.
As the saying goes, "Man proposes, Heaven disposes."
Judging by the current situation, it seemed that Heaven itself wanted me dead.
Since that was the case, so be it. Even if ROF PC assembly makes money, I'll just think of other ways to burn it later…
However, Pei Qian had only taken two sips of his cola when he heard a worker on the production line in front of him let out a soft "Huh?"
Pei Qian's eyes lit up, as if hope had been rekindled.
He saw it clearly—the computer hadn't powered on!
That meant something was wrong with the machine and it couldn't function properly!
These assembly workers were all experienced hands, so the chance of an operational mistake was extremely low. The only plausible explanation was that one of the components was faulty!
The worker clearly knew there was a leader inspecting the place and didn't dare make a fuss. He quietly handed the desktop over to the worker responsible for quality inspection to check which component was causing the problem.
Soon, the next computer came down the line. The worker continued testing it. This time there was no problem, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
But the worker on the line ahead of him discovered that the computer he had just assembled had blue-screened.
This worker scratched his head in confusion and also didn't make a scene, simply passing the machine to the technician responsible for repairs.
Pei Qian sipped his cola, pretending not to notice anything.
Zhang Yuan, sitting nearby, felt cold sweat almost break out.
What's going on?!
Everything had been running smoothly, how could things start going wrong the moment President Pei showed up to inspect?
These were all skilled workers who had assembled countless computers. There was definitely nothing wrong with their technique.
But with one machine failing to power on and another blue-screening, it was obviously a hardware problem.
For example, a faulty motherboard, CPU, hard drive, or memory could all cause a computer to malfunction.
There was indeed a certain failure rate with these components, but… how could two faulty units show up in such a short span of time?
Pei Qian quietly finished his cola, a faint, hard-to-detect smile appearing on his face.
He stood up. "The warehouse is in good shape. Keep up the good work. I have other matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving."
Zhang Yuan felt as if he had been granted a reprieve. "Yes, President Pei! You're welcome to come inspect anytime!"
…
After seeing President Pei off, Zhang Yuan finally let out a long breath.
Thank goodness, President Pei didn't seem to notice!
If a problem had happened during President Pei's inspection and he'd caught it, that would've been impossible to explain.
Trying to tell President Pei that everything had been fine before and only went wrong when he showed up? There was no way President Pei would believe that!
Zhang Yuan hurried over to the production line and asked, "What's going on? Everything was fine just now, wasn't it?"
The repair technician looked completely baffled. "I don't know either. Hardware failure, I guess…"
Zhang Yuan was speechless. "Hurry up and fix it. Return what can be returned, and send in for repair what can't."
This batch of parts had only just been restocked not long ago, and most of them were still within the seven-day no-questions-asked return window.
Although some components didn't support no-questions-asked returns, they were still covered by warranty.
But whether returning items and reordering or sending them in for repair, both would take time.
The back-and-forth logistics alone would be a major delay.
Zhang Yuan thought for a moment. "Buy another batch of components that are more prone to failure like power supplies, motherboards, mechanical hard drives, memory, that kind of stuff… Oh right, buy extra memory."
Although memory isn't exactly the component with the highest failure rate, the problem was that ROF sold high-end custom-built PCs. Those high-end models costing over ten thousand yuan usually had all the memory slots filled.
A single PC only needed one CPU, one motherboard, and one discrete graphics card, but it needed four sticks of RAM. The probability of something going wrong was obviously higher.
So Zhang Yuan felt it was necessary to stock up in advance. Memory prices weren't particularly high at the moment anyway, and buying more wouldn't hurt.
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