The Global Emerging Market in Transition: Articles, Forecasts, and Studies

The Intermediary Role of Scientific/Technological Companies: From the Experience of "Sibtsvetmetavtomatika"

THE INTERMEDIARY ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC/TECHNOLOGICAL COMPANIES: FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF ‘‘SIBTSVETMETAVTOMATIKA’’ The intensive development of new regions in Siberia, with its mineral wealth, forest, water, and power resources, calls for the largescale introduction of technology adapted to the conditions of the region, a constant quest for forms and methods that will enhance the connections between science and industry. Among the more progressive forms of this kind are scientific-production associations (SPA). Having first appeared only a short time ago there are now some 150 SPAs operating in all the branches of the national economy. Like any other organizational form, these associations are going through a development period. Work is still in progress on specific reports regulating their work, defining organizational patterns, determining their place in the country’s system of industrial management, and developing their economic mechanism. How are these problems solved in the conditions in Siberia? From the Blueprint to Services Among the country’s first scientific-production complexes was the inter-district scientific-technological enterprise ‘‘Kraspromavtomatika ,’’ set up in 1957 in Krasnoyarsk. In 1965 it was transferred under the authority of the USSR Ministry of Nonferrous Metallurgy, and in 1977 was reorganized as SPA ‘‘Sibtsvetmetavtomatika.’’ It is not by chance that the scientific-technological base of SPA is Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta [The economic newspaper] (Moscow), no. 38 (1978), p. 16. the experience of ‘‘sibtsvetmetavtomatika’’ 595 located in Krasnoyarsk Territory. This is the site of the giant of heavy industry the Norilsk mining-metallurgical combine, the Krasnoyarsk aluminum plant, and several other industrial facilities. However, the area of SPA activity is not confined to this territory. Its branches have mushroomed in Yakutia, Kuzbass, Buryatia, Kazakstan, the Urals, the Far East, and the republics of Central Asia. Today, SPA is an organization with a complete scientific-technological cycle. A special design bureau—the head structural unit of the association—is concerned with project research and design; a parts division supplies SPA with all the necessary mass-produced elements for projected automation systems, and an experimental plant responsible for their production transmits them to assembly boards and divisions of SPAs for assembly work and adjustment of the systems . The association’s training center provides advanced training for workers and engineers who will be operating the envisaged projected systems. Besides, SPA does its own repair jobs, and provides maintenance service to several systems. Virtually the entire volume of work at ‘‘Sibtsvetmetavtomatika’’ is accomplished on the basis of direct economic contracts. How is the effectiveness of SPA’s work and the quality of its services maintained ? As Applied to Specifics SPAs began to set up their own permanently operating local branches/boards and sectors that are now functioning virtually in all associations and combines of nonferrous metallurgy in Siberia, the Far East, Urals, and Central Asia. In these conditions the central SPA apparatus is oriented to the development of new technical systems and their stock production and the training of personnel for future operating staffs. The conditions in Siberia have a specific effect on logistics. Siberian enterprises, as a rule, have a variety of structural and production units, each one in need of complete sets of plans for the introduction of new technologies. According to the logistics, the funding for material and technological supplies, including the development of automation, is in the hands of the client. It turns out that although the Ministry is pro- 596 management systems and scientific technical progress vided with the required amount of plant sets, the latter are actually delivered to warehouses of the different enterprises, which prolongs the introduction of automation. In this respect SPAs have acquired extensive positive experience. During the development of an automation system for dredges (‘‘Draga-1’’), the funds for the required sets of equipment were allocated to our association. Now the plants for this system were delivered to the central SPA warehouse and then distributed to experimental plants and units in strict conformity with the plan and order of priority for their demand. The result: it has been possible to reduce twice the time needed for introducing the system, and the technological level of ‘‘Draga-1’’ has long received the high approval of clients, along with an award of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements. Due to the specific conditions of Siberia, especially its lack of proper roads, it is often possible to deliver the new equipment to most of the dredges only during the winter. Moreover, assembly work is out...