Chapter 155 - 155 Defects in the Process, Engines, and More
"So, what happened with the flying in the sky talk?"
Nick asked Steve without stopping his hands.
"I didn't think Nick would be interested in that talk."
Steve struck a match and lit the mosquito coils one after another that Nick had prepared.
The place was an inspection room where the quality of the mosquito coils was being checked. The two had brought the manufactured mosquito coils here to randomly sample them and check how well they were burning. Furthermore, they were also conducting inspections on the matches together.
"Young master, I am interested in flying in the sky too, you know."
"Didn't they say back in the day that fools and smoke like high places?"
Steve pointed to the smoke rising from the mosquito coils. Nick explained the meaning of his past remark.
"That was just because the nobles of other territories were being arrogant, but I want to try flying in the sky too."
"I understand that feeling well. Ah, by the way, please fill in the lot number for this inspection on this record sheet. I don't know which lot I brought."
"Oh, yes, yes. The matches are this, and the mosquito coils are this."
Nick temporarily interrupted the conversation and wrote down the lot numbers of the inspected products. These inspection records make it possible to specify the scope when there is a market recall later on. It is the concept of traceability.
"It is good that neither the matches nor the mosquito coils seem to have any quality problems."
"Well, there are defects within the process."
"It's fine as long as they don't flow out to the next process. It would be even better if we could eliminate defects within the process."
This was said precisely because Steve understood that not everything would become a good product. If this were just a manager who only looked at numbers, he would give an unreasonable order to make defects zero. Even if you use the most precise machinery, you cannot make the same thing every time, but only those who have experienced it know that.
Defects within the process occur at each stage in the factory. They range from things that can be fixed to things that cannot, so making all of them zero is very difficult. Improvement activities are being carried out continuously, so there are cases where improvements have been made, but many of the defects within the process are human errors, and dealing with them was difficult.
If we used Golems, that might solve it, but that would create a problem of resident employment. As employees, everyone was trying to be careful because they thought that if there were too many human errors, Steve might switch to Golems and fire them. Well, even so, human errors do not disappear.
"So, you want to fly in the sky?"
"Yes. A man should want to fly freely in the sky at least once, shouldn't he?"
"I don't think it matters whether you are a man or a woman there."
"Is that so? I don't think my people would understand the romance of flying in the sky. If they had money to spend on flying, they would probably buy something shiny and sparkling."
"Well, I suppose so."
Steve remembered Nick's wife and agreed. But she was not representative of all women.
"Don't say things like judging the whole tiger by a single spot. Other women might be interested in the sky. In fact, the Saintess is very interested."
Julia was interested in the sky for religious reasons, so she did not want to fly. So, as a case to introduce here, it is incorrect, but Nick naturally did not notice such things.
"That might be true. On the contrary, there might be men who do not want to fly freely in the sky either."
Nick said so and agreed.
"If we make a balloon, will you try riding it?"
"I would be delighted to. Or rather, if it's not with Young Master, I'm scared when we fall."
Nick had seen the sketch of the hot air balloon and understood that if you fell from the sky, you wouldn't survive.
"That's right. Let's make a parachute to prepare for falling."
"Rakka-san?"
"It's not a person's name. We will use air resistance to reduce the speed when falling. I'll have the sewing department make a large piece of cloth."
Steve thought about trying to prototype a parachute. If we started flying, as Nick said, falling accidents would definitely happen. At that time, he thought he had to create a mechanism to survive.
"Eventually, airplanes with engines will appear, so it's not a bad idea to build up know-how on parachutes."
"Young Master uses unfamiliar words again. Engine, airplane, etc."
"Didn't I talk about the engine before?"
"No."
Since he hadn't told Nick about the engine, Steve decided to explain about the engine. He created a cross-section of a reciprocating engine with magic. He moved the piston up and down with his hand to explain the mechanism.
Nick was glued to the mechanism of the engine and couldn't take in Steve's explanation. The cylinder, connecting rod, piston, and crankshaft were all made with high precision, and the movement was very smooth.
"So, that's the mechanism of the engine. Hey Nick, are you listening?"
Steve noticed that Nick was concentrating on the metal parts and not listening. Nick finally responded to Steve, and his attention shifted from the metal parts to Steve.
"Young Master, did you say something?"
"I did. I was explaining because you didn't know about the engine. It looks like you weren't listening at all."
"Of course."
Seeing Nick answer with his chest puffed out, Steve put his hand to his forehead.
"Haa. Well, never mind. This is still in the research stage, and no requests for part processing will come. Besides, it's impossible for just the two of us to commercialize this."
"I always wonder, Young Master, why do you propose new things but can't reach the point of commercializing them yourself?"
"That's because I am an ordinary person. I'm different from the geniuses at the Royal Research Institute."
Steve's knowledge was knowledge obtained from school lessons in his previous life, and it was impossible to be asked to reproduce it alone in another world. It is a good example of knowing the theory but not being able to practice it.
"Well, if Young Master is an ordinary person, what would the others be? But don't you want to try making this engine? I really want to make it."
"Hmm."
Steve could not easily deny Nick's gaze full of expectation. However, research on the engine would require a huge amount of money, and skilled technicians would also be needed. Doing this in the Archibalt Territory carried considerable risk. Probably, Brian would not give permission either.
And after much deliberation, an idea came to him.
"Let's try making an organ."
"An organ?"
When thinking of a Japanese organ, there was a company that later advanced into engine production, became famous for motorcycle production after being spun off. He remembered that.
It would have been fine with a piano, but before understanding the mechanism of a piano, the organ would be easier, so he proposed the organ. The organ is an old instrument and exists in the Kingdom of Cascade. And by observing the production method of that, Steve could create a work standard book and reproduce it in his own territory. So, first, let's try making an organ.
If that goes well, the plan is to make a piano next. Incidentally, since pianos do not exist here, they will have to be designed from scratch.
And Nick has no opportunity to touch musical instruments, so he does not know the organ.
"About that, let's go to the workshop together later. Well, if the production of matches gets on track and we can reduce defects within the process by 50% more than now, that will be your reward."
"Reduce defects within the process by half? That's tough."
"It's only for matches. I'm not asking you to do it for other products whose production is already stable."
Newly launched products have many defects within the process because they are not yet mature. Toys and furniture were also a mountain of defects at the beginning, but by improving the workers' proficiency and adopting jigs for processing, we have achieved defect reduction.
Regarding matches, there are new methods, so past experiences are not easily applicable, so there is quite a bit of room for improvement.
"Well, since there will be an additional bonus for reducing defects that must be done for work, I will do it."
"If you can do that, eventually it will be an engine, so please do your best."
"It's far away, isn't it?"
Nick sighed at the engine whose production date was unknown.
While talking like that, the mosquito coils continued to burn. Since they burn for about six hours, it is painful to keep watching here, so Steve and Nick moved to the dining hall. The lunch break had long passed, and the only people in the dining hall were the dining hall staff and the employees of the machine department who were doing machine maintenance during the lunch break.
Myra was staring at some ledger in a corner of the dining hall, but when she saw Steve coming, she came to greet him.
"President, thank you for your hard work."
"Thank you for your hard work. Is there a problem?"
"Well, if there is a problem, it is that the fruits you improved are all popular and always out of stock. I have asked the Emmanuel Trading Company to procure alternative fruits, but everyone consumes them in their own territory before exporting, so user dissatisfaction is rising."
"Huh?"
He did not think there was any particular problem, and when he asked as a greeting, he was surprised that there was really a problem.
"Indeed, those are delicious."
Nick agreed as well.
Breeding of apples, mandarins, grapes, strawberries, watermelons, tomatoes, and other vegetables and fruits has progressed, and the taste has improved considerably. The original purpose was to increase the harvest, but since it is useless to make a lot of bad-tasting things, the result is that they have focused on breeding for taste as well.
As a result, the conventional varieties are being driven out, but not all have switched yet. Also, in the Archibalt Territory, which was originally unsuitable for agriculture, the harvest was very small. In addition, the ratio of the subjects engaging in industry rather than agriculture was high, so they could not meet the demand within the territory.
So, if it is import, there is a shortage of exports because it is popular in other territories as well.
"I will ask my father to try producing cash crops."
Steve answered. The grudge over food is terrible. He wants to do something while the dissatisfaction is small. In the former Baron Curtis Territory, production should not be a problem, and if Steve mass-produces the seedlings, they can be made immediately.
Incidentally, breeding has also been requested by Sherry, but in the southern Kingdom of Merda, the research results of the Kingdom of Cascade cannot be applied as they are, and it takes time, so Steve was ignoring that.
Besides, the Kingdom of Merda is not suffering from famine. They just want to be able to eat delicious things, so they take the attitude of "it takes time, so please research it there." Since it comes back multiplied if you say it, it has become a form of ignoring.
Myra bowed to Steve and stepped back.
Just then, food was served, and Nick smiled.
"The fact that we can now say whether something is delicious or not is thanks to Young Master. Until a little while ago, we didn't care about the taste as long as our bellies were full."
"We were happy just because the soup had salt in it."
Steve remembered the past as well.
Now, dissatisfaction arising from taste is evidence that the territory reform is going well, and he was very satisfied with that.
Thank you always for your typo reports.