Creating a Tech Empire - Chapter 4: Mercedes-Benz Elf Assembly Toy

[First task from the Primary Advanced Technology Shop: Release any new product and push it into the market]

[Task Deadline: 99 days!]

When Chen Fan woke up in the morning, the first thing he saw was this system message. He reached for his phone on the bedside table and checked the time: 5:50 AM. There was also an unread message.

{Son! Today is your first day of internship, right? Mom wishes you all the best. Keep up the good work!}

Looking at the message, a faint smile appeared on Chen Fan’s lips. To receive a blessing message as soon as he woke up made it a beautiful start to the day.

Chen Fan’s hometown was in the northern province. His family consisted of four members: his parents, both in good health and with their own jobs, and his older sister, who was three years older and had been working in the capital city of Jingzhou for two years, leading a blue-collar life at a South Korean company.

His parents sent him money every month, and occasionally his sister would send him some pocket money, so Chen Fan lived a comfortable life.

{Thanks, Mom! Today, I’m starting my job as well, so you don’t need to send me money anymore. I’ll send you money every month from now on. Stay healthy, and have a beautiful day!}

He replied to the message, then got up, washed, and changed into his clothes. From today onwards, he will start his day with a morning run.

Whether in his current life or his previous one, Chen Fan had always been disciplined. Once he set his mind to something, he could stick with it without wavering because he enjoyed it.

In the quiet morning of the Industrial Park in the Harbor District, a few people were riding bicycles here and there, and occasionally, a car would pass by. Seeing those familiar Xiali brand cars, it gave Chen Fan a sense of the changing times and the rapid development of technology.

Thinking about his possession of the Primary Advanced Technology Shop, which had the potential to advance technological progress in society, he felt a surge of excitement. His morning run became more invigorating.

During his run, Chen Fan also encountered someone he knew, Xiao Lingshan. However, they didn’t greet each other and continued running their own routes.

Chen Fan couldn’t help but glance over at her. She was wearing a white sports outfit, and the shorts hugged her curvy and toned legs perfectly. Her slender waist, proportioned just right, seemed like it could reveal tantalizing lines even through the thin fabric of her clothing.

Her coffee-colored shoulder-length hair was tied up in a high ponytail, swaying as she ran. She had wireless Bluetooth earphones in her ears, probably listening to music, exuding a dazzling youthful aura.

Xiao Lingshan is undeniably a top notch beauty, it’s no wonder she had so many admirers, even someone like Lin Zikai was willing to give up an important internship to work in the workshop. Of course, in Chen Fan’s eyes, that was a foolish choice.

After finishing his morning run, Chen Fan returned to the dormitory. He saw that all his colleagues, except for Li Chengang, had already woken up. Some were getting ready, some were getting dressed, and others were eating fried pancakes.

“Good morning!” Chen Fan greeted them cheerfully, taking a pack of cigarettes from Li Chengang’s bed and distributing one to each person.

“We’re the interns who just arrived yesterday. We’ll be working and living under the same roof from now on. Please take care of us!”

“You guys are the interns who got scolded by Expert Chen yesterday, right?”

“What kind of so-called ‘expert’ is he? He walks around all day, likes to hover around the girls on the assembly line, and never takes things seriously.”

“Heh.” Hearing their words, Chen Fan chuckled.

“Ha! He’s not an expert at all. He’s clueless and can’t solve any problems. All he does is wander around, giving random advice. When a real problem arises, he would utter something random words and leave, and it’s us, the workers, who have to deal with the mess. After we finish, we don’t get any appreciation. If the problem isn’t solved, it’s still our fault! Damn!”

It seemed that Expert Chen didn’t have a good reputation among the workers. These people were openly criticizing him, making fun of him.

Chen Fan also smiled along, not trying to stand out. Going along with the crowd and fitting in with the topic of conversation was always the easiest way to get along.

The conversation flowed smoothly, and they seemed to have accepted Chen Fan. They all made promises that if anyone encountered any difficulties in the company, they could always come to them. Of course, this was just polite talk and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

During this time, Chen Fan pulled Li Chengang, who was still lying in bed, to his feet. As the time approached for work, they walked together with the others to the company, starting their first day of work in this new life.

Shenglin Technology, as a large industrial production company with over a thousand employees, had relatively well-defined department divisions.

Starting from the Business Department, which received orders and was responsible for department coordination, the Project Department that dealt with customer projects, the Procurement Department responsible for purchasing and supplier management, the Marketing Department for product launch and operations, the Design Department which housed experts like Chen Fan, responsible for technical core tasks, the Production Department, the Assembly Line Manufacturing Department, the Personnel and General Affairs Department responsible for employee welfare and logistics, and finally, the Finance Department under the direct jurisdiction of the Chairman.

Chen Fan’s department was the Design Department, and for this entire day, he did nothing else but sit in front of the computer and print design drawings for his senior colleagues.

However, another intern, Wu Qian, had already started working on three-dimensional designs and was being guided by an experienced technician. Seeing the two of them working side by side, Chen Fan couldn’t help but feel helpless.

The head of the Design and Technology Department was a technician in his fifties, wearing thick glasses perched on his nose. From the moment he saw Chen Fan, Chen Fan knew that it wasn’t a friendly look, so he had already guessed the outcome.

For three consecutive days, Chen Fan had been doing the same repetitive task. He retrieved design drawings from the company’s database and printed them out. If there were any unclear values on the prints, he had to manually annotate them. At first, he considered re-printing the drawings, but after Gong Qiusheng, the head of the Design Department, discovered it, there was a round of ideological education.

During these three days, Chen Fan also took advantage of his lunch break to use his own computer to look at the software that the system had provided.

After inserting the CD, it prompted the need to install the UG NX1.0 software, and it came with its own software package. Chen Fan only needed to follow the instructions to install the software.

Shenglin Technology used Pro/Engineer for three-dimensional design, and although Chen Fan knew how to use it, he wasn’t as proficient with UG. Besides, Pro/Engineer’s functions for product design were not as comprehensive as UG’s.

After downloading the software and opening the STEP data from the CD, Chen Fan saw the three-dimensional model of the Titanic assembly toy that had already been designed.

There was also a video tutorial that mainly explained how to use shortcuts for rapidly designing assembly toys.

In the three days, using the UG three-dimensional design software, Chen Fan successfully created a two-dimensional sketch that resembled the Mercedes-Benz Elf sports car from 2002. Now, all that was left was to convert the sketch into a three-dimensional model and then proceed with the three-dimensional assembly.

This Mercedes-Benz Elf sports car was made up of 888 bricks, and every detail of each component, assembly tolerance, color differentiation, and even in each two-dimensional sketch, the technical challenges, molding conditions, suitable areas of application for materials, product distribution when developing molds, and more were all meticulously listed.

In reality, this amount of work couldn’t possibly be completed by one person because each step involved different technical challenges in various fields, requiring many specialized professionals to work together to obtain the ideal data.

However, thanks to Chen Fan’s system, all the testing processes, technical challenges, points to note, suitable material areas, and even the distribution of products when developing molds were readily available. Coupled with Chen Fan’s technical experience from his previous life, he was able to complete the design of the assembly toy on his own in just three days.

The time limit for the task from the Primary Advanced Technology Shop had already reached 95 days after today, so Chen Fan felt a sense of urgency because time was running out.

The product design was completed, but there were still many stages and challenges ahead. With only three months left, time was running out.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, he would submit this product to the General Manager and see what she thought of it!