Ch 5. Mass Production
"A total back orders of 137 units?" When Xuyi sees the huge stack of order forms, he does not know whether to feel happy or feel worried.
He did foresee that the magitech fan will catch on quickly and sell well. In this torturously hot weather, everyone want something that will provide some reprieve from the heat. But previously, the only available option an lce-frost sigil, and it is too expensive for most people.
And the emergence of the magitech fan fits perfectly their needs and budget.
It is not hard to see the price comparison. One has a price tag of 30 gold, plus over a whopping hundred gold monthly. The other is only 2 gold, and not exceeding 1 gold of power crystal's cost. Undoubtedly, price-wise, magitech fan wins hands down.
Even when the capacity of the magitech fan is a far cry off, but as long as it provide some cooling reprieve, it is all they ask for.
But Xuyi could not imagine that in just one day, Heinze would receive over hundred pre-orders.
According to Heinze, there are many more who are interested, but did not place an order because they did not see a sample. He believes if he has ready stock, the sales volume will be many times the pre-ordered quantity.
"My dearest Xuyi, no matter what, please complete this order of 137 fans in the shortest time possible, this is the matter of reputation." If Heinze is just being polite before, he now sees Xuyi as a mountain of gold, and speaks in a more flattering tone. "Of course, if possible make as many as you can. Believe me, many citizens of Stadtspire City has demand for a magitech fan. And so do many more people of other cities!"
"Yes sir! I will give it my utmost!" Xuyi is a little overwhelmed by Heinze's passion, he too felt enthusiastic thinking about his current success.
Of course, talk is easy, but the doing is really difficult.
To complete the 137 orders, he cannot do it alone. Even when he has completely mastered the craftsmanship involved with making the magitech fan, it takes him 3 hours of nonstop work per fan. Multiplying 137 for a full 411 hours working time, that's half a month!
###
After seeing Heinze off, Xuyi takes a few moments to carefully plan his workflow.
He goes first to the blacksmith workshop he had the magitech fan forged before, and straight off orders a round figure of 200, and hurries back to the wizard tower.
He came to meet Heinze during his lunch break. When he arrives at the tower, his colleagues are all there. To their surprise, Xuyi brought them a big bag of chilled beer, which he gives them one each.
When he handed the beer to Reim, he does not take it, but asks with a frown instead: " If you want something, just tell me straight up. My mum taught me, think twice before accepting someone's food, because the best way to a man's heart is through the stomach, and especially my stomach. You don't say your demand, I don't drink your beer."
Hearing this, those who are about to start drinking stops, too and looks at what Xuyi has to say.
Xuyi did not foresee Reim's reaction. But seeing that everyone is looking at him, he raised his voice so that everyone could hear: "My fellow colleagues, it is true I have something to ask for. But the beer, it is nothing but my treat. I promise you I didn't do anything hanky-panky."
Xuyi's smooth talk brought about a lighthearted laugh, and he continues, " And naturally, there is a pay, you can call it a part time job if you like, anyone interested?"
"How is the pay?"
"What will we be doing?"
"How long will it take? Busy work?"
...
At the mention of a pay, they are suddenly very enthusiastic.
They can't help it. The salary here is somewhat low, so everyone shows great interest when they found out they can earn some extra money.
"It won't take up a lot of your time, and the job is easy to do. I pay according to how many finished goods you completed. Here are the details...."
When Xuyi explains that they only need to copy some Sigils, everyone agrees that the job is extremely easy for them. And once they hear the pay is 10 silver per Sigil completed, they all found that this is good money. Even the usually emotionless Venna is vissibly moved.
By just drawing a dozen Lvl1 Whirlwind Sigil, a few gold coins goes to their pocket. This is good and easy money.
By the time Xuyi has finished explaining, there are already ten takers.
The other six who did not take up the job are the high level wizards. To this Xuyi makes no fuss. The job must have been beneath them, or perhaps they do not think highly of Xuyi.
But Xuyi is not the least disappointed. Ten new employees is beyond what he has expected.
With their help, not only can Xuyi finish the 137 orders in a breeze, he is confident to make hundreds of them.
###
In the following weeks, he is so busy that he has not even time for a proper meal.
On one hand, he must stringently control the quality of the component parts produced by the blacksmiths.
As a mechanical engineer, Xuyi knows very well that when carrying out mass production, it is crucial to ensure uniform specifications of all component parts.
However, here in Conaissance Continent, blacksmiths makes their metalworks according to individual experience and workmanship, and does not have a standardised measurement. So it would be impossible to produce a completely uniform product.
To this, Xuyi can do nothing for the time being. He can only ensure he labels the blueprint as clear as possible, and requests the blacksmith to follow the blueprint as closely as he can.
On the other hand, he need to guide his colleagues, almost by hand, to reproduce the sigils exactly as specified.
Initially, his colleagues belittles his guidance. To them, a level 1 sigil is child's play, what more guidance will they need, so they reproduced the sigils as the see convenient.
But when Xuyi shows them the sigil he has redesigned to power the fan, only do they find that the sigil albeit only a level 1 sigil, is extremely complicated, and many of the connecting nodes makes no sense to them.
One of them is unconvinced, and reproduced one as he see fit. But when Xuyi installs the sigil he reproduced to the fan, everyone sees for themselves, that this faulty sigil could barely move the fan blades.
Upon seeing this, the colleagues realises the need to be stringent, and complies to Xuyi's specifications, and take seriously of the sigil they work on.
At the same time, he still continue his work at Elder-Wizard Camilla's tower, which he refuses to give up.
Heinze did persuade Xuyi to just quit his lowly job there, because Xuyi will definitely be rich with just making as many fans as he can.
Xuyi did not explain to Heinze his reason, and perseveres on with both his job and his new business.
###
After one extremely busy week, he manages to exceed the target production of two hundred fans. Casting aside thirteen which are defective, he now has 487 units in stock. Not only can he fulfill his 137 preorders, he has an excess of exactly 350 units.
The small rented cottage Xuyi is currectly staying at is now his makeshift workshop. Everyday, after their work at the tower, Xuyi and his ten colleagues will gather here and reproduce and install the Whirlwind Sigil onto the magitech fans.
Today, the atmosphere in the workshop is different than usual, with more delight and celebration because with successful production of nearly 500 magitech fans, comes the time for remuneration.
With an average production if 50 fans each, each of his colleagues gets about 5 gold coins. Although this amount is not exactly a big sum to them, but since there isn't much part-time work available to low-level wizards like them, this is good extra money. Xuyi even gave them a magitech fan as a bonus.
Magitech fans are now a hot commodity in Stadtspire City and is highly sought after; most people couldn't get one even when they have the money.
Some would even buy off the 2 gold apiece magitech fan from their friends, for a whopping 3 gold. That's an increase of 50 percent.
If they resell their magitech fan, they would get an extra 3 gold!
Seeing their happy faces, Xuyi smiles and leaves for Heinze's shop.
Heinze has set up his store for a grand reopening to exclusively sell magitech fans. Xuyi managed to fund the production of 500 magitech fans with the deposit money of 137 preorders.
If he manages to sell all 487 fans, he will make a small fortune. But if he couldn't sell them off, the capital will be lost.
He can only wait till tomorrow to find out.