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Prospects for introducing computer-integrated manufacturing in the USSR – a viewpoint*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

Jack Baranson
Jack Baranson
Affiliation:
School of Business Administration, Illinois Institute of Technology, IIT Center, Chicago, Illinois 60616 (USA)
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Summary

Intensified automation related to computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) is viewed by Soviet planning authorities as a major means for increased productivity in Soviet industry. But efforts to increase automation are conditioned by the political–economic environment in which industrial production Systems are engineered and managed. The forces driving Soviet automation efforts are examined, and some tentative judgments are made on the proposed prospects for implementing changes aimed at enhancing the potential contribution of CIM to increased productivity in Soviet industry. The article is based on author's chapters in a forthcoming book, Soviet Automation: Perspectives and Prospects, edited by Jack Baranson (Mt. Airy, Md.: Lomond Publications, 1987).

Keywords

AutomationCIMUSSRProspects
Type
Research Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 71 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1. The seminal work in this area is by Berliner, Joseph S., The Innovational Decision in Soviet Industry (MIT Press, 1976). See also Ronald Amman and Julian Cooper, Technological Innovation in Soviet Industry (Yale U.P., New Haven, 1981); Stanley H. Cohen, “Sources of Low Productivity in Soviet Capital Investment”, in U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Soviet Economy in the 1980's: Problems and Prospects, Part 1 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 31, 1982, pp. 169–194); Kazimierz Poznakski, The Environment for Technological Change in Centrally Planned Economies, World Bank Staff Working Papers No. 718 (Washington, D.C.; World Bank, 1985); and David Granick, “Industrial Growth: Hinderances to Labor Productivity and Management Problems”, The USSR in the 1980's, Series No. 7 (Brussels: NATO Directorate of Economic Affairs, 1978) pp. 71–82.Google Scholar
2. See Cooper, Julian, Civilian Production by Military Factories (unpublished paper, Birmingham University, UK, 1985).Google Scholar
3. See Strode, Rebecca V., “Soviet Design and Its Implications for US Combat Aircraft Procurement”, Air University Review XXXV, No. 2, 46–61 (01–02, 1984).Google Scholar
4. See Khazatsky, Vily, Industrial Computer-Based Real-Time Control System in the Soviet Union, (monograph), Falls Church, Virginia: Delphic Associates, 1985, pp. 86–7. For a contrary view on deficiencies in the System, see David Apgar, The Adversary System in Low-Level Soviet Economic Decision-Making, Report No. N-2111-AF, (Santa Monica: Rand Corp., August 1984).Google Scholar
5. See Jakobson, Gabriel, Soviet Artificial Intelligence Research (monograph), (Falls Church, Virginia: Delphic Associates, 1985). See also “Artificial Intelligence: Background Notes” USSR Technology Update (6 February, 1986).Google Scholar
6. As of 1983, about 4:1 in favor of Japan (even higher in Sweden – 7:l). See Baranson, Jack, Robotics in Manufacturing: Key to International Competitiveness (Lomond, 1983) p. 12.Google Scholar
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10. See Baranson, , Robotics, op. cit, pp. 11–17.Google Scholar
11. The Soviets are by no means unique in this regard. Different varieties and degrees of risk aversion on the part of industrial management are found in Western economics, where managers also respond to their respective Economic environments. See Baranson, , Robotics, op. cit., pp. 54–57, 83, 102–105.Google Scholar
12. Insights in this chapter were drawn largely from Berliner, Joseph S., The Innovational Decision in Soviet Industry (MIT Press, 1976). See also J. S. Berliner, “Economic Measures and Reforms under Andrapov”, In: The Soviet Economy After Brezhnev – Colloquium 1984 (Brussels: NATO, 1984) pp. 55–68; and John A. Martens, “The Creation and Use of New Technologies in the USSR: Chernenko's Heritage from the Past” In: Philip Joseph (ed.) The Soviet Economy After Brezhnev – Colloquium (Brussels: NATO, 1984) pp. 191–213.Google Scholar
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18.Pipes, Richard, “Can The Soviet Union Reform?” Foreign Affairs 63, No. 1, 47–61 (Fall, 1984).Google Scholar