Resumption of work and production, in May 2022, has become the four words most concerned by entrepreneurs in Shanghai. In the two months since the closure of Shanghai in March, the difficulty of buying vegetables has been gradually replaced by the freedom of afternoon tea. Home office also began to have a new KPI statistical method, and salary discount has become the norm of many enterprises. People began to get used to being "home", but they still looked forward to the outside world. "When can they go to work" has become the top priority, and among them, the most anxious and urgent is the entrepreneurs in Shanghai.
Author / Sun yuan
May 5 is of great significance to Shen Yuehua, founder of Hengyuan. Taking 18 employees into the familiar Chongming factory together is the first day of their resumption of work and the beginning of their next life together.
There is no water heater in the factory for bathing. Shen Yuehua is ready to brush himself every day. Fortunately, an employee took out his two showers and installed them in the company to solve the bathing problem. There is no bed in the office. Shen Yuehua and his employees lay on the floor in the office and meeting room. Although the collective life of sleeping on inflatable mattresses and cardboard is difficult, the feelings of the employees are becoming deeper and deeper.
On the first day of resumption of work, electricians install shower facilities source: drawings provided by enterprises
For Dr. Shen, who has started his business for more than 20 years, if the production enterprise does not start, it means losing money every day. The loss in April has been quite serious, and the loan repayment barrier of 4 million will be faced in June. The pressure of loss and cash flow made her realize the horror of not returning to work. This anxiety and desire for survival peaked in mid April, and the four phone calls from major customers became a key turning point for Shen Yuehua's return to work and production.
Customers' telephone bombing and logistics cost tens of thousands, and the pressure reached the boiling point in mid April
Chongming district has been closed since March 28. Shen Yuehua didn't feel too much anxiety at first. The employees' salaries in that month were paid in full. On April 10, when the customer in charge of 5g base station project urged the delivery for the first time, Shen Yuehua also said optimistically: we have inventory. As long as we return to work, we can deliver the goods. Maybe next week.
As a national high-tech industry, the importance of 5g base station products facing the global market is self-evident. As an indispensable component, Hengyuan's humidity regulating sheet can automatically regulate humidity in both directions (absorption and release) to protect chips and components from condensation caused by temperature difference. If the humidity control sheet cannot be delivered on time, the shipment of the whole base station product will be affected.
The next day, the customer called twice. The tension reached the boiling point from normal temperature. The customer not only asked for delivery, but also needed a clear logistics time.
The repeated bombing of customers' phones made Shen Yuehua nervous as soon as he heard the phone ring in those two days. Fortunately, the logistics vehicle was connected the next day. He can pick up the goods tomorrow morning and arrive at the park in the evening. That night, the driver slept on the road. At 6 a.m., under the supervision of the park staff, the car was able to drive to the park, and the driver didn't get off in the whole process.
Source: enterprise drawing
Due to the lack of cross town circulation, there are only two female employees in the town. The two girls carried more than 300 boxes of goods, which was very difficult. They didn't even use forklifts until 12:30 noon.
During this period, the customer's phone came every 10 minutes, and the driver even helped the customer start a live broadcast to urge the customer to move the goods.
Two girls carry more than 300 boxes of goods source: drawings provided by enterprises
This shipment gave Shen Yuehua some confidence. The premise of returning to work is to get through logistics, but at the same time, she also paid a large economic price. Shen Yuehua spent tens of thousands of yuan for this trip of more than 300 boxes of goods, which also made her aware of the importance of cross provincial logistics pass.
"My supplier is basically not in Shanghai, but in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The important point of resuming work is that the raw materials need to keep up."
After studying the documents and processes required by the Municipal Commission of Commerce to apply for the certificate, Shen Yuehua found that the most difficult point is that the closed-loop management of drivers is very strict, and reliable and standardized logistics enterprises + drivers are needed.
This involves an agreement that in nearly a month, the driver only connects with Hengyuan line to achieve "one person, one enterprise, one line and one pass". The logistics company can start work only after the unique safety behavior is agreed.
Organize the detailed entry and exit routes into documents, review them from bottom to top according to the requirements of the Economic Commission, and then communicate with the logistics company. It took only three days to get the certificate. The opening of logistics alleviated Shen Yuehua's anxiety after reaching the peak. When he submitted his application for resumption of work at the end of April, he sprouted hope.
Opening up logistics means that Hengyuan receives and delivers goods and can be transported to the logistics company through Chongming, and then distributed to all parts of the country through the logistics parks of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In this way, it not only bypasses the logistics parks in Shanghai, but also the two logistics parks can complement each other.
"We have more than 300 customers scattered in various industries. In addition to resuming work and production, the smoothness of logistics has a great impact on me. Production alone is not enough. We also need to transport raw materials in and deliver goods."
From salary discounts to living in factories and eating boxed meals, the rupture of cash flow is more terrible than loss
On May 3, at the joint request of several companies, the competent department of Chongming government organized a joint review group, and all departments conducted a joint review on resumption of work in a wechat group. Finally, six enterprises in Fusheng park were approved and resumed work and production on May 5.
On the same day, when the first batch of 18 employees of Hengyuan team returned to work arrived at the factory, Shen Yuehua held a meeting, including the arrangement of salary payment: when the salary is paid on May 10, the salary of home office employees will be 20% off in April, and the salary of front-line employees who cannot work on site will be paid according to the minimum income required by Shanghai.
This is a last resort decision for Shen Yuehua.
Humidity management products have light and peak seasons. The first half of the year, especially the first quarter, is relatively light, and the cash flow is very tight. In the first quarter, the company invested some equipment for the later production capacity, plus the investment in the American market. Therefore, the first quarter of 2022 was a loss. Losses continued to increase under the control of the epidemic. Shen Yuehua was more afraid of the rupture of the capital chain and the 4 million loans to be repaid in June.
"Chongming was closed on March 28, and I was still paying my employees as usual on April 10, so they didn't have an obvious sense of crisis at the employee level, but everyone had an early warning of the overall environment until they resumed work this month."
As Shen Yuehua expected, 18 employees understood the salary discount and were more excited about returning to work. We brought pots and pans, marching beds, and even dismantled instant water heaters from home, ready to fight a tough battle for survival. After all, we don't want to go home when we enter the park. The 18 employees include quality control, logistics, warehouse management and even cleaning personnel, production management, and 11 front-line workers.
Operation source of front-line workers: drawings provided by enterprises
"We are different from traditional enterprises. Several processes of an assembly line need to be controlled by people, so it is far from enough for several people to return to work." Shen Yuehua's production capacity was barely restored on May 24, and nearly 60% of the staff resumed work on May 8.
But even if the capacity keeps up, the transportation capacity is still far from enough and the cost is high.
"From Chongming to Zhejiang and Nanjing, the additional cost of each ferry is 4000 yuan / car. The first car costs 8000 yuan, and the logistics cost is more than twice that of the original. Therefore, the production capacity is restored by 60%. Due to the high cost, the profit is still less than 80% of the original. It also has a great impact on the global market. I have a lot of humidity control materials that are exported, and Amazon stores need new products. If the samples of these new products cannot be sent to Yama in time For the warehouse, the sales performance will be delayed for two or three months. The materials for producing samples cannot be purchased because the express delivery is not opened, which has a great impact on the promotion of new products behind me. The epidemic situation makes the renewal iteration of products uncontrollable. "
The resumption of work and production is far from normal, and the self imposed restrictions of enterprises have become the biggest stumbling block
Although Shen Yuehua's factory has been under construction for nearly three weeks, she can still clearly feel that the current resumption of work and production is far from normal. Taking the cross-border e-commerce industry in Shanghai as an example, it is estimated that the proportion of resumption of work in the integration of industry and trade is less than 10%. Instead, pure trade enterprises can replace Shanghai port with Ningbo port, Shenzhen port and Tianjin port through foreign suppliers, and usher in development opportunities under the epidemic.
On May 20, the leading group office for the prevention and control of novel coronavirus pneumonia in Shanghai issued the implementation plan for the city to continue to consolidate the achievements of epidemic prevention and control and return to work in an orderly manner (hereinafter referred to as the plan), which made it clear that Shanghai should promote the return to work and production in three stages: the first stage, from now to May 21, will focus on the restoration of the industrial chain supply chain; The second stage, from May 22 to May 31, will expand the resumption of work and production; The third stage is to accelerate the full resumption of work and production after June 1.
The progress of resumption of work and production will be reduced to Chongming district. According to its observation, although the resumption of work of enterprises has been approved one after another, generally speaking, the number is small; On the other hand, the resumption of work and production is a great challenge for the township government, which needs a certain enterprise service ability and awareness.
Park workers queue up for work source: drawings provided by enterprises
In Shen Yuehua's view, the proposition of final resumption of work and production still depends on the enterprise itself.
"Although it is difficult to resume work and production, as long as enterprises think more, explore more schemes and formulate perfect closed-loop plans according to their own conditions, there is still hope to achieve it. However, many enterprises will set their own restrictions. Even if they have great financial pressure, they are not willing to actively try. If they don't try, complaining alone can't solve the problem."
Through this epidemic, Shen Yuehua began to think that the follow-up industrial chain may be multi-point layout to ensure that the supply chain is not affected.
"Even if there is no epidemic, I will improve industry 4.0, and the production equipment will be more automatic and intelligent. In multi-point layout, it is more efficient to copy the whole process and equipment, and the production process of each process can be seen remotely to build a cloud workshop."
Now the factory is only located in Shanghai, which is the main reason why the company's import and export logistics are stuck all over the country. Under the pressure of the epidemic, Shen Yuehua understands the need to form a more flexible and more yuan plan to ensure the smooth logistics under the epidemic, which will also be the focus of his investors.