Chapter 162: Sky-High Price Laboratory

But no matter what, this laboratory was obtained by Xu Qiang through his own efforts. He successively completed the chemical workshop renovation project for the factory, the research and development of new perchloric acid fuse batteries and reserve batteries. It is conservatively estimated that these three projects alone can bring millions or even more in revenue to the factory. Therefore, it is only natural for the factory to invest 100,000 yuan to build a chemical laboratory for him.

Moreover, with this laboratory, Xu Qiang will develop more new products in the future, so for the factory, this is also a very cost-effective investment.

More than twenty minutes later, Xu Qiang appeared in the small conference room on the second floor of the office building.

"Xu Qiang, come and sit down!"

Seeing Xu Qiang appear, the factory director Liu Biao immediately smiled and waved to him, indicating that he should sit next to him.

The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss the investment in setting up a chemical laboratory in the factory. As the only chemical expert in the factory, this was the first time that Xu Qiang had the opportunity to sit with the factory director.

In the conference room at this time, in addition to the factory director Liu Biao, there were also deputy factory director Xie Changjiang, chief engineer Li Cunzhu, and the heads of various departments in the office building, all of whom were senior leaders of the factory.

Last time, it was in this conference room that Xu Qiang strongly demanded that his products, which had not been tested at the factory, be sent to the province. This caused a lot of opposition at the time. Some people even regarded Xu Qiang as a reckless fool and watched his performance as a joke.

But this time, as Xu Qiang's samples passed all the inspections in the province and completed the military order he had set ahead of schedule, he was also praised by his superiors and had just been nominated as a candidate for the factory's model worker this year. Everyone looked at him with surprise and admiration, and there was no longer any contempt.

But no matter what achievements Xu Qiang has made, spending 100,000 yuan for the factory to build a chemical laboratory is not a trivial matter, so many people still have doubts about this issue.

"I don't think I need to introduce Comrade Xu Qiang to you all." After seeing Xu Qiang sitting down, Liu Biao said with a smile, "Comrade Xu Qiang has proven his skills and strength and has made a great contribution to our factory. I called him here today to discuss the establishment of a chemical laboratory in our factory. According to the application submitted by Comrade Xu Qiang and my estimation, it will cost at least 100,000 yuan to build a chemical laboratory. I wonder if you have any opinions or suggestions on this. Feel free to speak your mind."

"One hundred thousand yuan is too much..." He Yong, the head of the purchasing department, was the first to speak. He said, "I was responsible for purchasing all the equipment and raw materials for the factory laboratory before. It only cost more than a thousand yuan in total. The invoice attachments and bills are still in our department. I really can't imagine why the new chemical laboratory costs so much."

Although Liu Biao had already told everyone the price of the new chemical laboratory before Xu Qiang arrived, the amount was obviously far beyond everyone's imagination.

In the impression of some factory leaders, the laboratory is full of bottles and jars, and the most expensive things are things like balances. They have seen them in chemistry class when they were in school, but they really cannot understand how such a laboratory can cost 100,000 yuan.

"Yes, this number is simply unbelievable. In fact, even if it is 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, we can understand it, but such a large amount of money is too outrageous." Kang Jian, the chief of the Labor and Personnel Section, also said.

"I think Comrade Xu Qiang has made great contributions to the factory this time. This is something that everyone can see. We all admire him very much." At this time, Li Cunzhu, the head of the technical department, finally spoke up. He continued, "But let's put it in a different light. Logically speaking, Xu Qiang is an expert in chemical engineering, so it is reasonable for him to apply for the construction of a special laboratory. However, he obviously lacks rigor in terms of the budget. Without a detailed procurement plan, he asked the factory to spend 100,000 yuan to build this new laboratory. This is a seriously irresponsible behavior!"

"Chief Engineer Li is right!"

"That's right. They didn't even have a purchasing plan, but they asked for 100,000 yuan. Do they really think our factory is a bank?"

“How irresponsible!”

As soon as Li Cunzhu finished speaking, others present echoed him.

However, these people are not being unreasonable, because according to the factory's financial regulations, any expenditure on any project requires a certain procedure.

First of all, an application needs to be submitted for the expenditure item, and then the relevant invoices, contracts, manufacturer's product quotations, acceptance forms, etc. need to be collected through data collection. These materials are the basis for expenditure and are very important.

In addition, it is necessary to collect some pre-approval documents, such as meeting decision documents, budget approval, etc., to ensure the legality of the payment process.

Finally, for some large expenditure items, Xu Qiang’s factory leaders held a meeting to discuss them. Only after all procedures were passed could the project obtain the required funds from the factory.

Liu Biao has the decision-making power for some projects that require less funds, but for large projects such as one hundred thousand yuan, Liu Biao must also seek advice from the factory.

Faced with this situation, Liu Biao and Xu Qiang remained silent and just listened carefully to everyone's speeches.

"Our factory has indeed accumulated some assets over the years, but that is the money accumulated bit by bit by the hard work of all the employees in the factory day and night, so I think we need to be rigorous and careful every time we spend the collective penny." Seeing that Liu Biao and Xu Qiang remained silent, Li Cunzhu continued: "Comrade Xu Qiang is an excellent technical talent, everyone knows that, but I think Comrade Xu Qiang is still too young and thinks about things too idealistically. He lacks understanding of the factory's accounting system, so he made such an outrageous application. So I think since Comrade Xu Qiang does not even have a specific procurement list, he applied for the factory to spend 100,000 yuan to build a new chemical laboratory. This is very ignorant and irresponsible behavior!" When he said this, Li Cunzhu's tone was a bit serious. It was obvious that he not only wanted to reject this application, but also wanted to hold Xu Qiang accountable.

"Yeah, submitting an application without anything, isn't that a waste of everyone's time?"

"Comrade Xu Qiang is just too young..."

Seeing that Liu Biao didn't say anything, after Li Cunzhu took the lead in raising questions, other people in the meeting also began to blame Xu Qiang.

"Who told you I didn't have a shopping list!?"

At this moment, seeing the factory director Liu Biao giving him a look, Xu Qiang immediately refuted.

"Yeah." Hearing Xu Qiang say this, everyone was stunned. Li Cunzhu frowned and asked, "Where is the purchase list?"

"I always carry the purchase list for the chemical laboratory with me. How can I quote a price out of thin air for such a large project?" Xu Qiang said confidently. He took out a list that he had prepared long ago from his inner pocket, put it on the table, and said, "I have prepared this list a long time ago. Since the leaders of the factory are discussing this matter today, I will show it to you..."

As he spoke, Xu Qiang pushed the list in front of Deputy Factory Director Xie.

"Well... I don't know much about chemical equipment, so let Chief Engineer Li take a look at it first." After Xie Changjiang took the purchase list and took a look at it, he turned to Li Cunzhu who was sitting next to him and said.

"Forehead."

Li Cunzhu took the list and was also surprised.

He never expected that Xu Qiang actually came prepared this time.

However, he still had doubts about this list.

You know, even if Xu Qiang knows some chemical technology, he may not know the market price of some chemical equipment, because this is basically the job of purchasing staff.

He has worked in the technical department for so many years, but he still doesn't quite understand the prices of some testing equipment. After all, this is not within his job scope. He only needs to understand how to operate the equipment.

"Spectrophotometer, current market price is around 800-950 yuan, main sales manufacturers are Shanghai Optical Instrument Factory No. 150, BJ Optical Equipment Factory... Oven, current market price is 170-8000 yuan, Nanchang Scientific Instrument Factory... Gas chromatograph, selling price is 13000 to yuan, sales manufacturer is BJ Analytical Instrument Factory..."

Li Cunzhu took the list and began to read it.

However, the more he read to the end, the more shocked he was.

Even though he doesn't know much about chemical instruments, some of the manufacturers listed above are real. Some instruments in the factory still have the names of these manufacturers clearly marked on their nameplates, so from this point of view, this purchase list may be real!
He Yong, the head of the Supply and Marketing Section who was sitting on the other side, was also surprised. In the list that Li Cunzhu read out, he had visited some of the manufacturers before, and these manufacturers did produce these instruments, but the quotations on the list could not be confirmed at the moment.

"Where did you get the information about these manufacturers and instruments?" Li Cunzhu couldn't help asking after a moment.

"Last month, the factory director and I went to the province for a meeting. After the meeting, I had dinner with some chemical experts from the province. I took this opportunity to ask about the situation of their units." Xu Qiang paused and continued, "At that time, I was very interested in those chemical instruments. I asked the experts about the purpose and use of the relevant instruments. At the same time, I asked them to help me make this purchase list of chemical laboratory instruments, which is the one you see now..."

"Haha, it seems you have been prepared for this." Liu Biao said with a smile at this time.

"There is an old saying that goes, if you want to do something well, you must first sharpen your tools. In this era, science and technology are advancing very fast. It is no longer the era in the past when millet and rifles could conquer the world. Therefore, if our factory wants to develop better and more advanced products, corresponding investment is indispensable. I also hope that the leaders present here can understand my intention and mood and approve my project of building a new laboratory."

After Xu Qiang finished speaking, he stood up and bowed to everyone present.

(End of this chapter)