Toothpaste
2106 Words
After a hearty lunch, Audemars decided to rest for a while bit before he runs another 2 rounds of the Obstacle course as the children were already fed with lots of rice and vegetables and they find it enjoyable, despite being a rather simple meal.
The children's lives were rather simple. They wake up, get washed up and wear new fresh clothes, being fed by either the two of us and then sleep if they get sleepy after their meals.
What can I say... These children are growing up and all they need is the nutrients that they received from the solid foods that they consume.
"Dear, I would be in the orchard once after the run since I find significant changes to my mind and body after that kind of meditation," Audemars informed me and I made an approving sound as he bent over and kissed me and thanked for the great meal.
I chuckled as I took a piece of soft ribs and chewed on it as it crunched loudly as it was literally being gnawed through. No wonder Audemars like to eat these soft ribs, it's crunchy even though it had little meat on them.
I guess simple foods do make one feel satisfied. There was some more piece sir pork soft ribs in them and since it would be for dinner soon, I had requested the domain helpers to chop 3 more pounds of raw soft ribs, use the broth to boil the bones down and then add to the main dish.
At least the vegetables inside would not be overdone if it was recooked in any other manner.
I watched Audemars' back disappear as the domain helpers helped to carry the children back to their rooms for their after-lunch nap that would take at least 3 hours before they wake up and look for more food. Hahaha.
The dining table was cleared and then was covered using one of the wicker food covers which was called as anti-pest covers by Audemars when we started off doing the wicker business to trade with Marcel.
Those were the days where we slowly save up our coins and build up our town as to what it stands today. The wicker production areas had been downsized as it would only generate the fast-moving goods rather than let everything gets stagnant.
I wondered what else to do so I called for one do the domain helpers to summon Alicia the Alchemist which also doubles up as the production manager for the factories.
A least she had the upper hand knowledge of what's going on in the stock level and also for some of the hard to procure ingredients that we need to discuss.
A short while later, Alicia came in and presented herself before me at the conference hall where she held onto a piece of a wooden board with some papers stuck on it.
It was as though she knew that her presence was needed and it would be good to have offhand information right before her.
She was notified to relate all the operations for the productions and this is the first time I was handling such matters.
Normally it would be Audemars who would be handling all the matters and now I am taking over some of his duties so he would have some free time to himself.
"Good day, Your Majesty. You summoned me earlier, isn't it? Well, what do you need to know about the production of health and beauty products so far from our factories?"
"Good day to you too, Alicia. I believe the operations are all going on smoothly. At the present moment I would be handling all the arrangements for the current and upcoming products so let's start from the top first."
"Could I have the list of products that are currently in progress and also the types of scents that you had arranged for them?"
I asked as I got my journal ready then and Alicia began to narrate the number of products that are currently producing in the factories.
"Your Majesty, currently we have 10 scents for perfumes, 10 scents for Hungary water, 10 scents oils for the potpourri and also 10 scents for the scented candles. We also have 4 scent types of body soap and 4 scent types for the hair shampoo. These scents are as follows... "
Alicia began to narrate the number of current products and also the number of scents for each individual products and I was happy at her report since she had everything at her fingertips.
"That's very good, Alicia. I have already noted down what you had mentioned and let me do a run once more to check if I got the right." I then checked the list that I had recorded against hers and found that it was identical.
"Pretty much that's it, eh, Your Majesty? Besides, do you think there would be an addition to the products that we would be producing next to distribute to the rest of the 15 cities and all-around their satellite towns as well?"
Alicia was excited as I replied affirmatively and I looked at the list that Audemars had collected. I called for a domain helper to summon Jennings and at the same time, I got another helper to bring in all the porcelain ware samples that the factories were producing.
At the same time too, I had called for several engineers to be present since Audemars had drawn something crude and need to be enlarged on the wiring slate for them to understand what it was.
After some time, some refreshments were brought in as the things and people that I need had come gathered in the conference hall.
Once again I made them known that I would be taking over the productions and may need some advice and expertise on how to substitute some of the products.
I also need some advice as well as to gather information on the number of factories that we have and the number of workers assigned.
Ben was there as well since he was mainly in charge of manpower and deploying the necessary manpower for each of the trade and industry around the town.
"Your Majesty, we have 6 products currently being produced and marketed throughout the 15 cities through the conglomerate deal."
Alicia highlighted the number of products per factory.
"3 factories were set aside for the production and there are 20 workers per factory per shift for 3 rotating shifts. That makes 180 workers deployed at the factories per day," added Ben as he made a quick count based on his journal.
"Your Majesty, these are the porcelain wares that you had asked for. Would there be any changes to them or additional that need to be produced?" Molly the Porcelain maker spoke up and I observed that there is no need to change the porcelain ware since there would be more uses for it.
Definitely, the vials would not be used, since the contents would be only meant for the perfumes. Therefore, a new production of porcelain ware would be implemented.
I would need the following ingredients to make a new product called toothpaste and toothbrush. The toothbrush would be shaped like this and the container for the toothpaste would be like this as well."
I went to the writing slate and drew the Toothbrush according to what Audemars had depicted inside his journal. The bigger version that I had drawn almost looked like a toilet bowl brush and I could not obtain my laughter after I drew them...!
"I don't have the dimensions for it but you could imagine a piece of stick with some horse tail hair at the end. Short bristles that are arranged at the end here. Anyone could draw up a much better picture of this than me?"
I asked around the board while a young engineer raised his hands and said, "Your Majesty, it may even look like a caterpillar on the end of a stick. Don't mind me saying that but it sure looked like one."
I can't help but agree at what he was pointing out and laughed out loud when everyone realised that it looked like a caterpillar at the end of a stick...! Hahaha...!
"Well, as for the ingredients, we need Jennings to give us the idea. We need to have 25 pints of unscented coconut oil, 25 pounds of unbaked baking soda and 1 pint of peppermint oil essence. This is to make one batch of 200 ¼ pounds of toothpaste."
"Jennings, how much does a pound of baking soda or powder or salt of Hartshorn costs? We might need to purchase quite a lot of it in the future."
"Furthermore how much do you think of the unscented coconut oil since we had not even seen them before and could anyone advise me on how to substitute the product instead?"
Jennings stood up and cleared her throat before answering that the salt of Hartshorn costs 6 coppers per pound. A single batch to make the toothpaste would cost 1 Silver and 50 coppers."
Old Kayla stood up and said, "We have not seen unscented coconut oil, but could we use some other kind of unscented oil such as unscented olive oil or something? Previously there was a need for them but we did not order any of it, I guessed."
"I think we could try to work around it. As long as it is the oil I don't think it would make such a difference in the outcome and texture. By the way, the product that we would be manufacturing in a new factory would be called toothpaste."
"The production would run in a single factory with two lines of workers, each line to work on separate products under the same category."
"However, we would make it these toothpastes in a small batch first and asked Audemars to see how it ends up like and see if it fits the description."
I finally concluded the findings for the toothpaste and Jennings suggested that we can use a pound of unbaked salt of Hartshorn instead for trial and also a pint of olive oil.
Jennings wanted to mention animal fat but then the smell would be putting off several people. Besides our target market would be the upper-classmen, so quality would be required.
"There's a few kegs of olive oil in the storage, Your Majesty. I could get the men to bring you one keg and you could use like 1 pint instead. As for the peppermint oil essence, I believe Alicia could help you with that."
Ben highlighted as he knew there were some unused kegs that had been kept long since it was bought several seasons ago but was unused. It was stored along previously in the storage barns when it was located in the town square before being relocated.
"Splendid idea, Ben...! Never knew you had records of such items in the storage barns before and I knew the oils could come in handy. Alright, let's have a test shall we?"
I was clapping my hands gleefully and showed Molly how the container to store the toothpaste would be and she nodded her head in approval. Once she had made a few samples of it, her own production line of 20 workers would be assigned to turn out these items and bake them in the kiln. Besides, if the porcelain making factory needs more manpower, she would suggest it to Ben and its a done deal.
Besides, there are many who would love to work indoors, despite earning the same as the farmers but having more job responsibilities than the latter.
I clapped my hands as we and reached the ultimatum for the toothpaste and toothbrush production. A sample would be produced and handed for Audemars for approval.
And of course, I would be the first to try them out. Hahaha.
After everyone had gotten down what was written and drawn on the writing slate, we moved on to the next subject.
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