Chapter 584 The Birth of the First Calculator

Of course, Hong Kong’s regional characteristics and the future reform and opening up of the mainland almost mean that no matter what is developed now, it will move to the mainland in the future. This cannot be stopped.

Just do your own thing, and do your own thing well. If you really want to consider what will happen decades later, then you don't need to do anything. Even Japan today will face problems such as industrial decline, hollowing out, and aging in a few decades, and even the mainland in the future may be the same.
No matter what, if the economy of our generation is strong, then at least the quality of life of people in this era will be much higher, and after wealth accumulates, it will benefit the next generation. Even if many industries of the next generation are gone, they will indirectly benefit from the high economic development of the previous generation.

"Well, the people in the color TV factory are indeed much more comfortable than those in the plastic factory." Bai Yushan asked again: "It seems that the wages in foreign-funded factories are higher than those in Hong Kong factories. Maybe only Changxing Group can compare with some foreign-funded ones."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "That's not the case. The requirements are much higher. Even though the treatment of employees in a foreign-funded factory in Hong Kong is a little worse, the recruitment requirements are much higher. In fact, it depends on your ability and how much money you can get. This is the case in most cases. A few people are lucky enough to get into a good company."

Nowadays, there are more and more foreign-funded factories in Hong Kong. Although no one discusses this issue due to the lack of the Internet, many people know that the treatment in foreign-funded factories is much better.

But their requirements are also high. The requirements in terms of health, academic qualifications, past experience and even foreign language are higher than those of Hong Kong-funded factories.

In the past, there was a distinction between domestic and foreign-funded factories in the mainland. Foreign-funded factories generally had higher welfare benefits than domestic factories, but the recruitment requirements were different. For example, the most controversial Tesla and BYD did have a gap in wages.

But one is in a first-tier city, Shanghai, and the other is in a third- or fifth-tier city; one requires a college degree and similar experience in other OEMs, and the other requires only a junior high school diploma. There is no comparability at all.

"That's right. I hope Hong Kong will get better and better." Bai Yushan didn't think too much about it.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Yes, our roots are in Hong Kong. If Hong Kong's economy develops and becomes the top city in Asia and even the world, we can also benefit from it."

Although high housing prices and heavy finance will drive away industry, it is a good thing for real estate developers. Over the years, Changxing Group has hoarded a lot of land, and the large-scale industrial land alone is far more than 10 million square feet. These are actually not counted in the name of the real estate company, otherwise Swire Properties would not be able to compare.

Soon, the convoy arrived at the door of a company called Changxing-Whirlpool (Hong Kong) Appliance Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Several foreigners, as well as Wang Zhiqun and some Chinese, were already waiting at the door.

"Mr. Yang, Mrs. Yang." Wang Zhiqun stepped forward and said with a smile, "Knowing that you were coming, all the senior employees of the company came to the door to greet you today."

"No need to do this, just disperse. Just keep a few of you and let the others do their own things." Yang Wendong waved his hand and said;
This kind of thing is very common. If a big boss comes to one of his factories, how can the factory not take it seriously? This kind of thing is the same in many places;
Yang Wendong would not stop them, as they were just expressing their respect. He could just leave once they arrived, otherwise he would not be able to remember so many people. It would be enough to just keep a few core members.

"Okay." After Wang Zhiqun agreed, many people soon dispersed, leaving only seven or eight people, and then introduced them to Yang Wendong and Bai Yushan one by one;
The two of them just nodded in response. The foreigners were senior executives of Whirlpool Corporation stationed in Hong Kong, and they managed the company together with Changxing Group. After everyone got to know each other, Wang Zhiqun took Yang Wendong and his wife and several people from the headquarters and walked towards the interior of the factory.

For the next half hour, everyone visited the factory's two large workshops, one producing air conditioners and the other producing refrigerators.

After almost a circle, Yang Wendong asked, "How much of the parts of these two factories are localized?"

Wang Zhiqun replied: “About 60% of the product’s shell, internal plastic parts, wires, metal structures, fans, and motors are all produced in Hong Kong;

The compressor, condenser, refrigerant, and some important valves are still imported from the United States.”

“I remember that we can already produce compressors ourselves, right?” Yang Wendong asked in return.

Before cooperating with Whirlpool, Honor Electronics began to produce white appliances on its own, but it took the low-end route. In addition, due to limited channels and high shipping costs in recent years, its sales were tepid.
For this reason, Yang Wendong decided to follow the joint venture path of the mainland in his previous life, first develop the industry in Hong Kong, and then seek to improve the quality of his own products;
Of course, foreign capital is not stupid. When they cooperate with themselves, there are some restrictions to avoid conflicts between their own brands and joint venture brands.

Wang Zhiqun said: "Yes, but the quality and performance cannot meet Whirlpool's requirements. Whether in terms of cooling speed, power consumption, quietness, weight, etc., we cannot compare. Whirlpool does not approve of it either, so in the short term we can only import from the United States.

However, since all products are exported to the United States, we are not losing money in terms of foreign exchange and profits alone.”

"I know it's not a loss, but if the industrial chain can only provide some shells or something, then what's the point?" Yang Wendong said, shaking his head.

Although not every industry needs to be high-tech, at least some of it should be there. Otherwise, if you make money from some low-end industries, it would be better to speculate in real estate.

How many factories in the world can have profit margins comparable to those of real estate in Hong Kong?
Wang Zhiqun said: "Yes, I have also asked the technical engineers of the compressor and motor companies to visit Europe and the United States to purchase appropriate technology and production lines to ensure that they can keep up with the requirements."

"Okay, it's indeed unrealistic to develop it again in Hong Kong, so we might as well buy it first." Yang Wendong said.

Actually, you could buy it before, but at that time, there were no high-end white goods factories in Hong Kong. If you bought a brand that you made yourself and it was not recognized by the market, it would be meaningless.
Now that Hong Kong has foreign-funded joint venture factories, and its products are directly sold overseas through foreign-funded channels, we now have the foundation to produce mid- to high-end home appliance parts.

With a certain level of production, it will be possible to continue research and development and upgrade. After all, starting from 0 is difficult, but starting from 1-10 may be much easier.

"Yes." Wang Zhiqun nodded.

Yang Wendong asked again: "What is the production capacity of the factory?"

Wang Zhiqun said: "The current annual production capacity is 10 air conditioners and 30 refrigerators. The follow-up will depend on market demand and cost control in Hong Kong. If the cost is low, there will be an opportunity to increase production capacity, just like RCA."

"Then let's continue." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "We should take control of the entire industrial chain of black and white home appliances as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult for our home appliance industry to develop."

In fact, he really doesn't want to do everything. If he were in the mainland of his previous life and could buy all kinds of industrial parts, he would definitely only focus on making terminal products, just like Xiaomi Automobile in his previous life. Many people laughed at it for being just assembly technology, but in fact this business model is the right one. It uses the technology of mature suppliers to combine them and is responsible for the overall product quality and marketing.

"Okay." Wang Zhiqun agreed.

Yang Wendong added: "It's like this here. I heard that calculators have come out in the United States?"

As early as last year, when Yang Wendong went to the United States, he commissioned Intel, a company he invested in, to develop the hardware structure and software settings of the calculator. Now, after waiting for more than a year, he finally got the news.

Wang Zhiqun replied: "Yes, the samples have been sent, a total of 12 pieces, not a large number, and I am now testing them."

"Okay, let's go and have a look." Yang Wendong said. The market for calculators is actually not that big. It's not that it's unimportant, but it will be conquered by many companies in a very short time and then launched on the market.

This thing is like an electronic watch. It has no patents on appearance or design. At most, it may have an algorithm, but others can circumvent it.

The group left Changxing-Whirlpool Corporation and came to another industrial office building in the North Corner. On the first floor, there was a large laboratory with various equipment inside.

After entering, under the guidance of the internal staff, Yang Wendong came to a room with more than a dozen people. In front of each person was a plastic square product slightly larger than a palm, with many buttons on the square, which was a calculator;

From Yang Wendong's point of view, the structure is still too simple. Apart from 0-9, +-*/, there is only one reset to zero, and there are naturally no other complex mathematical symbols.

"Mr. Yang, we are now arranging people to randomly measure digital calculations to see if there are any problems." Wang Zhiqun explained: "Although the products have been made in the United States, testing requires a lot of manpower and energy. The cost there is high, so we sent it to Hong Kong for testing."

"Okay, let's ask the United States to do more and arrange people in Hong Kong to do the tests." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

In the future, the global division of labor, including high-tech industries such as chips, will be separated. Some processes that consume a lot of labor will be moved to places with low labor costs, and the electronics industry is no exception.

Even in the 80s, many chip tests were carried out in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the rise of real estate and finance in Hong Kong later cut off the path of various industries.

Wang Zhiqun continued, "Okay, but the speed at which calculators are made in the United States is not very fast. It is estimated that 100 units will arrive in Hong Kong next month."

"So slow?" Yang Wendong frowned slightly.

Wang Zhiqun said: "Yes, they don't have a production line there, and the circuit boards are all soldered manually. I heard that the scrap rate is very high, so it takes a lot of time."

"Tell the US that it's okay if the scrap rate is high. Just make more as soon as possible. The testing time is more important." Yang Wendong thought for a while and said, "We can also arrange for high-quality electronic welding personnel from Hong Kong to go to the US. It's okay if they don't speak English. Let them see if they can do it. The technicians in the US are definitely not as good as the professionals in this regard."

Even though Intel received his financial support, it was still just a small company, and it was primarily a design company, so it was definitely not very experienced in hands-on work.

"Okay." Wang Zhiqun agreed.

Yang Wendong asked again: "Can you roughly calculate the price of this calculator?"

Wang Zhiqun replied: "According to the materials from Intel, the production cost is about 150 US dollars. This price does not include the design, research and development, and testing costs, which are about 130 million US dollars. Just put it into any calculator and convert it."

"It's just like electronic watches. Don't convert them yet. Just launch them on the market first." Yang Wendong said, "As long as the low cost can sell well, you can make $20 per unit and get back the investment if you sell 6 units."

The prices of electronic products are very high in the early stage, and a big reason is that the amortized cost of their design is too high, especially in this era, whether it is electronic watches, calculators or even future computers, because no one knows how much sales will be, so normal companies will amortize all the initial costs in the early stage;

This approach will make the early products extremely expensive, which will not only make consumers unable to afford them, but will also cause other peers to see the huge profits and invest in it, ultimately resulting in many more competitors.

However, no matter what is done, it is impossible for the first mover to form a monopoly in this kind of market, but occupying the market first will more or less bring some long-term benefits.

Of course, this is also because as a time traveler, he knows the future market demand. Otherwise, a normal businessman should not do this unless he is very confident in his products and the entire market.

"Okay, then we can set the ex-factory price at $180, so when it reaches the end customers in the United States, it should be within $250," Wang Zhiqun said with a smile.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "This price is still too expensive. If it can be reduced to 25, then many teachers, students and even companies in American schools will buy this convenient and simple computing product, even supermarkets..."

"Supermarket?" Wang Zhiqun also thought of something and said quickly: "Look at my brain, I forgot about Carrefour. There are more calculators in the back. I can give them to the cashiers at Carrefour and let them use them together. This way, the detection effect will be very strong."

"Yes, when we talked about supermarkets just now, I remembered it too." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

In the era without electronic products, supermarket calculations were done manually or with an abacus. Carrefour’s terminals have tried many methods, but in the end, the abacus is still the most suitable, as mental arithmetic is prone to errors.
Of course, the abacus can make mistakes sometimes, but in an age without QR code scanning, it is impossible to avoid it completely, and these costs can only be counted as part of operations.

Wang Zhiqun said: "But we can't rely entirely on calculators at the moment. It's best to calculate with an abacus and then compare them. If the results are different, then we can consider what the problem is."

"Okay, then you can discuss the testing with Liu Huayu. There are so many Carrefour stores, which is enough for you to test. If not, you can go to Singapore, where there are Chinese people anyway." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "This way the testing time will be faster. If it is finally confirmed that there is no problem, then we need to release it earlier. As far as I know, several companies are also working on calculators."

In fact, when electronic technology reaches a certain level, the demand in society will be discovered, and then companies will start to develop such products, whether it is electronic watches, calculators, or even the future computer and gaming industries, etc.

This is completely different from Changxing Industrial's previous sticky notes, trolley cases, and sticky hooks. The technical basis for these things was created many years ago, but no one thought of it;
The birth of electronic products is the opposite. Many people want to digitize some inconvenient products, but the technology is not yet in place. Once the technology is in place, it may be studied simultaneously by multiple peers at any time.

Therefore, for time travelers, developing and launching electronic products also requires every second, because after the technology appears, the corresponding products usually appear two or three years later, so the advantage in this regard is not very big, unless you encounter a choice between LCD and plasma technology, which one is the future, then you can choose the right direction;

However, games are an exception. After the technology is advanced, this industry still needs all kinds of creativity, and creativity is not necessarily born. Even if Yang Wendong does not participate in the game industry in the future, what he did in the past 12 years has definitely affected the development of history. It is hard to say whether electronic games will be born for various home appliances in the future.

"Okay, I will try my best to complete the test within 2 months." Wang Zhiqun agreed.

Yang Wendong added: "Okay, I'll wait for your good news. Also, when the calculators arrive next time, give me a few. My family may need them too."

Now that the Yang family's children have entered school, they can be used appropriately;
Of course, just use it, not rely on it.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)

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