Inspiration for Naming and Prelude to the Meeting
Today, I suddenly got an inspiration and named the documentary work in my hand "Qualitative Change". "Quality" symbolizes quality. It is a measure of the inherent nature of things and plays a crucial role in many fields. And "change" contains rich connotations. In this documentary, it involves the plot evolutions at all levels and in every corner of the article. Each change is like a wave in the long river of the story, driving the plot forward continuously. If you want to know the content of the previous chapters, you can check my previous articles.
At Company T, time is like a precise gear, turning methodically. Li Yueshan raised his hand to check his watch. The hands pointed to 9:26, and the daily regular meeting of department heads was about to kick off. He picked up his laptop and walked steadily towards the department heads' meeting room. When he pushed open the door, he found that the heads of other departments were already sitting upright in their respective seats.
In this meeting room, there is a conference table that is 3 meters long and 1 meter wide. The empty seat facing the door belongs to the factory manager, Kato Makoto. On the left and right sides of Kato Makoto's seat are the seats of the manufacturing department head, Zheng Liangwen, and the quality department head, Li Yueshan, respectively. Further to the sides, the technical department head, Chen Haiming, the production management department head, Zeng Renshan, the deputy personnel department head, Huang Yanxia, and the factory manager's assistant, Kawakami Keiichi, are sitting in turn.
Since its establishment, T Company has a history of 24 years. The average working years of the current 4 department heads exceed 15 years. They are like the cornerstones of T Company. For a long time, they have been as stable as Mount Tai and unshakable. Therefore, the employees of T Company vividly call them the "Four Heavenly Guardians", which shows their status and influence in T Company.
Li Yueshan's Concerns and Resolve
Li Yueshan slowly walked to his seat and gently supported the chair to sit down. He casually glanced sideways at the empty seat of Kato Makoto next to him. Although Kato Makoto hadn't shown up yet, an inexplicable sense of oppression surged towards him like a tide. This sense of oppression didn't come out of thin air but stemmed from his labor contract that had expired three months ago.
Li Yueshan is an ethnic Chinese with Singaporean citizenship. At Company T, his contract is renewed every two years. In the past, almost every workshop director would take the initiative to renew his contract in advance. However, Kato Makoto is an exception. The workshop director at Company T is replaced every five years. Li Yueshan has spent 15 years at Company T and witnessed the replacement of multiple workshop directors, but he has never encountered a situation like Kato Makoto's.
As a senior employee with rich experience, Li Yueshan knows the lay - off routines of Japanese - funded enterprises like the back of his hand. Since most of the employees in the enterprise have worked there for more than a decade, if the enterprise conducts lay - offs, it needs to pay a considerable amount of compensation. For employees like Li Yueshan whose monthly salary is over 20,000 yuan, the compensation is an even larger figure. Therefore, Japanese - funded enterprises usually don't lay off employees directly. Instead, they will try every means to make employees leave voluntarily, so that the enterprise can save that huge amount of compensation.
Since Kato Makoto took office one year ago, Li Yueshan has clearly felt that this factory director seems to be targeting him. Usually, Kato Makoto always criticizes him for his poor quality management and hires outsiders on various pretexts and places them in his department as informants. Moreover, he has repeatedly rejected the promotion applications of the quality department staff for various reasons. Facing this situation, Li Yueshan is indignant. He secretly says to himself in his heart, "You're still too inexperienced to play tricks on me! As long as I don't want to leave, who can do anything to me?" The dignity and confidence accumulated from his long - term tenure as the department head make him hold his head up, fold his arms across his chest, and take a long, proud breath. Having spent many years in the workplace, he has seen many such petty tricks and doesn't take Kato Makoto's methods seriously at all.
Colleagues' perception and premonition
The series of facial expressions on Li Yueshan's face didn't escape the notice of Zheng Liangwen, the manufacturing department manager sitting opposite him. Zheng Liangwen muttered to himself, "It seems that old Li is up to some tricks again!" After all, they had worked together for more than a decade and knew each other inside out. Zheng Liangwen knew that Li Yueshan was an extremely "capricious" person. Once his face showed a gloomy look, nine times out of ten he was going to "pick on" other departments. Moreover, the manufacturing department and the quality department were naturally in an opposing relationship. Therefore, Zheng Liangwen had a premonition that today's department managers' meeting might not go smoothly.
Meeting start and report session
Just after 9:30, Kato Makoto, wearing a smile on his face, quickly walked into the meeting room and greeted everyone in Japanese, saying, "O - su (Good morning!)" The four department heads quickly stood up and bowed, responding, "Ohayou gozaimasu (Good morning!)" Kato Makoto then said, "Jya, kaigi o hajime mashou (Let's start the meeting)."
Among the "Four Bigwigs", Zheng Liangwen taught himself Japanese. Although he doesn't have a very proficient grasp of grammar, his spoken Japanese has become quite fluent due to long - term interaction with the Japanese. Chen Haiming is from Taiwan, so Japanese is naturally no problem for him. Zeng Renshan once worked in Japan, and his Japanese skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing have reached a first - class level. Only Li Yueshan, the quality department manager, relying on his good English, has never studied Japanese seriously.
First, Zheng Liangwen gave a report in Japanese: "Yesterday's production progressed as planned, and there were no particular abnormalities." He simply stated that the report was over.
Kato Makoto nodded and then motioned for Li Yueshan to start the report. Li Yueshan cleared his throat and said, "Yesterday, the 0085 rotating shafts shipped to the customer in Guangzhou were complained about by the customer for poor burrs, with a proportion of 35%. The in - stock ones have all been inspected. The cause analysis and countermeasures need to be submitted the day after tomorrow."
Li Yueshan has been in charge of the Quality Department for more than a decade. When it comes to the company's quality issues, he has absolute say. If he says it's a problem, then it is; if he says it's not a problem, he can suppress even the biggest issue. This is his ability as the head of the Quality Department. At the department head meetings, unless it's a major case where customers directly complain to the factory manager, he decides whether to mention ordinary quality cases according to his mood. When he's in a good mood, he chooses not to mention them; when he's in a bad mood, he'll make others feel uncomfortable too. Therefore, the perception of Li Yueshan's "capriciousness" in the eyes of others is not unfounded.
In fact, regarding the reason for this abnormal customer complaint, Li Yueshan clearly knew in his heart that there was a problem with the management of the Manufacturing Department. However, if he directly named the Manufacturing Department, the hat of offending people would be placed on his head. Therefore, he only said half of what he wanted to say in his report and waited for Kato Makoto to question him. He was thinking in his heart that if Zheng Liangwen couldn't answer, it would have nothing to do with him.
Disputes between departments and Kato Makoto's thoughts
Before Li Yueshan could finish speaking, Zheng Liangwen raised the corner of his eye and gave him a discontented look, indicating that he shouldn't report such "minor issues" at the ministerial meeting. Li Yueshan felt the intensity in Zheng Liangwen's gaze, but he pretended not to notice.
Sure enough, Kato Makoto frowned and reproached the Manufacturing Department Minister Zheng Liangwen, "Why didn't the Manufacturing Department notice so many defective products?" Zheng Liangwen was in charge of more than 400 people in the Manufacturing Department. He was very quick - witted and immediately shifted the blame to Li Yueshan, saying, "The products were shipped only after the QA judged them to be OK at that time."
Li Yueshan had long expected that the manufacturing department wouldn't admit defeat easily. He conducted a thorough investigation before the report and immediately retorted, "Yes! QA judged it as OK, but it was based on the standard within 0.1. Who knows if there are defective products with a rate of 0.2 among the products you produced later?!"
Zheng Liangwen was not willing to show weakness and directly pointed out that the standards set by the Quality Department were imperfect. "The inspection standards don't stipulate that a full inspection is required!" Li Yueshan was no less impressive and immediately responded, "The inspection standards also have the signature of your Manufacturing Department!" The two went back and forth, getting into a heated argument.
Watching the two department executives in front of him arguing non-stop without the slightest awareness of self-reflection, Kato Makoto was extremely annoyed. At this time, a passage from Kurokawa Yoshino, the general president of the group, reappeared in his mind. It was at the farewell party held for his upcoming appointment as the factory director of T Works at the Japanese headquarters. Kurokawa Yoshino, who is now 78 years old, said to him earnestly, "With the increasingly serious aging problem in Japan, Japanese enterprises are also becoming old. The stubborn and outdated ideas, the self-seeking infighting without striving for progress, and the exclusion of new ideas and new people are like tombs being piled up one by one, burying the progress speed of Japanese enterprises. Therefore, 'blood transfusion' is imperative!"
From the tragic yet resolute look in the former president's eyes, Kato Makoto read the "smell of blood" in his words. He knew that since it was a matter of "blood - transfusion", there would inevitably be "those who wield the knife" and "those who shed blood". However, in a Japanese - funded enterprise that values harmony, such a reform is doomed to be fraught with difficulties. Therefore, Kato Makoto has been looking for an opportunity, or rather waiting for someone to appear.
"What on earth caused that?!" Kato Makoto tried to calm himself down, interrupted the bickering between the two department heads, and extremely impatiently shouted at everyone present. As for how the story will develop later, please wait for next week's installment.