The Mech Touch

Chapter 3587 Zachren Bilitsa

The Pellysa branch of Zachren Bilitsa was a fairly large but basic production facility.

Just like the rest of Pellysa, the manufacturing complex looked fairly low-tech and rustic due to its plain alloyed walls and lots of prefab modules.

Clearly, Zachren Bilitsa wasnʼt interested in employing architecture as a form of art or advertisement. The company merely wanted to set up a working and productive facility as fast and cheaply as possible.

It spoke of a more practical, no-nonsense approach that was devoid from vanity and extravagance. Ves liked that from a company. It showed that Zachren Bilitsa wasnʼt hung up over outdated or restrictive traditions like the House of Barach.

As Ves continued to stare at the manufacturing complex from a distance, Minister Shederin was meeting with a representative of the industrial company.

It was pretty convenient to delegate the tedious task of building up relations and negotiating a possible business deal to a professional.

Ves had already specified what he sought and what Shederin was allowed to offer. He also stated his red lines in order to make sure that the foreign minister didnʼt make any unacceptable deals.

Instead of meeting with the director of the branch, Ves instead met with the person in charge of production.

”Patriarch Larkinson. I have heard much about you. It is a pleasure and an honor to meet you.” A middle-aged man with thin, neatly-combed hair while wearing an upscale version of a workshop uniform greeted the Larkinsons. ”I am J.R. Denner, the chief fabricator of this manufacturing complex. I manage and supervise all of the fabrication processes that are scheduled to start in a month. Iʼve been assigned to show you around.”

Ves shook the manʼs dusky hand. ”Great. Iʼm curious to take a look inside. I hear that Zachren Bilitsa runs a cost-efficient operation.”

”That is right. We may not be the most advanced producers in the Red Ocean, but our production costs are lower than many of our competitors. We would love to show you how we are able to accomplish that. Let me bring you to our first and most complete production hall.”

The group proceeded to the entrance of the first production hall.

Ves did not come alone, of course. Aside from Lucky, his honor guard was never too far away.

The other employees who were performing their own tasks all looked up as the guests walked past them. It was not every day they saw a group that looked that well-protected.

”Please forgive the reactions of our men. They are not accustomed to the sight of guests. You are the first ones to have graced our manufacturing complex. Previously, our facility was not in a state to accept visitors.”

”Itʼs fine. I am not unaccustomed to these sights. How long did it take for you to get to this point?”

”We started construction three months earlier. We prepared the ground, set up the initial facilities before putting most of our efforts into erecting all of the production halls. These areas need to be built to higher standards in order to provide enough stability, power and consistency to facilitate mass production, so we cannot rush this construction phase. It is only now that we are able to move on to setting up the production machines.”

Once they entered the first production hall, they saw that it was already half-way operational. A few production lines looked ready to begin production straight away while others only existed in name.

A lot of containers containing the disassembled parts of large production machines were placed all around. The crews responsible for setting up the production lines were not in a hurry to unpacked all of the valuable equipment at once.

”What kind of production equipment are you using?” Ves curiously asked as he took a good look at the model of machinery being employed in the production hall. ”All of these goods look fairly used.”

They also looked worn, but Ves didnʼt feel the need to point that out. He already had an answer in his mind.

To his credit, Chief Fabricator Denner did not react with embarrassment.

”These are the machines that we have brought from the Milky Way. They are not the latest models that you can buy, and their comprehensive performance is not as good as that of the superfabs that are popular in this dwarf galaxy. We still love them, though. Compared to the superfabs utilized by our competitors, our production lines consume much less energy. Maintaining them is also affordable and we do not have to spend a fortune in case they need to be replaced. Zachren Bilitsa is determined to stick to the ethos of the galactic rim ethos. I am sure you understand what I am talking about.”

Ves nodded. ”Donʼt use an expensive tool to do something when a cheaper one will do. If you donʼt mind the differences in quality and performance, itʼs not that big of a deal to go simple and cheap.”

The chief fabricator smiled at him. ”Exactly! It is so good to speak to a person from the galactic rim again. We have encountered too many heartlanders and centrists who look down on our slower and less consistent production methods. While it is true that our production method creates more variance than the alternatives, our manufacturing crews are empowered to improvise their own solutions. This cuts down on waste and also trains our crews into better mech technicians. Over time, their increasing familiarity with the models they produce will allow them to produce increasingly higher quality copies.”

The man did a good job at spinning the conditions of the manufacturing complex in a more positive light. Everything he said was true, but he also ignored a couple of glaring shortcomings.

First, while Ves was more than willing to believe that the use of older, less intensive production machines limited the production cost, the time it took to produce a mech was also at least three to four times longer.

A superfab was definitely a power hog, but as long as power could be supplied cheaply enough, it was not actually expensive to produce mechs with these all-in-one machines!

Also, even if superfabs were more expensive than traditional production lines, their blazing fast production speeds allowed a mech company to sell a lot more mechs at once. This not only increased revenue and profits by a lot, but also gave the company an opportunity to expand its market share and increase its brand presence.

”Will this manufacturing complex phase out these traditional production machines for modern superfabs in the future?” Ves curiously asked as he kept inspecting the equipment.

”Not for the foreseeable future.” Chief Fabricator Denner said. ”Headquarters has designated our Pellysa Branch as a more traditional and economic production site. While Zachren Bilitsa is in the process of upgrading a couple of other branches with more modern and advanced production equipment, here in Pellysa we will produce our mechs with the same methods and techniques we employed in the old galaxy.”

”I see.”

Ves understood what was truly going on. Zachren Bilitsa may be a fairly large industrial company, but everything was so expensive in the Red Ocean that it could not invest in every branch.

The most rational course of action the company could take was to concentrate the bulk of its resources on its flagship production sites while only giving scraps to the other branches.

This was relevant to Ves and the Larkinson Clan because the potential business agreement that Shederin was exploring with his Zachren counterpart only applied to this branch, not the industrial company as a whole.

In other words, this was an initiative from the local director who only held authority over Zachrenʼs operations in Pellysa. It would not be easy for the Larkinson Clan to extend any potential business agreement to the company as a whole.

That said, the local branch was not entirely on its own.

”Once you begin production, where do you get your supply of raw materials?”

”We have partnered up with dozens of different resource suppliers and distributors.” Denner easily answered. ”HQ has managed to sign three large-scale supply contracts with a few of them. Those suppliers have agreed to dispatch large convoys that drop off materials and load our finished products once every three to four months.”

Ves raised his eyebrow. ”Thatʼs a pretty wide interval. It must be quite inconvenient to pile up lots of materials or mechs for such a long time.”

”That is why our branch has also signed additional contracts with 9 smaller suppliers that are mainly based in this region.”

”You managed to sign a deal with nine of them? Thatʼs impressive!”

The Larkinson Clan hadnʼt managed to gain the interest of any local material supplier so far! To be fair, most of them were already fully committed and had nothing more to spare.

This was also one of the biggest hindrances of the clan. Companies like Zachren Bilitsa had already reserved all of the goods that material suppliers were able to get their hands upon. Precious little resources actually ended up on the open market as a result.

Though Ves doubted that cooperating with Zachren Bilitsa would enable the Larkinson Clan to get in touch with the industrial companyʼs suppliers, he at least didnʼt need to worry about sourcing materials if the local branch started producing mechs of his own design.

This was the convenience of working with third parties. They excelled in their own areas and could easily solve problems that stumped the Larkinsons.

Ves took a closer look at the individual production machines. The 3D printers, the assembly systems, the alloy compressor and other equipment would not look out of place in a region such as the Komodo Star Sector.

He took an especially good look at how they were used, which parts of them were worn and how much maintenance they received.

Everything he saw met his approval. The people in charge of managing them performed frequent preventative maintenance to extend the lifespan of the machines and make sure it operated at its peak for a longer period of time.

Chief Fabricator Denner looked proud as observed Ves making these observations.

”Here at Zachren Bilitsa, we take pride in how we treat our machines. Every part that needs to get oiled once a year will get it twice a year. Any parts that are only slightly out of tolerance are pulled out right away instead of being allowed to remain and skew adjacent parts. We clean the machines two to three times as frequently as the prevailing standard and we donʼt hesitate to set one aside if it begins to exhibit faults. We do not allow our machines to impact our output in a negative way.”

All of that sounded good, but again Ves saw the other side to the story.

The companyʼs less important manufacturing plants couldnʼt afford to replace their older and outdated production equipment too frequently. The workers here had to make do with aging gear the best way they could, and that meant spending at least thrice as much effort into extending the lifespans of all of their machines.

Though Ves agreed with the sentiment, he did not believe that these workers were doing it out of principle or idealism. It was simple economics to the leaders of this branch. Either they made the production equipment last, or they would quickly run out of machines to produce their mechs and other products.

All in all, Ves felt as if he had gone back in time. The production facilities and the way that everything was arranged in this manufacturing complex would hardly look out of place back in the old galaxy!

Ves wasnʼt sure whether it was worthwhile to cooperate with this branch. Though their more traditional production methods might provide small advantages to living mechs, their production volume wouldnʼt be high enough to generate a lot of profit. This was a serious disadvantage.

Yet… did the Larkinson Clan have better alternatives?