Harbin Chengji Needle Factory was founded in the late 1920s. It is a professional factory that produces machine needles for the knitting industry. It is one of the earliest needle factories in Northeast China and the only one in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces. In the competition with peers and foreign products, Chengji Needle Factory overcame various difficulties and paid a great price to gradually open up sales channels and occupy the market. In the mid-1930s, Harbin Chengji Needle Factory gradually developed from producing a single machine needle to an enterprise that manufactures knitting machines, circular machines and matching machine needles. It enjoys a high reputation both inside and outside the province, and its products are sold throughout Northeast China and exported to North Korea. The establishment of Harbin Chengji Needle Factory Ren Shouqing, the manager of Chengji Needle Factory, was from Muping, Shandong. At the age of 13, he went to Vladivostok with his father. After he became an adult, he worked as a clerk in the local area to learn business. A few years later, he partnered with others to open Yongcheng Goods Store and served as the manager, operating boots and shoe materials, shoemaking tools, cotton yarn, hardware, etc. Yongchenghao was very successful in the first few years of its opening, with considerable profits. The street-side circulation (temporary credit) alone was worth about 150,000 silver dollars, and the total value of the property reached 450,000 silver dollars. In addition to serving as the manager of Yongchenghao, Ren Shouqing also invested in the establishment of Yongmaosheng Knitting Factory in Vladivostok. At that time, the machinery and equipment used in the knitting industry and the machine needles with a relatively large usage could not be manufactured in China, and had to be imported from foreign countries, especially Japan. Not only was the turnover time long, but the price was also relatively expensive. Ren Shouqing and others realized that there were many benefits to establishing a needle factory in China, with less raw materials used and a higher selling price (more than one yuan per hundred). Although it was more labor-intensive, the labor force was cheap. If machine needles could be produced domestically, there would be huge profits. So Ren Shouqing and the other four people decided to set up a needle factory in China. In 1929, Ren Shouqing and Wang Rixuan selected outstanding technical workers such as Li Rujie and Cui Yuzhang from the Yantai Needle Factory and officially established a factory in Harbin, named Harbin Chengji Needle Factory. Ren Shouqing served as the manager, with a capital of 12,000 yuan. The factory site was selected on the east side of Chengtaiyi Flour Mill on the 15th Street of Daowai North. All the machinery and equipment, steel wire materials, tool thin steel plates, etc. of Harbin Chengji Needle Factory were imported from Osaka, Japan. The power source of all machinery and equipment depends on a 25-horsepower electric motor, which drives the operation of all equipment through the transmission of the large and small wheels of the hanging bar. The process of needle making is relatively complicated. There are more than 40 processes from cutting, assembly, quenching to the final packaging. Most of them are operated manually, and the labor intensity is relatively high. When Harbin Chengji Needle Factory started, there were only 40 people. After 1938, the number of employees increased to more than 200, and the annual output of machine needles was 550.6 million. With the development of production, the capital of Harbin Chengji Needle Factory became more and more abundant. In order to meet the needs of competition, from 1936 to 1940, Chengji invested in the acquisition of Zhenchang Machinery Factory and opened Chengyuan Machinery Factory. After that, in addition to producing machine needles, it also began to produce knitting machines and circular knitting machines that match the machine needles, becoming the only knitting machinery factory in our city. The products are sold well in various provinces and cities in Northeast China, and are exported to Pyongyang and Busan in North Korea, and are well-known both inside and outside the province. Ren Shouqing, the manager of Chengji Needle Factory, has his own characteristics in management: 1. Quality management. From managers to heads at all levels, improving quality is regarded as the central link in competing with foreign goods, as a rice bowl and a 0, and as the determining factor for the existence and development of the factory. Therefore, everyone cares about quality, and every process is strictly checked. The production of new samples is even more meticulous, and it must be discussed by the team leader and the person in charge of the workshop. It often takes several revisions and is finally checked by the manager in person. The products shipped out of the factory are stamped with the manufacturer's code on the packaging. If there is a problem with the quality, it is easy to find out the responsibility and the cause, and correct it in time. Users in the knitting industry are also very concerned about the quality of needles. They often test the quality of machine needles and compare their service life. Through use verification, they sometimes compete to specify products handled by a certain manufacturer. When the factory rewards or increases wages, it also takes the opinions of users as an important basis to encourage workers to care about the improvement of product quality. 2 Production management. The factory formulates a monthly production operation plan based on the sales situation of the season. Production workers have quotas, and there are bonuses for exceeding the quota. In addition to arranging production, the workshop dispatcher is mainly responsible for the number of people completed per day in each process, tabulating and reporting to the office. At the end of the month, the office summarizes and posts a notice in the workshop, with the order of bonuses, just like an exam. Generally, the bonus can be equal to the monthly salary, and some even exceed the salary. Workers work hard to produce in order to win the excess bonus. This makes management very worry-free. 3 Supply and marketing methods. There are more than a hundred large and small knitting factories in Harbin. The needles they use are all provided by Chengji, and the machinery and equipment are also repaired by Chengji. Product promotion mainly relies on two external counters. They are responsible for one side according to the distribution of knitting factories. They visit once a day. The needles ordered by the factory on the same day are guaranteed to be delivered the next day. Except for the Tongji Factory run by Wu Baixiang and several larger knitting factories such as Liangyou, Tongda, and Sanyou on Nanerdao Street in Daowai, which pick up the goods themselves, all other knitting factories adopt the delivery method. The settlement of needle payment is generally made three times a year (i.e. May Festival, August Festival, and Spring Festival). Every New Year, most factories can pay according to the account, but there are also individual loss-making factories every year, which go bankrupt due to poor management or other reasons. For such factories, they can only "drink the old soup" and repay the factory bedding and other items at a discount, but this is after all a very small number. Sales to other places are generally self-built sales offices, and the factory sends people to sell. Chengji Needle Factory has established a sales office in Changchun, and is a professional distributor in Dalian. Users in Qiqihar, Jiamusi, Mudanjiang, and Jilin in our province come to Harbin directly to purchase or purchase by letter, a small amount is mailed, and a large amount is shipped in boxes. The shipping of boxes is handled by transportation companies, which is convenient and fast, and charges very little. 4 Workers and treatment. Needle making is a rare industry, so people are generally reluctant to be apprentices in needle factories, thinking that there are places to be apprentices, but no place to earn wages. In fact, most people will be paid a thousand yuan for life after entering the factory, otherwise they will have to start from scratch. All apprentices are recruited from Shandong Province, and 90% of them are from Muping, Shandong. After arriving at the factory, each person is given a quilt, bedding, clothes and shoes. The cost is advanced from the workers' wages, and the factory provides free food and accommodation for apprentices. Apprentices who have completed three years of study will receive 80 yuan in cash, and bonuses are not included. After completing three years of study, they will become technicians, with a monthly salary of 12 to 16 yuan (the salary in 1929-1940). After Chengji established the Machinery Department, several new regulations were added for apprentices to enter the factory. Apprentices must be at least 16 years old and persist in studying for three years. If they quit the factory midway, they must compensate for the food expenses, otherwise the shop guarantor will be responsible. The factory improves the food on the first and fifteenth day of each month, and there are banquets on festivals. Among the festivals, the Spring Festival holiday is the longest, starting from the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month to the 16th day of the first lunar month, and the rest period is intermittent for half a month. Full wages are paid on holidays, and wages are stopped for personal leave. Workers live on one side of the factory building, which is both a factory and a dormitory. The air is polluted and the sanitary conditions are very poor. Some workers often get sick, and the medical expenses for treatment are borne by the workers themselves. During the sick and rest period, wages are stopped, and the factory only provides food and accommodation. The working hours of Chengji Needle Factory are astonishing. Work starts at 8 o'clock in the morning and stops at 9 o'clock in the evening. Except for an hour for lunch, the working hours are 12 hours a day. Only the first and fifteenth days of each month at 4:30 in the evening are considered rest days. The start and stop of work are all commanded by the bell. You will never see someone not starting work without ringing the bell, and you will never see someone stopping work without ringing the bell. You are not allowed to chat casually during production time, and you are not allowed to make noise in the workshop. If you go to the toilet during production time, you must take a toilet stick (a wooden stick with an iron ring). There are several toilets and toilet rods. If there is no toilet rod, it means that the toilet is being used. The purpose is to prevent workers from wasting time and affecting production. 100% of the employees do not bring their families with them. After working in the factory for two and a half years, they can take leave to visit their hometowns for three months and return to the factory to work after the expiration of the leave. The factory's managers and office staff will receive their wages during the visit and the necessary travel expenses. 5 Seek development and growth in competition. In the era of competition, Chengji Needle Factory has continuously defeated its competitors and developed and grown itself. For example, Harbin Zhenchang Machinery Factory is a factory that produces knitting machines, sweater machines, and glove machines. It is one of the earliest manufacturers in China. The quality of its products has reached a certain level. Especially after the Harbin flood in 1932, the sales of knitting machines were very good. Each machine was sold at a price of 120 yuan, and the profit was considerable. However, the three young managers Fu Yurong, Wang Mingqi, and Liu Xianhe, because the factory made money and they had plenty of money, could not resist the temptation of the world of flowers and gradually went to prostitutes and took opium. As a result, the business of Zhenchang Machinery Factory was increasingly neglected, and the debt piled up, and eventually it fell into an unsustainable predicament. The biggest creditor of Zhenchang was Chengji Needle Factory. Because the knitting machines manufactured by Zhenchang must be matched with Chengji's needles and needle butts, which accounted for more than 10% of the total value of a flat knitting machine, Zhenchang owed Chengji a large debt over the years because it only took needles without paying. In 1936, Zhenchang Machinery Factory was unable to operate, so it was fully exchanged to Chengji Needle Factory. From then on, this unique flat knitting machine manufacturer in Northeast China belonged to Chengji shareholders. Ren Shouqing was the supervisor of this factory, and the annual production of knitting flat knitting machines was 700,800. After Chengji took over Zhenchang, it used high-quality steel, such as railway manganese steel for the plate of knitting flat knitting machines, and 65 high manganese steel for shuttle materials. By 1938, the quality of the flat knitting machines had surpassed the products of Matsuoka Machinery Factory, the best flat knitting machine manufacturer in Japan at that time, and they were sold well throughout Northeast China and exported to North Korea. For example, Dexingyuan Iron Factory is a factory in Harbin that manufactures circular knitting machines. The sock machines they produce also need to be matched with Chengji needles. Chengji gave Dexingyuan 20% of the profit. The more machines Dexingyuan produced, the more needles it needed to match Chengji. The two factories depended on each other and had a good relationship. Unexpectedly, in 1937, Dexingyuan agreed to allow salesmen from Tianjin Yuren Needle Factory to stay in the factory and promote Yuren Needle Factory's products in Harbin. As a result, the two needle factories competed with each other. You sold for one yuan, and I sold for nine cents, and there was also a conflict with Dexingyuan Iron Factory. Ren Shouqing of Chengji Needle Factory was determined to compete with Dexingyuan and manufacture sock machines. He used high wages to pry technicians from Dexingyuan, together with the recruited apprentices, a total of 20 to 30 people, and finally built a sock machine manufacturing department using one-third of the needle factory's factory building. From then on, Chengji Needle Factory was renamed Chengji Needle Machinery Factory. At the beginning of the operation of the machinery department, due to the lack of technical skills, the operation suffered continuous losses. The losses of the machinery department had to be subsidized by the profits of the needle department. As a result, those who had status shares in the needle department received less personal share because of the less profits. Therefore, some people were shaken about running the machinery department and were unwilling to continue to produce sock machines. Ren Shouqing insisted that he must continue to do it. If he gave up halfway and failed in the competition, he would be laughed at by Shang Runxuan, the manager of Dexingyuan, and it would affect the reputation of Chengji. After more than two and a half years of hard work, the quality gradually improved, the operation turned from loss to profit, and the annual output of circular knitting machines reached 1,300-1,500 units. After years of competition, the quality of Chengji's sock machines finally surpassed Dexingyuan. Dexingyuan, which was once the earliest factory in my country to manufacture sock machines and the only sock machine manufacturer in Harbin, was finally defeated by Chengji and gave up the profession of sock machines and sought another way out. By 1942, not only knitting machine needles were produced exclusively by Chengji, but also a full set of mechanical equipment such as various knitting machines (sweater machines, glove machines, French code machines), circular knitting machines (various hosiery machines), etc., were produced by Chengji, thus monopolizing the production of knitting machinery in our city. For example, in 1940, someone invested 300 yuan to ask Chen Kaiyuan and Wang Zikui, who led the production of Zhenchang Machinery Factory, to resign and build a new factory. Ren Shouqing was shocked when he learned of the news, because Chen Kaiyuan and Wang Zikui were specialized in manufacturing flat knitting machines. Once these two people left the factory, not only would it bring serious consequences to the production of the factory, but the new factory would inevitably become a competitor to Zhenchang's exclusive business. Ren Shouqing made a decisive decision to have Chengji Needle Factory invest 300 yuan to establish Chengyuan Machinery Factory, and let Chen Kaiyuan serve as the manager to dismiss the outside employment, which not only prevented the outflow of technical talents, but also achieved the purpose of continuing to control the production of knitting machinery. 6 Survive through improvement. After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, due to the shortage of materials, the Japanese puppet regime successively implemented control over all kinds of commodities, and industrial and commercial operations and people's lives became increasingly difficult. In order to maintain expenses, each knitting factory could only process military gloves and military socks for the combination, and Chengji Needle Factory was no exception. Under such circumstances, some wool spinning mills were forced to find a way out, which was to recycle old and waste, use old cloth to make old cotton, and then use old cotton to spin regenerated yarn for weaving cloth, clothes and socks. This was the period of regenerated cloth in the puppet Manchukuo. In rural areas, they spun wool into local wool yarn, also known as "old lady spinning". After the depression, the textile industry became active again. However, the original machinery and equipment are not suitable for using regenerated yarn and "old lady spinning" as raw materials, because the diameter of regenerated yarn and local wool yarn is thick. The maximum number of needles per inch for the original knitting flat machine to use thick yarn is 45, 5 and 6. Now, the use of regenerated yarn and local wool yarn requires machines with 25 and 35 needles per inch. The maximum specification of the hosiery machine produced by Chengji Needle Factory Machinery Factory is 72 needles per week, but now it needs 546 needles per week, and the diameter must be thicker. Only by improving the design of the machine and the needle in time can we adapt to the changes in raw materials and meet the needs of the society at that time. Chengji Needle Factory has timely improved its product design and adapted to the needs of the time, thus a new vitality has emerged in production. The flat knitting machines of Zhenchang Machinery Factory and the hosiery machines and needles of Chengji Needle Machinery Factory have always been in short supply, and batches of orders have been placed four months later. In order to get a machine, some people did not hesitate to use the power of the Japanese puppet army and police and other means of winning over, which shows how fast the machines were sold at that time. From 1941 to 1943, Chengji Needle Machinery Factory made a total profit of 480,000 yuan. Changes after liberation In 1946, Ren Shouqing, the manager of Chengji Needle Machinery Factory, died of illness, and the manager position was taken over by Hou Xiandong of Shenyang Chengji Needle Factory. When Hou returned to Shenyang to pick up his family, he was blocked by traffic and never returned. In the second half of 1952, Wang Peiyao led the organization of more than ten machinery manufacturing industries and six dyeing factories to apply for public-private partnership. Zhenchang Machinery Factory and Chengyuan Machinery Factory joined the application at the same time. The application was approved in December and named Heli Machinery Factory. Wang Peiyao was the manager and Ren Tingxi was the technical director. In January 1956, the whole industry implemented public-private partnership. Wang Shengxuan of Chengji Needle Machinery Factory was arranged as the factory director after the partnership. Wang Peiyao was the factory director of Heli Machinery Factory and Ren Tingxi was the director of the technical department. Today, public-private partnership has become a historical term. Chengji Needle Machinery Factory has become Harbin Sewing Machine Factory and Harbin Knitting Machinery Repair Factory. Zhenchang Machinery Factory and Chengyuan Machinery Factory have become Harbin Tractor Parts Factory and have become socialist enterprises for building socialist material civilization. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)