Chapter 183: Contract Manufacturing

Since this involved land in the shared courtyard, the residents had to be informed as well.

But what objections could the residents have? The Street Office Director had already given her word, so they could only agree and let the Yao family use the vacant lot. In response, the two elderly members of the Yao family kept thanking the neighbors around them.

Who would’ve thought that today’s disaster would turn into a blessing in disguise?

Just like the old saying goes: “Great misfortunes bring blessings in their wake!”

Not only had the director promised to give their family priority for job openings in the future, now they also had an extra plot of land, which meant their house would be a lot more spacious down the line.

Next, there was another very important task the Street Office had to take on.

That was to conduct a thorough street-wide inspection, identify all buildings with safety hazards, and then figure out how to deal with them.

Expecting the Street Office to cover all the costs wasn’t very realistic.

Although no survey had been done yet, Director Li had a feeling that there were probably quite a few such buildings—far too many for the Street Office to afford on its own.

If not, then they’d have to apply for funding and supplies from higher authorities.

Director Li’s idea was for the Street Office to cover part of the cost, while the residents themselves would shoulder the rest.

Seeing how troubled she looked, Zhou Yimin offered a suggestion: “Auntie! If you ask me, why not set up a construction team under the Street Office? That way, we won’t need to hire outside help for future demolition or construction, and at the same time, we can create more job opportunities.”

Director Li was momentarily stunned.

A construction team of their own? That actually didn’t sound bad! Just as Zhou Yimin said, for one, they wouldn’t have to rely on outsiders anymore; and two, it would help with employment.

Even just that second benefit was enough to move her.

There were simply too many people in need of work right now. Just in that courtyard alone, weren’t there at least 20 unemployed young people?

“It doesn’t have to stop at a construction team. The Street Office could even run its own small-scale enterprises. We won’t touch anything that’s highly technical, but we can develop industries that don’t need much skill.” Zhou Yimin went on.

The more Director Li listened, the brighter her eyes became.

Yes!

Private individuals couldn’t run businesses right now—everything was being shifted from private to public. But if it was run by the Street Office, that was a different matter entirely.

The only real obstacle was funding.

“Yimin, what kind of business do you think would work?” she couldn’t help but ask.

She knew Zhou Yimin was quick-witted.

“You mainly have to consider three or four factors. First, the money—so we should pick something that doesn’t need a huge investment. Second, the location—we’re better off going for small-scale workshops. Third, the products—we should produce goods that ordinary people actually need on a daily basis.” Zhou Yimin broke it down.

Director Li nodded in agreement.

“We don’t have to worry about location—there’s plenty of space in our district,” she told Zhou Yimin.

Zhou Yimin was a little surprised.

Director Li explained that near the bridge on their side of the district, there was a patch of ruins. During the war, it had been bombed, and no one had rebuilt it since. It had just sat there, abandoned.

If they wanted to build a factory, the Street Office could make use of that land.

“As for the funding, if it’s not too much, we can apply for some from the district government.”

Director Li believed the district would support it. After all, it was something that benefited the country and the people. There was no reason not to support it—if not financially, then at least with policy support.

Zhou Yimin’s mind was working at lightning speed.

What should they produce?

First and foremost, the raw materials needed to be easy to acquire. Otherwise, everything else was just empty talk.

Zhou Yimin felt like his brain was overheating.

No matter what he thought of, he kept running into the same problem—raw materials.

Right now, other than air, water, and dirt, most other materials were hard to come by.

Then he thought about assembly and packaging work. If they could take on these kinds of tasks from other factories, that might actually work. The best part was that it wouldn’t require a big investment, and the work itself was relatively easy to learn and didn’t have high technical demands.

Like glueing matchboxes—wasn’t that the same sort of thing?

You think match factories couldn’t do that themselves?

But tasks like glueing matchboxes didn’t require machines. They were distributed to various neighborhoods so struggling families could take them home to assemble. The match factory would then pay them a small fee.

Even just that one kind of work had helped many poor families.

“Auntie, how about this—we take on some work from the Steel Factory or other places. Tasks that don’t need machines. For example, assembling electric rice cookers. We charge the Steel Factory a certain amount to assemble one cooker.

I believe the Steel Factory would be willing. They’re already swamped, so outsourcing non-critical tasks is a win-win for them.

We’d basically be setting up a contract manufacturing workshop that specializes in handling work other factories can’t or don’t want to do—specifically the kinds of tasks that don’t need machines.

To put it bluntly, we’d be asking those factories to give us a bite to eat.

We wouldn’t be setting this up to make money, just to solve the employment problem for ordinary people. That way, it shouldn’t be too hard to get approval,” Zhou Yimin said.

It was easy to foresee that once electric rice cookers started selling like hotcakes overseas, the Steel Factory would definitely ramp up production.

That would leave them with two options: first, expand and hire more people; second, like Zhou Yimin suggested, outsource the less important steps to other units.

In fact, this was exactly what would later be called “contract manufacturing.”

Contract manufacturing was very common in the future. Some companies didn’t even have their own factories. They only handled design and sales, while the actual products were made by other factories. Once done, they just slapped their own brand on it.

Zhou Yimin felt this kind of model could already be implemented now.

After hearing all this, Director Li was overjoyed.

She felt this was totally doable!

The Steel Factory had strong ties to their street—almost every courtyard had someone working at the factory. That meant the foundation for cooperation was already there.

“Yimin, you really are quick on the uptake. I’ll go ask around and see what we can do,” Director Li said with a smile.

If they could get both the construction team and the contract factory up and running, they’d be able to provide jobs for more than half of the unemployed youth in their area.

To be honest, that was already a huge achievement.

If word got out, their street might even be recognized with awards from higher-ups. And as the Director, she would naturally be seen as the one who made it all happen.

The construction team could recruit more young men. If there was no work locally, they could take on construction projects elsewhere.

The contract factory, on the other hand, could hire more young women. Assembly and packaging work might even suit women better—they had nimble fingers, after all!

With that thought, Director Li couldn’t sit still any longer.

After exchanging a few more words with Zhou Yimin, she hurried off.

Zhou Yimin didn’t stick around either. He returned to his own courtyard, feeling very much like a man who’d “withdrawn after achieving great things, quietly leaving with his deeds unspoken.”

“Yimin, the mailman said you’ve got a package waiting at the post office,” Auntie One told Zhou Yimin.

Someone sent me something?

That was Zhou Yimin’s first reaction. He began to wonder who it could be from.

“Got it! Thanks for the heads-up, Auntie One.”

(End of Chapter)