EFFECTIVENESS OF SOVIET BRANCH SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700260034-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: August 30, 1956
• Content Type: REPORT

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STAT
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EFFECTIVENESS OF SOVIET BRANCH SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTES
Vestnik Mashinostroyeniya, No 2
Moscow, Feb 55, PP 80-83
The fulfillment of complex and responsible tasks, placed by the Communist
Party and the Soviet Government before various branches of the national
economy, and the continuous increase of technological levels in industry, trans-
port, and in agricultural production are impossible without the extended devel-
opment of scientific research and experimental design work. This work must be
expeditiously divided between plants and enterprises on the one hand, and spe-
cially created organizations -- branch scientific research institutes -- on the
other hand.
There is a large network of organized scientific research institutes
in the USSR. The government spends enormous sums on the training of scientific
cadres, and on building and equipping experimental laboratories and shops.
Scientific workers are accorded all the conditions necessary for their fruit-
ful work.
The Personnel of scientific research enterprises are developing and intro-
ducing new models of machines and instruments, advanced technological processes,
automatized production lines, and high productivity mechanization of laborious
agricultural and building operations. However, besides the successfully oper-
ating scientific research establishments there are also institutes whose work
does not meet the increased requirements of the national economy and yields
no appreciable practical results.
Periodicals contain articles criticizing the wcrk of some scientific
research establishments. They note the complete separation from reality in
the subjects covered, the extreme slowness in the solution of projects, the
inadequate quantity, and sometimes even the complete lack of the productive
introduction of the projects, etc. However, these deficiencies are rarely
accompanied by an analysis of their causes or concrete suggestions for their
elimination.
Since many of the matters pertaining to the improvement in the operation
of the branch scientific research institutes are common to many industries
and, since many of these matters are complex, it is well that they be thor-
oughly discussed in the press so that they attract the attention of technical
persons, publicize the opinions of many specialists, and, therefore, contribute
toward the speedy and thorough solution of these pregnant problems by direc-
torial organizations.
This article examines some essentially important, and primarily organiza-
tional, problems which are characteristic of machine building scientific re-
search institutes.
Projects and Planning
Branch institutes generally operate on an annual subject plan. Individual,
more complex problems, the solution of which requires several years, are included
as continuing items in the plan.
Much attention and labor are given to plcnning scientific research and Px-
perimental work. Plans are often compiled and discussed (scientific-technical
councils of departments, institutes, main administrations, and ministries)
long before the beginning of the new production year.
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The selection of the most industrially relevant subjects of course re-
quires serious effort. Reality, however, forces certain changes in even the
most carefully laid plans. During the course of the year the institutes in-
evitably receive a multitude of supplementary "above-plan" or "extra-plan" re-
quirements from various organizations and primarily from the ministries con-
cerned; these requirements frequently surpass the original plan projects in
their importance, complexity, and laboriousness. It is only possible to make
very approximate estimates of "extra _Plan" requirements when compiling the
plan.
However, the urge work schedules of branch institutes permits the
planning of only some riuancial and material reserves; it is impossible to
foresee the types and qualifications of specialists to be needed. Therefore,
the new projects received during the year may be completed only by excluding
parts of the basic plan (the so-called corrective planning ) or by overloading
and thereby reducing quality, decreasing the degree of research, or extending
due dates of plan or extra-plan projects (or both). Hence, it follows that
despite the inevitability of extra-plan work, it is necessary to strive to-
ward a decrease in their quantity. A large percentage of such projects must
be regarded as a result of major planning failures, an inadequate familiar-
ity with the existing situation, and a lack of perspective in the develop-
ment of the field which the given institute serves. Both the scientific re-
search establishments and their directing organizations (primarily the tech-
nical administrations and ministry and main administration departments) must
bear the responsibility for this.
The situation will be improved only when the ministries devote consid-
erably more attention to future and current planning of scientific research
and experimental design projects and when the plans of branch institutes will
be based on concrete technical plans for the development of corresponding
branches of industry, transport, or agriculture. so-
called servi gethe compl exmmasultistproductionhemes are
assauto-es,
mobile building, tractor building).
It is rightly considered a serious plan deficiency but, despite this,
many institutes have for years failed to rid themselves of it and to compile
a plan of a small number of industrially important themes,
be so? Why should this
The causes of the multitheme plans may be varied. The first and principal
cause ii in ti.: multiplicity of problems and questions posed by industry, par-
ticularly by its more complex and highly developed sections. If this reason be
ignored and subject matter be mechanically limited, then it is inevitable that
industrial interests will be violated, for the technical advancement of which
it is necessary to continually pose and resolve ever new problems of increasing
complexity.
The second cause of this multiplicity often lies in the tendency of in-
dividual scientific workers, managers of institute subdivisions, and other peo-
ple to introduce themes into the operation plans which are of personal interest
to them (in their own narrow field of specialization), regardless of their ap-
plicability to industry and the expediency of their being studied at the given
time. The development of certain themes continues for years; others are in-
cluded in the plan under the pretext that they are of interest to some plant or
other at the given time; still others come up at the behest of inventors or
rationalizers from among the workers at the institute or elsewhere. The work
being conducted on the basis of such proposals is often extensive and hl 'Jy e;:-
pmslve. Therefore, it is very important to conduct a thorough preliminary analysis of
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the technical basis and perspectives of themes proposed for study prior to their
inclusion in the operational plan of the institute. There are many instances
where the failure in following such a procedure resulted in a useless expen-
`'d of effort and funds over a period of some years, after which the projects
were abandoned as being industrially unimportant and perspectiveless.
There is no need to prove that a uultitheme plan leads to dispersal of
effort, to delays in the solution of basic, important problems, and sharply
reduces the over-all effectiveness of the operation of scientific research
establishments. The effort to overcome multiplicity of themes must be carried
out by the decisive curtailment of projects insufficiently well-grounded.
At the same time difficulties which arise as a consequence of the multi-
plicity of problems which are of actual importance to industry must be over-
come, as was pointed out, not by a mechanical curtailment of the problem but
by bringing into conformance the capabilities of the branch institutes and the
industrial demands. It cannot be denied that individual complex branches of
machine building at present have a disproportion between the rate of develop-
ment of the industrial enterprises and the capabilities of the corresponding
branch institutes. The removal of this disproportionality must be regarded as
one of the very important problems, the solution of which cannot be delayed.
In planning scientific research work it is necessary to take into account
the ':conomic effect which any work would have on industry or on the national
economy as a whole. The technical-economic effect, be it direct, or as is often
the case in science, indirect, must in the majority of cases serve as ultimate
criterion, determining the necessity for the projects and the order in which
they should be carried out. However, it is only very rarely that one finds a
serious economic basis for projects in the project schedules of scientific re-
search establishments.
Let us note that specialists who are capable of making an economic analysis
of technical problems arc not included on the staffs of many branch institutes.
And, should not economic science be attracted to the field of scientific research
work in industry, so that it may give real and concrete aid on the choice of
projects, in determining expedient capital investments in scientific research
establishments, on the proport_on of appropriations to individual projects,etc.7
If matters of national economic significance and economic effectiveness
were to be a greater fundamental criterion in the selection of projects and if
they were to determine the wh.ie nature of branch scientific research institute
operations, then probably such important problems as for instance a reliable
method of protecting agricultural machine parts, automobile chassis, and metal
structures, etc., from corrosion, or the problem of adapting automotive trans-
port to agricultural conditions, or finally, the spare parts requirements of
mass produced machines and equipment, would not be developed, as at present, on
an insufficient and too slow a scale, being protracted indefinitely, but would
be solved radically, with every means available to modern technology.
Structure of Scientific Research Establishments
Scientific research work in the field of technology is conducted by insti-
tutes of the Technical Department of the Academy of Sciences, by branch scien-
tific research institutes and plant laboratories or by experimental design de-
partments. The necessary coordination in the work of all the subdivisions of
this complex system, as for instance, a single complex plan for individual prob-
lems or branches of industry, is not easy to attain. Therefore, together with
problems on nne question there is often a parallelism with problems on another
question, The multiplicity of stages hampers the introduction of completed
projects into industry.
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Experience shows that when branch, and academy institutes work in parallel
on closely allied problems, the level of the work done by the institutes does
not differ so much as to justify the inevitable dispersion of effort and ma-
terials, which only deters realistic aid to industry. It may be considered that
the academy organizations must work only on matters of great significance; but
neither can the branch institutes refrain from working on significant problems:
therefore, in many cases it is almost impossible to delineate clearly the proj-
ects of the individual institutes.
Consequently, the matter as to which branches of technology should have
academic institutes created and which ones should have branch institutes de-
veloped and of course have major scientists associated with them) cannot be
deciued once and for all. This question must be critically.) re-examined as of
ten as is required by the circumstances of the given phase of development of
the corresponding branch of the national ecbnomy.
OKB, SKB, EKB are designations for the "particular," "special," and
"experimental design" bureaus, created under the branch institutes and plants
or existing as independent organizations and having as their purpose the solu-
tion of individual problems or the development of some objective or other.
Such autonomous organizations may, in our opinion, be justified only in
exceptional, "particular" cases. Among the deficiencies of such organizations
are generally the weak production and experimental resources (and in the event
of large resources, they are not fully utilized), and the lack of a complete
staff of specialists to see a project through its entire cycle (design and
calculation, manufacture of models of the machines, their testing and aligning,
design of industrial structures, etc.).
In the formulation of complex projects, a corresponding complication of
the structure of the 0KB and SKB becomes unavoidable. New specialized groups
on the different phases of the project, testing laboratories, etc., are con-
stantly being organized. As a result the KB can expand to the magnitude of a
new institute, which necessitates appropriate expenses and many additional
specialists.
It is characteristic that even if an 0KB is organized under a branch
instit'.te, then in the: bureau the structure of many subdivisions of the
institute has to be limited. Thus, in one of the existing OKBs under a
machine-building branch institute there are designers, calculators, experi-
menters, equipment specialists, etc. Experience shows that since there are
very few people in each specialty, actually one each, this 0KB is not cap-
able of the comprehensive solution of those problems which arise in the course
of its work. Therefore, the investigations are prolonged and their early com-
pletion can scr rcely be expected (by completion' is meant the fulfillment of
the project to the scage where it may be introduced into actual production).
Modern technology is based upon thorough specialization. The development
of almost any machine in the machine-building branch institutes must have the
participation of sufficiently large groups or laboratories (for instance labor-
atories on gear transmission, sliding bearings, roller bearings, and other
machine elements), as well as specialists in machine design, metallographers,
technologists, testers, instrument specialists, etc. It is clear that only a
large organization is in a position to work on major problems.
It may perhaps be expedient, in assigning new projects to institutes
(and not to individual design bureaus), to organize specific bureaus under
them for the given project, limiting their functions to the purely design part
of the operation.
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However, even the design field has at present become more complex, with the
designers specializing in individual assemblies, of complex machines( in tractor-
building, for instance, they may specialize in engines, undercarriages, reducers,
gear boxes, etc.; in automobile building, on engines, transmissions, under-
carriages, steering mechanisms, bodies, etc.). Consequently, even the design
aspects of the project must be performed not in isolated bureaus but in large
design shops having specialized groups in the various machine assemblies. One
of these groups (and not an OKB) can be designated as the lead group and may
be assigned the general over-all design of the new machine as well as the organ-
izational and technical liaison of the specialized groups.
Thus the tendency of individual designers, suggesters, and inventors to
set up autonomous organizations to develop their inventions or projects fre-
quently run counter to the state interests and may only prove a liability to
the very goal for which the OKB, SKB, or EKB organizations are set up.
We are also faced with the conclusion that if the scientific research
institute in a particular branch of industry cannot take upon itself the de-
velopment of one or more new projects or problems as a result of insufficient
resources, i.e., a lack of personnel, space, equipment, deficiencies in eyperi-
mental production experience, etc., then the answer must be sought not in
the creation of some new organizations of the above-mentioned type (which only
leads to a further diffusion of specialists and an ineffective outlay of state
funds), but in a harmonious development of the corresponding branch institute
to the level which would make it capable of meeting the requirements of industry.
Cadres and Labor Wages
In scientific research work, more than anywhere else, the success of
operations depends primarily upon the personnel, their preparation, creative
initiative, purposefulness, and perseverance in the solution of assigned prob-
lems. Therefore, the supplying of institutes with specialists, and especially
young specialists, must be based on careful individual selection with consider-
ation given to the specialized requirements of the scientific research. institutes.
On the quality of the selection will depend th,= extent of the subsequent screening
out of specialists accidently assigned to research work outside of their inter-
ests (except that stemming from material stimulus) or field of specialization.
A one-sided approach in the assignment of young specialists may be mani-
festedin having persons who completed certain educational institutes sent to
corresponding research establishments; for instance, machine builders may be
sent to machine-building scientific research institutes, chemists to chemical
institutes; petrologists to petroleum institutes, etc. Meanwhile it is known
that, for'instance, machine-building scientific research institutes require,
although to a lesser degree, highly qualified mathematicians, fuel and oil
specialists, and precision instrument specialists, as well as chemists, metal-
lographers, engineer-economists. etc. The institutes of the petroleum industry,
in turn, use mechanical engineers, '"?-hanics, combustion engineers, and other
specialists well acquainted with machines using petroleum products.
Unfortunately the necessity for such mutual exchange of specialists in
various industries is not given sufficient consideration by the organs which
assign specialists to the various scientific research institutes. Therefore,
the unorganized "requisitioning" of young engineers and technicians having
specialities unrelated to the principal interests of the branch institutes is
still a matter which is difficult, troublesome, and frequently fruitless. And
yet the resolution of this matter is not so difficult and requires no complex
organizational measures.
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In the scientific research institutes as well as in industry and agricul-
ture, proper payment for services rendered plays an important part in the organ-
ization and utilization of personnel. However, this matter is still consider-
ably disorganized. It is sufficient to glance at the so-called systems, i.e.,
systems of wage payments to workers in the branch institutes. It is almost im-
possible to find two branch institutes doing similar work, but subordinate to
different ministries, paying equal wages for equal work. This results in
high personnel turnover, and can in no wise be justified or explained by weighty
arguments. The financial organs, instead of showing some initiative in bring-
ing about order in this field and regulating the question on a nationwide scale,
are concerning themselves only with perpetuation of the existing situation.
Comrade N. M. Shvernik. chairman of the VTsCPS (All-Union Council of Trade
Unions), spoke of this disorganization in wage payments in his report to the
11th Conference of Trade Unions. However, there has been no visible effect of
the trade unions taking the required measures to resolve this matter.
An important stimulant is the system of giving premiums for plan overful-
fillments, for high quality scientific work, and for their introduction into
production.
There is no information at our disposal as to whether there exist any
systems for awarding prizes which have been especially developed for definite
branch institutes and specifically planned for them. Nevertheless, we know
that in a number of institutes there are systems used which were instituted
for work of a purely design nature and which are only capable of being artifi-
cially utilized in stimulation of all of the diverse research and experimental
work ceing done. This creates many inconveniences and complications and lowers
the effectiveness of the prize system. Nonetheless, neither the labor nor
trade union organizations are yet fulfilling their direct responsibility of
developing systems for the awarding of prizes or of making them conform with
the characteristics of the institutes for which they are intended.
There are also very serious shortcomings in the piece-rate pay system,
which is used in experimental production, i.e., for building experimental
machine models, instruments, and other items. As we know, in the manufacture
of unit models or small experimental lots of new machines, as compared with
serious production, there generally occur many nonrepeated operations and
processes. The assignment of norms in such :xperimental production work
suffers from inaccuracies as a result of the impossibility of a systematic cor-
rection of norms in the multiple repetitions'of the same operations.
To assure appropriate earnings by highly qualified experimental production
workers, the piecework system of wages is used in a distorted forms. The worker
is paid in a more or less stable monthly wage with small differences one way or
the other and "normalized" work orders are formulated in order to guarantee the
wage indicated. Under this system there inevitably occurs repeated "overful-
fillment" of the worker's norms in the time alloted for the task fulfillment.
It is clear that such a system, which may in truth be called fictitious piece-
work, not only fails to stimulate but even slows down increases in the produc-
tivity of labor. The time has come to ask how these conditions may be improved.
Perhaps it would be well to introduce a rate system of wages into experimental
production with awards for high quality and high speed work.
Experimental Equipment and Apparatus
Modern research methods are almost always related to the use of rather com-
plex aLd nonstandard (i.e., not on the market) experimental equipment and mea-
suring apparatus.
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In setting up :;cue no re::carcl. Li: ? ;.eLhodology
there 1:; often a need al:?.o to create tie Y'he leugth of
f time it takes to prepare the equil;:::,nt determines to a large extent the length
o time required to carry out the investigation as a whole. Therefore, the need
for a modern branch scientific research institute to have its own inctrument-
building facility is obvious.
As a rule the institute should have a bureau or a group for equipment de-
sign, i.e., stands and instruments, work or instrument-building shops, and
for the servicing and use of precision instruments, However
"011"s , these fa-
cilities do not, always correspond to the requirements of the research subdivision
ui the institute.
If the Instrument,, construction facility of the institute is not up to par,
recoi.rse is made to a decentralized" solution of the apparatus supply problem,
Each investigator or research group begins to develop the necessary apparatus
itself and, of course, thereby has to study the generally complex field of in-
strument building. Thus there occurs a sort of overqualifications of spe-
dalists with a considerable expenditure of time, frequently years, un Liis phase
of the work. Consequently the researcher, say a mechanical engineer, becomes
an electronic instrument designer for a long time, an automotive tractor or
machine specialist becomes a lay specialist on tensiometric methods of deter-
mining stress in machine parts, etc.
Such "conversions" can scarcely be considered expedient where fruitful
work in a particular technological field requires highly-qualified specialists
in that field, i.e., where specialization is required and not the retraining
of personnel in the other phases attending their investigation.
Engineers and especially scientific machine-building workers must be well
orientated in measurement technology. However, their principal stress must be
on matters appropriate to their specialty and field (engine specialist: engine
design and its operation; machine builder: machine cutting, tools, kinematics,
and machine design; etc.). The investigator can and must be qualified to spec-
ify the principal characteristics and specifications of apparatus, based 'upon
accepted methods of investigation and to know the use of measuring techniques.
However, the shop design of instruments and stands, and their preparation and
alignment, must be done by special instrument-building subdivisions working in
liaison with the requester. The path of least resistance, such as the above-
mentioned "decentralization" of instrument-building operations, is one of the
fundamental causes for extreme protraction of scientific investigations and
must be condemned and eliminated from practice. Simultaneously, effective mees-
ures must be adopted for the speedy development of instrument-building facil-
ities in those branch institutes where such facilities are weak and do not come
up to required standards.
The questions brought up in this article do not of course, exhaust the mul-
tiplicity of problems present in the activities of research establishments.
Pronouncements by scientific and industrial workers in the press will promote
a more thorough understanding of these problems and the discussion will provide
methods for solving them.
The fundamental purpose of this article, then, is to emphasize the need
for and the possibility of a sharp and expeditious increase in the effective-
ness of the operations of branch scientific research institutes by the solution
of a number of accumulated organizatiu:al problems,
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