Choices on the Bullet Train
I'm sitting on the bullet train from Wuhan to Shanghai. There is a stack of Chinese and English standard materials neatly placed beside me. I'm fully immersed in these standards, trying to absorb more knowledge during this limited journey. As for Lao Qiu, an old inspector traveling with me, after flipping through the materials for ten minutes, he took out a copy of *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber* from his bag and started reading it with great interest.
Actually, there were several questions in my mind that I wanted to ask Old Qiu, but I swallowed the words back just as they reached my lips. I really felt too embarrassed to interrupt his enthusiasm for being immersed in the world of martial arts novels. After all, it would seem rather abrupt to interrupt him suddenly in such an atmosphere.
Before departure, Lao Qiu said to me sincerely, "Engineer Sun, you're an engineer and I'm an inspector. During this business trip to inspect the goods, we can discuss everything else properly. But what I'm most worried about is that we might have different opinions in front of the supplier, which would make us look ridiculous. I'll follow your lead during this trip." I quickly replied, "No, no. This is my first time inspecting goods, and I'm quite confused about many things. You've been in this line of work for over thirty years and have far more experience than me. I should follow your lead during this trip."
I'm not being modest here. If the leader hadn't forced me to take on this assignment, given my current knowledge reserve, I wouldn't even be confident in simply counting the goods, let alone inspecting them. Old Qiu is highly respected. Although it's a bit difficult for him to read the English standards, he has a thorough understanding of the product craftsmanship. As the saying goes, "A starved camel is still bigger than a horse." I made up my mind: I couldn't memorize many standards in just a few hours on the train. This time when I go out, I'll follow Old Qiu's pace and try my best to help him overcome the language barrier in English. If he also makes a mistake, then I'll just have to leave it to fate.
The capable salesperson, Xiao Chen
After arriving at the place, it was Xiao Chen, a salesperson from the factory, who came to pick us up. This Xiao Chen is really an able person. From the moment he picked us up, he has been bustling around. First, he drove us safely to the destination. Then he accompanied us for a meal and carefully catered to our dietary needs. During the inspection process, he was even busier. He skillfully used a ruler to measure for us. His professional manner even made me feel ashamed of myself.
Xiao Chen rather complacently boasted to us, "Most of the time, when I see an inspector strike a pose, I know what they're going to do and what they're focusing on. It's the same when foreigners come to inspect the goods. Their poses are quite similar to those of us Chinese. I can tell what they're going to check without them saying a word."
After having an in - depth chat with Xiao Chen, I found that he really had his own ways in product technology and quality control. Although he had little concept of the quality system, he could talk very sensibly about the specific product technology and quality control. What's even more commendable is that he had a relatively high sense of quality. He told me that his factory's approach to controlling the wall thickness of pipe fittings was completely different from that of some unscrupulous manufacturers. Some factories tried to take advantage of the standards to cut costs by making the dimensions as close to the negative tolerance as possible. In contrast, his factory tried to make the dimensions as close to the positive tolerance as possible in order to ensure the performance of the products.
There is also the treatment of the inner wall of pipe fittings. Especially when forming a tee, problems such as inward or outward bulges are likely to occur on the inner wall. However, their factory never cuts corners when grinding the inner walls of pipe fittings. For large pipe fittings, sometimes a worker can't even finish grinding one tee in a day.
After carefully examining the physical object, Lao Qiu quietly told me, "The inner wall forming of the tee is a critical part prone to problems. Considering that their factory can achieve this, the quality should be relatively good." Hearing this, the stone in my heart finally dropped, and I let out a sigh of relief.