In the workshop of Far East Cable, hereinafter referred to as Far East Cable, when it comes to Xu Jing, everyone will call her "Mr. Xu". But this "Mr. Xu" is actually a cable worker with 26 years of experience, and he is also one of the 12 chief technicians in Jiangsu Province.
From 2022, China will establish and implement a "new eight-level worker" vocational skill level system composed of apprentices, junior workers, intermediate workers, senior workers, technicians, senior technicians, special technicians, and chief technicians, opening a new channel for the development of skilled workers. Among them, the chief technician is the highest rank.
In January 2024, after the procedures of enterprise selection and recommendation, on-site defense review, and social publicity, the list of 12 chief technicians in Jiangsu Province was released. All of them come from the front line of production, scientific research and technical research, and each has its own unique skills. The pilot enterprises assessed by the chief technician are mainly enterprises related to national and provincial advanced manufacturing clusters.
Zhang Hongjian, human resources director of Far Eastern Cable, said that Far Eastern Cable has a mature employee skills training and evaluation mechanism. Over the years, Far East Cable has a number of senior technicians.
How to break the ceiling of professional evaluation is a problem at present. Once upon a time, I would rather take three or four thousand yuan a month to sit in an office than take seven or eight thousand yuan to work as a mechanic, which is a portrayal of the true mentality of some young people. Low skills, low income, and low social status have become "synonymous" for workers. Fortunately, there are gradually more people who want to find employment by learning skills, if you also want to learn skills, you can come to the blue-collar club, we have 100+ majors in the blue-collar club, I believe there is always something you want to learn.
But more than 20 years ago, Xu Jing was the only one who had the courage to give up a stable and high-paying job and choose to become a worker.
Give up the "iron rice bowl" of teachers and devote themselves to the front line as a "cold bench".
After graduating from Yangzhou University, Xu Jing became a middle school physics teacher. But she made a choice that ordinary people can't imagine - to give up the "iron rice bowl" of teachers. Out of her longing for scientific research, she became a front-line cable worker.
The reason why Xu Jing chose to join the front line is to transform the theoretical knowledge she has learned into professional practice. After joining the company, she soaked in the workshop and laboratory of the unit, concentrating on the research of cable technology. Talking about why she can sit on the "cold bench", she said that craftsmanship is the last word.
In 2006, Xu Jing won the first place in the first national cable vocational skills competition, and was also awarded the title of "National Technical Expert" by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Since then, Xu Jing has embarked on the "scientific research road" of front-line skilled workers.
In 2008, a catastrophic snowstorm brought a serious blow to the State Grid, a number of transmission lines were disconnected, a number of towers collapsed, how to improve the strength of the wire, build a strong smart grid has become a new requirement of the State Grid. To this end, Far East Cable and China Electric Power Research Institute have jointly carried out technological innovation of high-strength aluminum alloy wires.
In the end, this task fell to Xu Jing's team. Xu Jing repeatedly studied and debugged, and it took only 6 months to successfully develop it, half a year ahead of the estimated time of State Grid experts. The new products she researched are twice as strong as the original, and are listed in the key promotion and application catalog by the State Grid.
In 2013, the UHV expansion wire developed by Xu Jing was successfully applied to the first 750kV "Lanzhou-Guanting" transmission demonstration project in China. In 2018, Xu Jing exclusively designed, developed and produced the world's longest special 10,000-volt high-voltage suspension cable, which was successfully hoisted in Beijing's highest landmark building "China Zun" Building.
At the same time, the products developed by Xu Jing have also created a lot of benefits for the company. In the past five years, she has been responsible for the development of new products that have achieved sales of 5.6 billion yuan and profits and taxes of 12 percent0.6 billion yuan. In addition, Xu Jing led the company's technology R&D team to implement more than 200 process optimization and quality improvements, creating more than 90 million yuan of material saving and cost reduction benefits for the company.
At the same time, Xu Jing is also responsible for and participated in the drafting of more than 40 international, national and industry standards, and is committed to promoting the development of the wire and cable industry. Through a series of innovations and precipitation, Xu Jing has authorized a total of 175 patents, including 52 invention patents and 4 Chinese patent awards, which is a model of technological innovation in the wire and cable industry.
Zhang Hongjian recalled that the company attaches great importance to talent evaluation and incentives. On the basis of the original five-level vocational skill level, Far Eastern Cable has established a series of craftsman and Far Eastern craftsman series grades on the level of skilled talents. However, these titles are issued within the enterprise after all, and there is no "endorsement" from official institutions such as the Jiangsu Vocational Skills Appraisal Center.
Compared with the master of the internal assessment of the enterprise, the chief technician who has been affirmed by the society has more "gold content". "As an enterprise, the evaluation of the chief technician greatly meets our needs for talent incentives, which is a good thing we are looking forward to! Zhang Hongjian said that after the relevant review, the chief technician can receive a skill subsidy of 9,200 yuan per month.
This time, Xu Jing was awarded the chief technician, and Xu Jing felt the attention from all walks of life. This feeling of being "in the spotlight" made her "still a little uncomfortable". Xu Jing said that from a manufacturing country to a manufacturing power, the introduction of the "new eight-level worker" policy is an encouragement and guarantee for skilled workers.
Concentrate on the development of "diamonds in the iron and steel industry", solve the technical problems of smelting, and break the foreign monopoly
In the factory area of Nanjing Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Nanjing Iron and Steel), Zhang Hongjun, wearing an orange helmet and blue **, faced a converter emitting bursts of heat all day long. Thousands of degrees Celsius of molten steel seems to have become "docile" under the operation of Zhang Hongjun, who was born in 1980.
After graduating from school, Zhang Hongjun came to Nangang. Now, he has been working for 23 years. Initially, under the leadership of the master, Zhang Hongjun learned steelmaking technology, and he did all these jobs such as picking up steel slag and pushing carts. At work, Zhang Hongjun worked while scrutinizing the master's operating methods.
He found that by observing the change of flame and the color of the molten steel in front of the converter, skilled steelmakers could figure out when to "tap the steel". In other words, if you see accurately, you can only produce good steel. So, Zhang Hongjun also stared in front of the converter, trying to observe the intensity of the flame and other indicators. But how could it be as easy as imagined, it didn't take long for Zhang Hongjun to feel that his eyes were sore from the hot molten steel and he couldn't open his eyes.
The only way to practice "sharp eyes" is to overcome eye discomfort and find the pattern of various changes in the converter through long-term observation. It takes 3 years to learn the various steelmaking techniques. In the past three years, Zhang Hongjun's craftsmanship has become more and more exquisite. During this period, the 150-ton converter of Nanjing Iron and Steel was also successfully assembled, and the first furnace steel was trained.
Zhang Hongjun was like the first furnace of steel that had just been baked at that time, and he left the division. Since then, Zhang Hongjun, who has undergone tempering, began to explore ways to optimize steelmaking technology. Smelting the "diamonds of steel" is his goal. The so-called "diamond of the steel world" is actually a type of steel called nine-nickel steel.
In extreme environments of minus 160 degrees Celsius, most steel is as fragile as foam board. However, nine nickel steel still maintains high toughness and high strength in this environment. Wanting to smelt the "diamonds of the steel world" for a long time was tantamount to fantasy. At that time, China's nine nickel steel was completely dependent on imports. The smelting technology of this steel is a difficult problem of "stuck neck".
Faced with the situation of foreign monopoly, Zhang Hongjun felt unwilling. At work, he also began to study nine-nickel steel in a targeted manner. Zhang Hongjun found that the key to smelting nine-nickel steel is to control the phosphorus content. The unit price of nickel is higher. In order to control costs, Zhang Hongjun first experimented on ordinary steel.
For more than a year, Zhang Hongjun has experienced a cycle of design schemes, experiments, failures, thinking about improvements, and re-experiments. Eventually, he successfully developed the production process of ultra-low phosphorus steel single slag method. This process solves the problem of "stuck neck" in the production of nine nickel steel.
Today, the nine nickel steel made by Zhang Hongjun and his colleagues has become one of the elements to support the national energy strategy and ensure the independence and controllability of China's advanced manufacturing industry. "Blue Whale No. 1", "Hualong No. 1", "Tiankun" and other major projects, as well as major heavy weapons, all have the "steel support" brought by Nangang and Zhang Hongjun.
Over the years, Zhang Hongjun has presided over and participated in a number of scientific and technological innovation achievements that have created a total of 2More than 200 million yuan. In addition, Zhang Hongjun also combined his own work experience to publish "Converter Steelmaking Endpoint Control Technology", "Key Technology Analysis for Energy Saving in Iron and Steel Metallurgical Process", "Production Practice of Nanjing Iron and Steel Steelmaking to Reduce Iron Consumption and Promote Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction", "The Impact of Torpedo Tank and Scrap Steel on Molten Iron Temperature Drop and Molten Iron Desulfurization", etc.
Before and after being awarded the chief technician, Zhang Hongjun felt that the social status of skilled workers had improved significantly. Zhong Chongbo, a staff member of the human resources department of Nanjing Iron and Steel Group, said that the company implements a salary increase and allowance system for skilled talents, and the salary of the chief technician is increased by 25 grades, you can get an allowance of nearly 100,000 yuan per year.
According to the relevant staff of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, the chief technician is the highest level of the "new eight-level worker" vocational skill level structure, and the pilot work of chief technician evaluation is a key measure to improve the vocational skill level system. The personnel employed by the enterprise to the position of chief technician can enjoy the relevant treatment according to the senior professional title personnel of the enterprise. At the same time, this move encourages enterprises to recruit chief technicians to participate in scientific research, bidding and technical review of major projects.