Chapter 159 A Cross-Era Production Model (Asking for Monthly Tickets)
In fact, Joseph had already started to lay the groundwork for the promotion of ready-made clothes before this fashion week.
For example, he would make special requests to the designers of the fashion week - asking them to avoid the common chest, waist and hips with distinct longitude and latitude when designing, and turn to the waist-to-hips smooth transition mode.
Because the size requirements of clothes that emphasize the chest, waist and hips, especially skirts, are very strict - two people of similar height and weight cannot exchange their clothes at all just because the distance between the chest and waist is slightly different.
And changing to a smooth transition style, the same clothes can be made for them according to standard sizes.
It just so happened that French designers were looking for inspiration for this season's fashion, and they greatly appreciated this somewhat "retro" design style - which is slightly similar to the long skirts in ancient Rome - so they turned to designing fashion with a smooth transition of the waist.
Of course, this also has a lot to do with the fact that the person who proposed the design style is the crown prince. After all, European fashion looks to France, French fashion looks to Paris, and Parisian fashion looks to the royal family.
Afterwards, Joseph discussed with the people of the Lyon Textile Industry Association and initially formulated the size standard for ready-made clothes - according to the men's and women's styles, they are temporarily divided into five sizes: very small, small, medium, large, and very large, and announced the specific requirements for each size of men's and women's styles.
After this fashion week is over, Joseph will ask the Textile Industry Association to continue to refine the size standard and promote it throughout France.
Next, we must try to expand the scale of ready-made clothing production and continuously reduce costs.
When the cost of ready-made clothes is low enough for ordinary people to accept, there will definitely be many people who care more about the style and are not so tight on money, willing to switch from making clothes to buying ready-made clothes.
Joseph also knew that this would be a difficult process, and it would be possible to achieve it only if he could cooperate with industrial policies, add new textile machines, and drive them with steam engines.
Even the problem of land nobles must be solved, the privileges of feudal lords must be abolished, and a large number of tenants must be liberated to provide industrial labor.
"It's difficult..." Joseph sighed with a wry smile.
…
"Congratulations! My dear Mr. Walsh!"
On the east side of the Tuileries Garden, in front of a villa that was one-third built, under the gaze of more than a dozen tall and handsome salesmen, the sales manager solemnly handed a bunch of keys and the title deed to Walsh:
"From this moment on, you officially become the owner of the distinguished 'Palace Garden'! From now on, your biggest worry may be that there are too many envious eyes cast at you."
The cheerful music sounded immediately around, and another beautiful girl came forward to present flowers to Walsh, followed by the priest praying for the new house...
In short, the sense of ceremony was full, attracting countless passers-by to stop and watch.
Yes, Mr. Walsh finally couldn't resist the temptation and spent 2050 pounds to buy a house in the Palace Garden.
The main reason for this was that he learned from his own channels that France would vigorously develop the garment industry, thereby greatly increasing the demand for wool textiles.
And he happened to be a wool merchant. Buying a house in Paris and developing business in France nearby is simply perfect.
Of course, another reason is that the price of the house in the Royal Garden is rising every day!
The house he bought was 50,000 livres, or 2,000 pounds, three days ago, and it rose to 2,050 pounds in a blink of an eye.
This made him very upset about his hesitation a few days ago.
When he heard the salesperson say that the price would continue to rise in a few days, he could no longer bear it and decided to buy a house immediately!
Mrs. Walsh was even more delighted. From the first moment she came to Paris, she completely fell in love with it - the whole city is clean, comfortable, tidy, full of fashion, and there are convenient buses and carriages.
By the way, there is also the extremely reassuring security environment!
The police patrolling the streets of Paris are all dignified. Not only do they never blackmail foreigners or vendors, but they will even rush up immediately and bring them to justice when they encounter theft or robbery. If this happened in London, the British police would have disappeared long ago, unless the victim was a nobleman with status.
Of course, she had no idea that just a few months ago, the police in Paris were just like their British counterparts - this was a new trend after the prince's police reform.
Mrs. Walsh had written a letter to her beloved son in London last night, asking him to bring his fiancée to Paris for a vacation. When they return, they will definitely brag about it for a long time in social occasions.
…
On the 19th of Frost Month, 1788.
The Paris Fashion Week that shocked the whole of Europe finally came to an end. After a grand event, it left behind the memory of endless carnival and the intoxicating luxury of the Tuileries Palace.
Then, the Paris Fashion Art Exhibition officially opened.
This art exhibition is mainly used to showcase French designers - only by making them famous can the world accept Paris fashion more.
During the five-day art exhibition, fashion designers from all over Europe will be invited to come, select the best designer of the year, and award him the "Golden Feather Award".
On the same day, there was another very important event that not many people knew about -
that is, the "Royal Armoury of France" completed all the preparatory work and officially started production.
On the southeast side of the Palace of Versailles Square, outside the plane tree forest, there is a small courtyard 100 meters square, surrounded by a stone wall. There is a crucible furnace for iron-making in the courtyard, as well as a dozen wooden work sheds of various sizes.
At this time, Joseph was standing in front of the main entrance of the small courtyard where the "Royal Ordnance Factory" stone tablet was erected, bowing his head and saluting the departing figure of Louis XVI.
Just now, he accompanied His Majesty the King to attend the opening ceremony of the ordnance factory. Dad was probably too happy. For the first time, he gave a speech of up to five sentences in public, and basically did not stumble.
Of course, after all, this is a factory invested by him to mass-produce the weapons he developed, and even the main craftsmen were trained by him. It is normal to be happy.
After seeing his father off, Joseph turned back and looked at the two core managers of the ordnance factory, ready to get down to business.
"Mr. Garman, what is the current production capacity?"
An old man with a flat nose, two big eyebags on his face, and a pair of small but particularly bright eyes immediately leaned forward and said:
"Your Highness, we can currently make three flash cap guns per day, but this will soon be increased to four."
The Ordnance Factory currently has only one product, the August 1788 percussion cap gun.
Joseph frowned when he heard this - four guns were made every day, 120 guns a month, and the annual output was not enough to equip an infantry regiment...
He did control the scale of this ordnance factory to be relatively small - after his on-site inspection, he found that not to mention the Palace of Versailles, even the entire Paris did not have supporting industries for the production of weapons. For example, iron making, rough wood processing, screws, belts, etc. cannot be supplied. Therefore, he decided to build only a "demonstration factory" near the Palace of Versailles to train craftsmen and conduct small-scale production. A larger ordnance factory is already under construction in Saint-Etienne and should be completed next month.
However, even if it is just a "demonstration factory", the output is a bit too low, right?
He walked into the courtyard with two supervisors, turned his head and asked:
"Mr. Garman, can you increase production in a short period of time? For example... ten pills per day?"
Louis XVI's lock-making teacher and the current technical director of the ordnance factory immediately shook his head and said:
"Your Highness, you see, His Majesty has barely had much rest in the past month, and he barely managed to let four craftsmen master the manufacturing process of the flash cap gun. Oh, and this includes me."
He participated in the development of the flash cap gun on the spot and did not need training.
"Now the four of us have to teach the apprentices. We work until late at night every day to get out a musket."
He hasn't said yet that the barrel for the percussion gun is a rough blank custom-made directly from Charleville, otherwise he wouldn't be able to finish even one in a day.
Joseph frowned again and said in surprise:
"Why not let other craftsmen participate in the production, and the four of you will supervise and guide them?"
You know, Louis XVI hired 16 senior gunsmiths from other places for his ordnance factory, and as many as 50 middle and low-level craftsmen. If these people all took action, the production capacity would never be so miserable.
Garman wondered: "Your Highness, the craftsmanship of a flash cap gun is very different from that of a flintlock gun, especially the barrel and bolt. You must master every step of the process and practice repeatedly to make a qualified gun."
Joseph immediately discovered the logical problem in his words: "In other words, except for the barrel and bolt part, the rest is almost the same as a flintlock gun?"
"Well, that's true."
"Then the four of you will be responsible for making the barrel and bolt. Others will make other parts. Then assemble it. Wouldn't this greatly increase the speed?"
"Your Highness, I'm afraid this is impossible." Before Garman could say anything, the little middle-aged man with brown curly hair next to him said, "Each craftsman has very different technical habits and characteristics. parts to fit together perfectly.”
Garman immediately nodded and added:
"Mr. Martinier is right. Even if you are an apprentice of a craftsman, it is difficult to guarantee that the things made by the master will be exactly the same."
Joseph couldn't help but raise his forehead, but he had forgotten that this was still the era of handicraft industry, and there was no such thing as standard parts production. It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the concept of standard parts began to appear. It would take another 20 years before it was actually applied in production...
As for the assembly line production model that requires standard parts as front-end technology, it is a no-brainer.
He sighed and looked at the manager and technical director in front of him:
"Then, let's try to change this situation. There is a production method called parts standardization."
The two supervisors looked at each other with confusion on their faces: "Parts standardization?"
"That's right." Joseph nodded, "To put it simply, when the same firearm is produced by different craftsmen, they must strictly abide by the pre-implemented parts standards.
"In terms of shape, materials, size, etc., the tolerance range cannot be exceeded. Oh, I will explain to you what tolerance is.
"This ensures that no matter who makes the parts, they can be interchanged at will."
"How is this possible?!" Garman and Martinier said in unison.
Joseph and the two of them entered the office, motioned for them to sit down, and said seriously:
"This can definitely be done. Of course, some means need to be used. First, a batch of more precise measuring tools must be made."
Garman immediately said: "You mean, something like a spiral micrometer."
Joseph nodded: "That's right. Then you will lead the best craftsmen to formulate the "Production Process Standards", "Product Implementation Standards", "Quality Inspection Standards" and other standards for the percussion cap guns. Even the placement of tools should be standardized."
"Oh, I will have someone write a detailed document on the meaning of these standards and give it to you later." Joseph continued, "Once the standards are formulated, the craftsmen will be trained uniformly.
"When making parts, everyone must use the same tools and the same measurement methods, and strictly follow various standard documents. It is strictly forbidden to change any step according to one's own wishes.
"The finished parts will be handed over to the person responsible for quality inspection for measurement. If the tolerance is exceeded, the parts will be scrapped.
"The parts produced in this way are almost exactly the same from material to size. In the end, even if the parts are handed over to workers who do not understand the technology, they can be assembled into a qualified musket. "
The two supervisors' eyes widened immediately - although the Crown Prince's method sounds incredible, it is very possible to achieve it if you think about it carefully.
If production is carried out in this way, only a small number of craftsmen who are familiar with all the processes will be needed to formulate standards, and other craftsmen only need to follow the standards step by step.
It can be imagined that the production speed will be greatly improved, and the training of craftsmen will become much simpler!
How did the Crown Prince come up with such a wonderful idea? The Son of God is indeed worthy of the name!
Joseph also gave them a general introduction to concepts such as "tolerance" and "quality inspection", and finally said:
"Craftsmen may not be so easy to accept the new production model. In the early stage of implementation, the output will even decrease, but as long as you stick to it, you will definitely be able to greatly improve production efficiency.
"During this period, I will work with you to formulate all production standards and help you train craftsmen."
Joseph suddenly thought that perhaps the standardization system should be implemented in factories such as machine tool factories and steam engine factories, and even national product standards should be introduced.
However, this will involve the issue of measurement standardization.
You should know that at present, the units used in France for measuring length or weight are varied. Even for the same unit "meter", the results measured by craftsmen in southern and northern France are different.
Of course, this is even more true for other European countries.
And if you want to promote industrialization at the national level, unifying the measurement standards is the minimum requirement.
The author hereby urges readers to subscribe more, vote more monthly, and leave more messages! The author is very grateful, and your support is the motivation for me to write!
(Reader group 1036217580, welcome everyone to join the group and chat and discuss together.)