Cotton Mill. Warehouse Area!
Looking at the inventory log in his hand, Li Yi was at a loss for words.
He had always been aware of the common problems plaguing state-owned enterprises—overstaffing and a complacent, “get by” attitude—but he never imagined these people would be so careless in their work.
After just a single glance at these inventory records, Li Yi felt it was highly unlikely that over three thousand yards of fabric had been stolen; it was more likely a simple accounting error.
The reason was simple: the data recorded in these inventory logs was definitely flawed—and seriously so.
Take June 2, for example. The inventory log read: “Three truckloads of printed cloth received in the morning; two truckloads of cotton cloth received in the afternoon!”
And that was it—there were no further details, including which workshop had delivered these five cartloads of cloth, how many bales or pieces there were in total, or who had received them.
To be honest, inventory records like this are the epitome of sloppiness, and if something goes wrong, you wouldn’t even know who to hold accountable!
If Li Yi’s own employees dared to act this way, they’d likely be kicked out within a week—but only a state-owned enterprise could tolerate such behavior.
More importantly, while the earlier records were a complete mess, the end-of-month summary data suddenly listed a total of 3,240 yards received.
Based on the formula on the form, Li Yi could roughly deduce how this figure of 3,240 pieces was arrived at: in June, the production workshop sent a total of 90 truckloads of finished fabric to the warehouse, with each truckload containing 6 bales and each bale containing 6 pieces.
At first glance, this seems fine, but upon closer inspection, it doesn’t add up.
They hadn’t counted the number of bolts earlier, and at the end of the month, they simply multiplied the number of trucks delivered from the production workshop to arrive at the figure—is this a joke?
After all, the types of fabric being received vary, and so do the quantities per type!
Moreover, Li Yi went through the inventory records and found no entry for woolen fabric.
This led Li Yi to form a theory about the situation.
Since woolen fabric is thicker, one bolt takes up much more space than printed or cotton fabric, so each bundle contains only four bolts.
If we calculate by cart, a cart of cotton cloth contains six large bundles, with six bolts per bundle, totaling 36 bolts!
A truckload of woolen fabric also consists of six large bundles, but with four bolts per bundle, the total comes to only 24 bolts.
If the warehouse staff, due to negligence, had counted all the woolen fabric as ordinary cotton or printed cloth, the number of bolts recorded in the ledgers would undoubtedly be much higher than the actual amount.
Having roughly figured out the truth of the matter, Li Yi began to consider how to resolve the immediate problem.
Regardless of how the factory ended up in this situation, the fact remained that there was currently a shortage of plain and patterned cotton fabrics, which would inevitably have a significant impact on his previous plans.
However, this impact might not necessarily be a bad thing!
The reason is simple!
After all, it was winter, and no matter how stylish the batwing shirts made from printed fabric might be, they weren’t seasonal clothing. That’s why Li Yi had originally intended to sell the printed fabric at a discount.
Compared to printed fabrics, wool is a warm, thick fabric—and an exceptionally high-quality one at that.
When made into clothing, it’s perfect for winter or early spring.
Put simply, in this season, 5,000 bolts of woolen fabric are far easier to sell than 5,000 bolts of floral fabric, and they’re also more valuable.
However, selling that much woolen fabric isn’t easy.
First, woolen fabric is difficult to work with for clothing, and there are few styles available!
Second, it’s quite expensive, and ordinary people can’t afford it.
Fortunately, Li Yi could recall quite a few designs for men’s and women’s woolen jackets and coats; if these garments were produced, they should sell like hotcakes.
Besides, this is the capital after all, and there are plenty of wealthy people here.
He only had five thousand yards of woolen fabric on hand, and the capital should be able to absorb that!
Right then, Li Yi decided to immediately “design” the woolen garments and hand them over to Director Tan and his team for production.
After leaving the warehouse, Li Yi sent An Hong back to the production workshop, while he headed to the factory office building to have a chat with Jiang Longcheng.
……..
In the factory director’s office, Jiang Longcheng was feeling annoyed by a sudden, troublesome issue.
He already felt he’d let his brother-in-law down in this matter; if it weren’t to help him, Li Yi wouldn’t have had to get involved in this mess in the first place.
Now, not only had he staked his entire fortune to help them through this crisis, but his own factory had ended up letting him down as well. All of this left Jiang Longcheng at a loss as to how he could explain himself to Li Yi.
Just as Jiang Longcheng was frowning, a sudden “knock, knock” sounded at the door!
“Come in!”
When he saw Li Yi push the door open, Jiang Longcheng immediately asked, “Brother-in-law, how’s it going over at the warehouse? Is there really a shortage?”
“Hmm, the numbers on the books don’t quite add up…”
Before Li Yi could finish, Jiang Longcheng cut him off: “Don’t worry about it, brother-in-law. I’ll make sure you’re fully compensated. There’s no way I’m letting you take a loss!”
“No need…”
Before he could finish, Jiang Longcheng spoke again: “We just had a meeting. The factory says there’s a shortage of over 3,700 bolts of fabric, and they plan to deduct one-tenth of the payment. What do you think?”
“I have no objections. Even if they don’t deduct the payment, I’m fine with it!”
Li Yi then added, “Although we’re short quite a bit of plain and patterned cotton, we’ve actually gained over 5,000 yards of woolen fabric. The overall value of that batch hasn’t decreased—in fact, it’s actually increased slightly compared to before!”
Jiang Longcheng replied immediately, “As long as you have no objections, that’s fine. I won’t go into the rest—I certainly can’t let you come out at a loss, can I?”
“I haven’t lost out, but your factory’s management is a bit chaotic. You, as the factory director, really need to get things in order!” Li Yi said.
“Huh? Where’s the chaos? Did you uncover something new?” Jiang Longcheng asked.
“Well, there are major issues with the accounting records in your warehouse!”
Li Yi then proceeded to recount what he had just discovered.
After listening to Li Yi, Jiang Longcheng frowned and said, “So it’s not that someone stole inventory from the warehouse, but that their records are wrong?”
“That’s likely the case, but have you considered why there’s so much woolen fabric in the warehouse when there’s no record of it in the inventory logs?” Li Yi asked.
“Could this… be due to negligence on the part of the warehouse staff?”
“That’s a possibility, but it could also be intentional on the part of the production department.”
“Why?” Jiang Longcheng asked, puzzled.
“To meet production quotas, of course!”
Li Yi continued, “After all, producing a bale of woolen fabric is much easier than producing a bale of cotton or printed fabric. Then using the woolen fabric to fulfill the quotas for cotton or printed fabric is simply too profitable.”
Hearing this, Jiang Longcheng was completely baffled.
Although he was the factory director, he had absolutely no idea about these inner workings of the factory and had no clue such practices existed.
“Damn it, if that’s the case, we can’t just let this slide!” Jiang Longcheng said angrily.
“Although this is an internal matter for your factory, and as an outsider I shouldn’t meddle too much, since you’re the factory director, I feel I must say a few words!”
Li Yi continued, “For a business to thrive, it must have a sound set of work procedures. Your factory’s systems are far too lax. If you want to grow, you must put an end to this culture of inefficiency!”
Jiang Longcheng immediately replied, “You’re right. Compared to the staff at your store, I feel like our factory is practically running wild—it’s just terrible!”
“Good to hear you realize that!”
Li Yi then asked again, “By the way, how are things going with setting up the marketing channels? What do the various managers at your factory think about it?”
“What objections could they possibly have? They’ve all agreed. As long as you don’t pursue the matter of the missing goods, they’ll be counting themselves lucky!” Jiang Longcheng said indifferently.
“All right, then. Have the head of your sales department come over in a moment. I want to have a good talk with him!” Li Yi said.
“Alright! I’ll have him come right over!”
“Alright!”
…….
PS: I went back to work before I’d fully recovered, and ended up with an eye infection. Yesterday it hurt so much I couldn’t even open my eyes, but today it’s a little better!