Please share your own story (heavy reward)

There are many people browsing, but no one to tell stories yet. Let me first talk about a project I was involved in; it can’t be called a story, but rather something to serve as a starting point for discussion. I served as the quality manager for an EPC project. For the company, since it was the first time they were undertaking such a large turnkey project (with an investment of over 1.5 billion), everyone within the company attached great importance to it. At the beginning of the project, we developed a quality plan and established a project quality system, which can be said to be quite standardized. The quality plan also details the quality inspection schedule, but as the project progresses, many things are beyond our control. The owner also attaches great importance to our project, as it is a peripheral project that includes tank areas, sewage treatment facilities, as well as utility systems such as water, electricity, and steam; the construction of these facilities must take place before that of the other installations. In addition to having its own strong quality management capabilities, the owner also hires supervisors (4 or 5 of them) as well as third-party auditors. To this end, various quality inspections are regularly organized; it’s not an exaggeration to say that there are minor inspections every three days and major inspections every five days. As a result, those of us responsible for overall quality control, including me as the quality manager, have ended up focusing solely on dealing with quality inspections. The main tasks are to organize staff to assist with the inspections, and there is a need to prepare self-inspection reports, as well as reports on quality inspections, follow-up checks on corrective actions, and summaries of those corrections. If any problems are found, I will naturally be the main person responsible. It was not until the project ended that we realized our own quality inspection plan had not been properly implemented – of course, this was also due to the lack of time to do so.

The moderator is right; there are indeed some issues with our own management, mainly due to a lack of experience – after all, this is our first time taking on such a project. For me personally, it was also my first time serving as a quality manager for a turnkey project; there were many things I had to learn as I went along. However, through the experience of this project, I gained a great deal of knowledge, and in subsequent projects I was able to handle various situations more easily.

Let me share a personal experience. Eleven years ago, I was working on a project in a city in the south. As soon as we left the train station, the owner’s people came to greet us very warmly and then helped us get into the car. We had dinner at a very upscale restaurant in the area that night. Lying in bed at night, I thought: This treatment is really good – a renovation project worth 20 million, and such emphasis is placed on it. The next day, when I arrived at the factory, I said I wanted to go and take a look at the site first. The project supervisor on the client’s side (back then, the term ‘project manager’ wasn’t in use yet) said: No need! You don’t need to worry at all about removing the old equipment on site or installing the new one; we’ll take care of it tonight. (Wow, if the project manager on the client’s side is like this, then the world must be a wonderful place for project managers on the vendor’s side!) Let’s hold a meeting first (originally, there was an urgency to hold the meeting; I’m not worried about that – after all, those in charge of projects are experts at navigating through mountains of paperwork and numerous meetings). The meeting was chaired by the vice president of Party A (a renovation project worth 20 million – the specifications are way too high). The guy just said, “Everyone, thank you for your hard work!” ”With this polite phrase, they got straight to the point: “Currently, the sales of our factory’s products are very good, far exceeding our expectations!” It was estimated that the stock would run out within a week (it turned out that they had stockpiled supplies, enough to last at least 10 days), so the originally planned 25 days of on-site work had to be completed within 7 days; on the 8th day, XX would be delivered, and each team member would receive a cash reward of 10,000 yuan! I’m done speaking; it’s up to you to put it into action. It was so quiet in the venue at that time. Ten thousand yuan 11 years ago was equivalent to nearly half a year’s salary for a person with a medium income in a developed region. Without wasting time, from that night on, the people from the factory moved into the factory office, and the number of workers on the construction team was doubled. We too must go all out and work hard. By the 7th night, the first batch of XX appeared. The homemaker’s eyes turned red from staying up all night (or it might have been the excitement at the prospect of getting 10,000). However, after a whole day of rest, no one gave us any money. It was only later that I realized they were referring to 10,000 per member of the \"owner’s project team\"! We were being overconfident. Actually, the owners were quite fair: they provided us with free food and drinks every day, good cigarettes to smoke in the lounge, and even gave us some cash (it seems they compensated us after hearing about the misunderstanding and seeing the great profits we were generating) ； They covered the expenses so that we could enjoy a great time at the local attractions (this was part of the plan). This experience taught me the following: 1. Be sure to understand the situation before taking action! 2. Human potential is enormous. At that time, our strength and wisdom seemed to flow endlessly like a spring – no, they actually gushed out like fountains; some of the methods we came up with are still astonishing when thought about today. 3. The cash incentive is extremely effective; it remains an important tool for overcoming challenges to this day (I’m referring to legitimate bonuses tied to projects – don’t overthink it; one should remain honest in life: lol). 4. When you have sufficient capabilities and the owner relies on those capabilities (in other words, when you are useful), the owner will provide you with various conveniences and favorable treatment. Therefore, strength is always the capital for speaking! This post was last edited by Passerby1974 on 2009-2-18 13:07.]

Of course, there are contractual obligations; the contract stipulates that the on-site work for the renovation must be completed within 25 days. We get excited as soon as we hear about ten thousand heads, our blood starts to boil, and all we can think about is finishing the work as quickly as possible (sigh, what a lack of ambition). In fact, I stayed on site for a total of one and a half months, working on some final tasks, providing support, and also because of the owners’ enthusiastic requests for me to stay. Especially the last week, it was quite comfortable. :lol

A small thing that really opened my eyes when I first started working. Shortly after graduating and joining the company, I was transferred to its engineering department; at that time I had just begun working and had no social experience at all. My department is responsible for the bidding processes related to projects, including those concerning construction teams, equipment, and materials. It’s a rather sensitive area, and I am just an ordinary manager there. At first, for a while after we held the bid opening, it seemed that some of the preparatory work we had done before the bid opening – such as the minimum standards we considered acceptable – were already known by certain bidding companies. My supervisor was very angry because of this, so before a tender for equipment (with a contract value of around 40 million) was held, he used a trick. Actually, for the equipment in that tender, due to issues related to qualifications and equipment transportation, we assumed that only one company would be able to handle the task. But if that company had known our minimum requirements in advance, it’s likely that a 20% price increase wouldn’t have been a problem for them. So they deliberately revealed to those within their department whom they suspected of being competitors that there were two other strong potential manufacturers in China, and that we should proceed with the tender process as usual. As expected, that manufacturer found out that there were two other companies competing with it, so in order to win the bid it offered the lowest price possible. That time, he not only caught the traitor but also successfully completed the equipment order; his wisdom is truly admirable. This post was last edited by xyqq on 2009-2-28 18:57.]

I’d like to share my own story as well. Once, a friend gave me some information, and I got in touch with them by phone. It was a factory that was about to be built; the conversation over the phone was very pleasant. A few days later, I went on a business trip to their city. I first inspected their site, where there were newly constructed foundations, excavators, and workers busy at work – it was a bustling scene. It was a large-scale project, and after gaining an understanding of the situation, I went ahead and held negotiations the next day. Everything went smoothly, and after several attempts, we finally reached an agreement to cooperate. I worked hard to finalize the details related to the budget and the design, communicating with the design firm. It took several weeks, and once I saw that they had purchased all the necessary construction materials such as pipes and machinery, I thought there shouldn’t be any problems on my end. After all, a contract worth 2.1 million had already been signed. But when I returned, the financial crisis hit, and the vice president there called me and said…； ×Well, a problem arose and the project came to a halt. I asked what was going on, and he said the bank loan couldn’t be approved; I had no choice but to wait. I was shocked when I heard that. Well, there’s nothing to do about it; I thought I’d gotten another big order, but now it’s off. . . . . Wait. . . .