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Separation for Production: A Key Stage in Implementing Technological Policy

PREPARATION FOR PRODUCTION: A KEY STAGE IN IMPLEMENTING TECHNOLOGICAL POLICY The Significance of Preparing for Production in the Acceleration of Scientific and Technological Progress ‘‘Preparation for production’’ (PP) comprises a system of measures aimed at applying the latest scientific and technical research to industry . It is the final stage of technical development and incorporates a number of diverse operations calling for systematization, general purposeful management, and planning. Having created new possibilities for the practical implementation of scientific discoveries which earlier lacked technical solutions, scientific and technological research has set the technology departments of companies the task either of applying new equipment and new, more economical and more effective technological processes, or of automating the systems already in operation. This way companies will be able to bring down costs, improve quality, and increase the volume of production. The process of preparing for the production of new goods, or introducing new machines and technology, whether automation or mechanization systems, may require the renovation of production shops, changes in the organization of production, and the like. ‘‘Preparing for production’’ is a link in the ‘‘idea–production’’ cycle. Specifically, it is this link that straddles the border between science and production, and determines in large part the success of the scientific-industrial cycle. Determining the content of the basic direction of improvement and the role of the preparatory stage in carrying out the technical policy is a key condition both for the intensification of industrial output and for its increased effectiveness. Excerpt from The Increase in the Technical Development of Industry (Moscow: Znanie [Knowledge] Publishing House, 1976). preparation for production 599 Throughout Russian economic history, much attention has been focused on the preparation-for-production stage. Before the mid1930s , PP was conducted on an individual basis and in some cases was purely of a cottage-industry nature, dealing with the specifics of individual products and the conditions of production at each company . By the end of the 1930s, however, the first theoretical works on the subject appeared which scientifically substantiated the need for standardization and unification of technology. Since the early 1940s, perfecting PP has been the subject of research on the part of many Soviet scientists. During the 5th and 6th five-year plans, industrial enterprises accumulated experience in perfecting PP (for example, Leningrad metallurgical plant, etc.), which then developed into a system of accelerated preparation for production (for example, Yaroslav motor plant, ‘‘Severny Press’’ plant in Leningrad, etc.). The increasing attention given to PP showed workers in management and technology the importance of speeding up the introduction of know-how into new production processes and mastering the specific technology and equipment. At the same time it revealed the complex nature of managing this process, which involved a significant number of participants: research institutes, design and construction bureaus, and company technology and economic departments. With their static interrelation scheme, the line graphs that were in used at the time in planning and preparation work failed to reflect fully the dynamic character of the jobs and ensure timely control and management. The search for better planning methods of PP led, in the early 1960s, to the development and implementation abroad, and later in the Soviet Union, of methods of network planning and management (NPM), making it possible to coordinate and determine the organized functioning of large numbers of participants in a project, and define the critical line of development, thus ensuring a speedy and timely fulfillment of the job. Even at that stage of PP, network methods made it possible to reduce production time by 20% to 30% and to lower production costs. In the Soviet Union, the organizational structure of management had become an obstacle to further improving PP work. It was insufficiently adjusted to the target management of the complex scien- 600 management systems and scientific technical progress tific and technological programs that had superseded developments using individual machines and technological processes. Matrix structures of management organization, which made the most effective use of NPM possible, were a step forward. However, matrix structures put certain restrictions on the potential of network graphs. Though allowing the coordination and organization of the work of a large number of developers dealing with complex technological systems and distributing the available resources, these structures failed to ensure control (in the process of development) of the product’s technological parameters and its progressive development. Combining the latest organizational forms of management— matrix structures and network methods...