Nikolay Panichev
President, Stankoinstrument Association

Sverdlov Machine-Tool Plant. The mechatronic transfer line is the latest development of the plant’s design department

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hroughout the last decade the Russian machine-tool industry has to function in the conditions of a stable reduction of home demand. Its main consumers, machine-building plants, dramatically decreased the product output and lost their investment potential. The manufacture of machine-tools fell 10 times, that of press-forging equipment and tools of different application, 20 and 3.7 times, respectively. A particularly bad slump, by 30 to 50 times, touched upon the orders for high-capacity, precision, automated machinery and advanced types of tooling.
Today in Russia the requirement of innovative machine-tools and other machinery is high. The wear rate of process equipment in the machine-building industry is over 50 %. The machining facilities number 2.5 million units, and home-made equipment accounts for 90 % of them. The modernization of this scope cannot be carried out by virtue of import purchases.
The Government of Russia tried to check the development of the crisis situation by adopting a federal program titled "State Protection of Machine-Tool Industry". It failed to be implemented to the full extent because of lack of investments however the machine-tool plants still got some support. New models of machines and tools were developed, a system of industrial standardization was restored, a large number of diversified products, among them, coal cutters-loaders, cranes, valves for oil & gas sector, road-building machinery, etc., were put into manufacture.

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Nikolay Panichev President, Stankoinstrument Association Nikolay Panichev, 68 years old, process engineer. Once director of Ilyich Leningrad Machine-Tool Plant. In 1986 he was appointed minister of machine-tool and tool-making industry of the USSR. On his initiative, in 1991 the machine-tool sector was put on a new form of economic management with establishing joint-stock companies: Rosstankoinstrument JSC (Russian Machine and Tool Company) was set up. He is the president of Stankoinstrument (Machines and Tools) Association since 1999.

In Russia there are 286 machine-tool plants. Many of them with redundant production assets are overlaid with debts. Under present conditions, the bankruptcy procedure if introduced will not bring the recovery but, most probably, the liquidation of the plants. The way of reforms is preferable, in particular, restructuring. Not all manufacturers will manage to preserve their old specialization. The main point is to retain the core of the machine-tool sector – efficient facilities capable to meet the actual requirements of the home market. These plants will become the background of the modernized industrial potential of the sector, the base of re-equipping the machine-building industry.
During reforming each machine-tool plant uses various structural management forms which can be classified in the following way:
1. The plant singles out of its structure, as an independent formation, a machine-assembly shop manufacturing finished products without blanking operations. This trend can be illustrated by Sverdlov (St.Petersburg), Krasnói Proletarii (Moscow) and other companies.
2. Breaking-up of plants, separation of individual production operations (machine-assembling, casting and blanking, pattern-making, etc.) as independent subsidiaries with the rights of legal entities but common finance management preserved by the plant’s directorate. The Ivanovo Heavy Machine Tool Plant or Tyazhmekhpress (Voronezh) functions in this way.
3. Preservation of the plant with the diversification of products and services – Stankoagregat (Moscow) as an example.
4. Integration of units of industry, research and bank capital. It is the way applied in the formation of Mosstanok Association uniting machine-tool plants and research institutions of Moscow.
The practice proved the advantages of industrial integration involving the rational cooperation of plants and uniting of specialized production operations. It is particularly effective to set up integrated companies in local territories. It is not by chance that the first amalgamation of this kind (Mosstanok) was established with the active participation of the Moscow Administration.
Stankoinstrument Association pays primary attention to regions with highly-developed machine-building. Bilateral agreements on joint support of machine and tool makers are signed with the administration of 18 regions.
The plants continue their work on the development of new equipment, modernization of lot-produced items with an aim of raising product competitiveness. Several plants and companies are leaders in this field.
Sterlitamak M.T.E. manufactures machining centers, renders services on complex supply of machinery. The Ivanovo Heavy Machine Tool Plant makes N/C machines, high-speed machining centers. Sasta supplies up-to-date tube/pipe machining equipment. Savelovsky Machine-Building Association (SAVMA) makes machining centers, N/C machines, thermoplastic automatic machines, balancing machines. The Sverdlov Machine-Tool Plant is a reputed supplier of machining centers, routing, milling and boring machines and horizontal borers. It also executes modernization of machines of its make. Tyazhmekhpress delivers power presses for hot die forging and cold forming.

Sverdlov Machine-Tool Plant. The shop for assembly, repair and modernization of super-heavy and unique machines

In so doing, the Russian machine-tool makers are able to complexly solve any problem of mechanical processing. Starting from 1998, the manufacture of machine-tools increased, and competitiveness of this product type improved. Today each fifth Russian machine is sold in the foreign market. However, the main task of the machine-tool sector is the technological updating of the national industry. The State Duma is considering the draft law "On technological re-equipping of the Russian industry". The new law must define the possibilities and the level of the state support of equipment modernization.
Local centers on efficient re-equipping of the industry are set up in the regions. For example, such a center based on the Sverdlov Plant has been formed in the North-West of Russia. The first projects deal with the technological renovation of St.Petersburg plants. The center signed a general agreement with United Machine-building Plants (OMZ) on the development of mutually-advantageous cooperation in the re-equipping of the enterprises incorporated into this company. OMZ being one of Russia’s biggest machine-building complexes manufactures equipment for nuclear industry, oil and gas complex, mining and metals industries. The agreement involves research works, manufacture and supply of new equipment, development of technologies.

STANKOINSTRUMENT ASSOCIATION is a noncommercial organization that unites enterprises, institutions and companies of Russia’s tool-making industry. Like similar foreign associations, it is focused on three major directions: exhibition-arrangement activity, collection and processing of statistical data, lobbying for its members’ interests and promotion of their products. The Association interacts with foreign tool-making industry associations. It is a member of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Association is also a member of the Union of Exhibitions and Fairs of CIS and Baltic Countries. ROSSTANKOINSTRUMENT JSC has been rendering services in the machine-tool industry for over 10 years. The company was set up on the initiative of machine-tool manufacturers. It incorporates over 200 production and commercial firms of Russia and CIS member countries as well as banks and small business enterprises. The company has an office in China. Together with partner banks Rosstankoinstrument JSC is engaged in financing contracts for purchasing, mainly, heavy and unique equipment. The company conducts complex efficiency examinations of production capacities with heavy and unique equipment.

Currently the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies of Russia is elaborating the concepts of the development of the Russian machine-tool industry till 2010 whose objective is to increase build-up of products by 4 to 5 % per year in this sector and in this way to renovate the machine tools in the machine-building complex. It is proposed to set up a federal center of technological updating of the industry and continue the formation of similar centers in the Russian regions.