The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 853 - 852: What Kind of Medicine is Sold in the Gourd

Chapter 853: Chapter 852: What Kind of Medicine is Sold in the Gourd

After listening to Shen Mingzhu’s explanation of how the oven works, admiration and awe appeared on the managers’ faces.

By this time, the mooncakes on the cooling rack had been cooled and were being conveyed to the next process—egg wash brushing.

Rows of neatly arranged mooncakes, like little soldiers at a military parade, passed through brushes soaked with egg wash, getting thinly coated with the liquid.

The mooncakes brushed with egg wash were then conveyed into Oven No. 2 for baking.

At the same time, the second batch of five hundred mooncake dough pieces was completed and conveyed into Oven No. 1 for the first round of baking.

The entire production line required only two workers.

One responsible for the supply of materials, the other for monitoring and adjusting the production process.

Before long, the baking in Oven No. 2 ended, and the first batch of five hundred mooncakes came out successfully, conveyed to the packaging workshop awaiting packaging after cooling.

Shen Mingzhu led the managers into the packaging workshop, randomly selected twenty mooncakes, cut them into small pieces, and tasted them with the managers.

"The texture and flavor are nearly identical to those handmade by our workers!"

"Yeah, it tastes the same to me anyway, and the waste rate is even lower than manual production. Of this batch of mooncakes, only two had poor color; the rest were fine."

"Our factory’s mooncake production can be directly replaced by these production lines in the future!"

The managers all looked toward Shen Mingzhu with eyes full of admiration.

No wonder the boss wasn’t worried at all when he found out that the workers’ wages for mooncake production had increased this year. It turned out he had an ace up his sleeve.

Orders were in place, capacity was available, and the factory’s resurgence was in sight!

The remainder of the first batch of more than four hundred mooncakes was directed by Shen Mingzhu to be distributed among all factory employees, so everyone could taste the results of the new production line.

She also wanted the workers to understand that advanced production technology could completely replace manual labor.

Times are progressing, technology is developing; keeping up with the times is the only way forward.

"President Shen, not many factories in the country have such advanced automated production lines. Did you decide to install this on a whim, or did you have plans for it all along?"

After coming out from the production workshop, a production department manager couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked.

The other managers, hearing this, all turned their gaze toward Shen Mingzhu.

Shen Mingzhu smiled slightly, "I won’t hide it from everyone. I had the idea of introducing automated production lines three years ago. During the years I wasn’t working, I have been doing research in this regard."

Everyone suddenly understood and felt even more heartfelt respect for Shen Mingzhu, the initiator.

Back in the office, Xia Wushuang reported excitedly, "President Shen, everyone who tasted the mooncakes produced by the production line is very concerned."

Shen Mingzhu laughed, "You can tell them that as long as they do their own jobs well, the factory will not lay them off just because of the introduction of automated production lines."

Xia Wushuang nodded hurriedly, then remembered something else,

"President Shen, about the secret you mentioned not to divulge, can we reveal a little now?"

Worried that Shen Mingzhu would refuse, Xia Wushuang explained, "Today is already the 18th, and there are less than forty days until Mid-Autumn Festival. Excluding transportation and scheduling, the maximum production cycle we have is thirty-five days, I’m afraid that we won’t be able to complete the order of 350,000 boxes."

Shen Mingzhu didn’t answer but took out a stack of beautifully printed mooncake coupons from a drawer.

"This is the secret I was talking about."

"Is there something special about this mooncake coupon?"

Xia Wushuang looked at the coupon, still confused.

Shen Mingzhu handed over a mooncake coupon, "If you had a mooncake coupon, what would you do?"

"Of course, I would go and exchange it for a mooncake."

To save on transport costs, food factories began using mooncake coupons many years ago.

Shen Mingzhu took seven or eight more coupons from her thick stack, "What if you had a lot of coupons? You obviously can’t eat that many mooncakes, and you couldn’t give away that many as gifts either."

Xia Wushuang blinked, "Then I would have to sell them at a low price to scalpers."

"What if I offered to buy them back at the original price?"

Xia Wushuang’s mind spun and then grasped Shen Mingzhu’s intention, eyes widening, "We sell the mooncake coupons and then buy them back at the original price, so we don’t need to exchange them for mooncakes and don’t need to produce them!?"

"But isn’t that too risky? Aren’t you afraid that someone will make fake coupons to fool us? And what about the printing costs and taxes? Wouldn’t that be clearly losing money by doing business?"

Shen Mingzhu picked up a mooncake coupon, pointing to the nine-digit number under the anti-counterfeit label,

"In the past, to exchange for mooncakes, you only needed to verify the anti-counterfeit label, but this year there’s a new number. I asked Lihua to help me develop a background exchange system—each coupon corresponds to a number, and numbers that have been used for an exchange are immediately voided in the system."

"The most important thing is, this system is networked nationwide, so even in different cities and stores, once a coupon is exchanged, all staff can check it through the computer. This greatly reduces the chance of counterfeiting and double redemption."

Xia Wushuang, who had a background in computer science, caught on immediately.

"I get it now. President Shen, you’ve been promoting office automation and encouraging everyone to learn computers from the very beginning, setting the stage for this exchange system. You’ve been playing a long game!"

Shen Mingzhu laughed, "You’re quite clever."

...

"President Shen, Director Chen from Lejia called, saying they’d like to come and visit our new mooncake workshop."

The news of the food factory’s introduction of the automated mooncake production line had spread among peers a few days ago. There was much talk, but everyone was closely monitoring behind the scenes.

Now that they had learned the production line had officially started operating and that the output was promising, some became restless.

"No problem, just arrange the time with Director Chen and let me know."

Hearing that Shen Mingzhu readily agreed, Xia Wushuang was somewhat worried, "Lejia has always been a strong competitor of our factory. Aren’t you afraid of them learning our technology and competing with us for the market?"

Shen Mingzhu smiled, "I’m not afraid of them learning. I’m afraid if they don’t learn."

Feide Wushuang didn’t understand the statement, "People hide their good things, but President Shen, you seem afraid they won’t take it. What exactly are you planning?"

Shen Mingzhu once again played coy, "You’ll know what I’m planning when the time comes. Go and arrange the time with Director Chen. Also, if other factory people want to visit, don’t bother getting my approval, just arrange it."

"Oh."

Xia Wushuang left, still puzzled.

Keen to witness the advent of new technology, Chen Zhihua arrived that afternoon with several managers to visit and learn in the food factory.

Unsurprisingly, Chen Zhihua and his team were stunned and dazzled by the high standards and efficiency of the production line.

Everyone wants a piece of the good stuff.