Abstract
The assessment of production capacity and its actual and possible rate of utilisation was regarded at the beginning of the 1980s as a means of checking enterprise demand for labour. Much of the discussion on production capacity in the USSR concerns its actual rate of utilisation, as compared to planned targets and branch proportions. Planners try to enforce the maximum rate of capacity utilisation, given the level of planned reserves, whilst ministries and enterprises, as is well known, strive to accumulate excess capacity. The central statistical office (Goskomstat)1 carries out independent surveys of capacity utilisation every two to three years. The ministries provide their own capacity estimates together with the approved output plans, which tend to underrate installed capacity and consequently overestimate the rate of capacity utilisation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes to Chapter 4: Production Capacity Utilisation and Knowledge
See B. L. Lavrovskii, Analiz sbalansirovannosti proivodstvennykh moshchnostei v promyshlennosti SSSR (Novosibirsk: Izd. Nauka Sibirskogo Otdeleniia, 1983) pp. 29–30 and 33.
They may now have reached a dangerously high level. It has been pointed out that in order to increase the shift coefficient in engineering, inter-branch proportions have to be adjusted so that the shortage of metal can be eliminated. This, however, in turn requires an increase in the output of rolled metals of different sizes, e.g. the restructuring of ferrous metallurgy and the production of metal-saving technology, see K. K. Val’tuk, ‘Intensifikatsiia i problemy dal’neishego razvitiia obshchestvennogo proizvodstva v SSSR’ in Povyshenie effektivnosti narodnogo khoziaistva (Moskva: Izd.vo Nauka, 1984) pp. 69–71, 75. See also for arguments in favour of an energy coefficient for the estimates of capacity utilisation, V. Beliaev, G. Davydova and I. Kriukov, ‘Sovershenstvovat’ metody otsenki ispol’zovaniia oborudovaniia’, Vestnik statistiki (1976) no. 4, pp. 37–8.
According to Soviet classification, the number of ‘effective’ workers (fakticheskoe chislo) is likely to be lower than the number of attendances in a working day, because break-downs, shortage of materials and other supplies may cause the stoppage of working equipment during 24 hours, see V. N. Sivtsov, Statistika promyshlennosti (Moskva: Finansy i statistika, 1981) p. 94.
See A. Popov and Iu. Darenskikh, op. cit., p. 223 and I. Malmygin, ‘Sbalansirovannost’ rabochikh mest i trudovykh resursov’, Planovoe khoziaistvo (1982) no. 8, p. 58. See also V. Kontorovich, ‘Soviet Growth Slowdown: Econometric versus Direct Evidence’, AEA Papers and Proceedings, vol. 76 (1986) no. 2, p. 28.
See N. Tsybakin, op. cit., pp. 62–3 and Iu.V. Charukhin, ‘Smennost’ oborudovaniia v mashinostroenii’, Mashinostroitel’ (1985) no. 2, pp. 34–5. According to V. P. Cherevan’, Sbalansirovannost’ rabochikh mest i trudovykh resursov (Moskva: Ekonomika, 1988) p. 22. To raise the shift norm by 10 per cent in metal-cutting of machine building alone, 180 000 machine operators are needed, compared with the additional demand of 700 000 a year made by enterprises.
This seems to be a by-product of Soviet ‘physical’ planning (i.e. matching machines with workers) which may complicate the assessment of actual labour demand when the number of workers per shift increases. It must be added, too, that managerial, technical and clerical staff do not have the right usually to pay supplements for night shifts, see A. S. Pashkov (ed.) Problemy pravovogo regulirovaniia truda v razvitom sotsialisticheskom obshchestve, (Leningrad: Izd. Leningradskogo Universiteta, 1984) p. 148.
Biulleten’ Goskomtruda (1986) no. 7, p. 9. On the meaning of conditions of work in the USSR, see M. Yanowitch, Work in the Soviet Union. Attitudes and Issues (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1985) pp. 83–5.
Cf. M. V. Il’enchenko, Povyshenie ekonomicheskoi effektivnosti mashinostroiteVnogo proizvodstva (Kiev: Tekhnika, 1984) pp. 11–12.
See S. H. Cohn, ‘Soviet Intensive Economic Development Strategy in Perspective’, in Gorbachev’s Economic Plans, vol. 1, Study Papers submitted to the Joint Economic Committee Congress of the United States (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987) pp. 12–26.
See B. Rumer, Investment and Reindustrialization in the Soviet Economy (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1984) pp. 7–10.
See I. Malmygin, Rezervy ekonomiki Rossii (Moskva: Sovetskaia Rossia, 1982) pp. 79–80.
R. K. Ivanov and D. N. Karpukhin (eds) Izmenenie kharaktera i soderzhaniia truda na sovremennom etape razvitiia sotsializma (Moskva: Nauka, 1987) p. 251.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1990 Silvana Malle
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Malle, S. (1990). Production Capacity Utilisation and Knowledge. In: Employment Planning in the Soviet Union. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11588-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11588-4_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11590-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11588-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)