The machine-building complex is the unification of several branches of machine-building, interconnected by various factors. This complex provides machines of all kinds and orders for both other branches of production of a particular country and abroad, as well as for the inhabitants of this country. Accordingly, this complex is very important for every country - the better it functions, the less dependence of the economy on imports is. Each machine-building complex has a wide variety of characteristics, distinctive features, it may include various industries, in different percentages distributed in different regions. Accordingly, you need to have at least a general idea of how this complex functions on the territory of the Russian Federation. In fact, this complex has its own interesting characteristics and features, which will be described in this article.
World mechanical engineering
However, despite the fact that this article as a whole will be devoted specifically to the Russian Federation, it is necessary to first consider the machine-building complex on a global scale. After all, the Russian complex is a constituent part of the world, and, as you will soon see, a very impressive and important part. The first thing worth paying attention to is that the engineering industry is the leader among all other industries in terms of the total cost of products. If we are talking about highly developed countries, then about twenty-five percent of people working in any industry can be employed in the field of mechanical engineering. In this case, the share of products can be up to forty percent. Naturally, each country has its own indicators, and here we are talking about the most highly developed economically countries. However, any state seeks primarily to develop precisely mechanical engineering, because this complex can greatly affect exports. As an example, we can take Japan, where the machine-building complex is incredibly well developed. And the share of the total value of the export of all products accounted for by the products of the machine-building industry is about sixty percent. In fact, Japan, the United States and Germany can serve as benchmarks in this area - these three countries are leaders in the total cost of production, and they are also leaders in the percentage ratio of engineering products to the total volume of production. You already know that in Japan mechanical engineering accounts for 60 percent of production, while in the USA and Germany this percentage is approximately equal to forty.
Introduction to Russian mechanical engineering
As you may have already understood, the machine-building complex is a set of industries in which activities for the production and repair of a wide variety of machines are carried out. This refers not only to cars, but also to any other equipment. Naturally, it is easy to guess that this complex is one of the leading in the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, the percentage of products accounted for by mechanical engineering is very far from those indicators that are demonstrated by the market leaders, which were already mentioned above. More specifically, the machine-building complex of Russia provides only twenty percent of the country's total production. However, the reason lies not in the fact that this sector in Russia is weak - the reason lies in the wide variety of products in the Russian Federation. Statistical data on the number of people working in mechanical engineering will help to confirm this. In 2016, there were about 50 thousand machine-building enterprises in Russia. At that time, they employed more than three and a half million people. If we take the ratio with the total number of people employed in any branch of industry in the country, then it turns out about one third, that is, 30-35 percent, accounted for by mechanical engineering. Accordingly, from this we can conclude that, although the machine-building complex of Russia is not as decisive as in Japan, Germany or the United States of America, it remains very important for the country as a whole.
Complex composition
Next, it is necessary to analyze in more detail the composition of the complex in Russia. In fact, it is quite difficult to do this, it is very large-scale. It makes no sense to list the branches of the machine-building complex one by one - this is not done even in educational materials. Most often they are combined into characteristic groups that have some common features and characteristics. Specific industry names are usually included only in specialized literature. So, what groups are the branches of the machine-building complex of Russia divided into? First of all, it is heavy and energy production. These include such industries as the production of power equipment, the production of mining equipment, the production of lifting and transport equipment, car building, turbine construction, nuclear production and many others. Naturally, this is not the only group worth paying attention to. The second group is machine tool construction. Here, the most prominent industry to focus on is machine tool manufacturing - each industry will describe exactly which machines it produces. The third group is transport production. This includes, for example, the automotive and shipbuilding industries, as well as the aviation industry and even the rocket and space industry. The next group is agricultural production. There are also many diverse individual industries, such as agricultural engineering and tractor construction. Also, mechanical engineering for the light and food industries is distinguished into a separate group - with its own divisions and industries. And, of course, the precision engineering group is also very often distinguished. This includes the instrumentation industry, electrical engineering, and so on. Naturally, in different sources you can find different divisions of industries into groups, but these six groups are ubiquitous and are considered the main ones. Well, now you know enough about the industry of the machine-building complex in Russia - it's time to move on to considering its significance.
Complex value
What is the significance of the machine-building complex for the Russian Federation and its economy? In fact, mechanical engineering plays a very important role in the life of Russia, as can be judged from the statistical information provided earlier, but it is worthwhile to more accurately determine what significance this complex has for the country's economy. First, the machine-building complex provides machinery and equipment to all other complexes operating in the country, due to which they have a higher efficiency, and also do not have to spend extra money on the import of foreign equipment. Accordingly, the level of development of all other industries in the country depends on the level of development of the machine-building complex, so every effort is made to ensure that this complex in Russia does not lose its level, but only constantly gains it. It is also worth paying special attention to the fact that it is in the machine-building complex that most of the latest scientific and technical achievements are being introduced. Also, do not forget about the arms race - in the modern world, the security of a country (especially a country like Russia) comes to the fore, and the machine-building complex directly provides defense capability. It is worth mentioning separately that mechanical engineering, despite the fact that it accounts for only twenty percent of the total production in the country, is the largest complex. Thus, its importance for Russia is very high. Now you know the composition of the machine-building complex of the Russian Federation and its importance for the country and its economy. But that's not all the information you can get.
Technological process
If you are considering mechanical engineering, then you definitely need to pay attention to the technological process of production, since it is a very important element of the overall picture. In the case of the machine-building complex, the technological process is most often subdivided into three stages - procurement, machining and assembly. In some cases, the number of steps can be reduced - the reason for this is that often a particular machine or a particular type of equipment is not completely manufactured in one plant. Accordingly, one plant prepares some parts, another prepares others, and the third carries out the assembly of finished products. This is one of the distinguishing features of the machine-building complex in Russia, since the movements of specialization and cooperation are very strongly developed here. Within the framework of specialization, responsibilities are distributed among the various factories, and within the framework of cooperation, further cooperation between these factories takes place in order to achieve a common goal. These are the key factors of the machine-building complex of the Russian Federation.
Technological features: specialization
Specialization and cooperation is something that needs to be paid special attention to when studying mechanical engineering in Russia. The development of the machine-building complex in this country would be very difficult if it were not for the use of these factors. So the first feature to be discussed is specialization. As mentioned earlier, it represents the distribution of responsibilities between different enterprises, that is, the production of certain parts or spare parts at a particular enterprise. However, even specialization has its own types, of which there are as many as four. The first is subject matter specialization, within which finished products are manufactured. This means that the plant creates entire ready-to-use aircraft, machine tools, computers, and so on. The second is detailed specialization, here already at one plant specific parts of the finished product are produced. The third is technological specialization, within the framework of which even parts are not created, but only individual operations of the technological process are performed. Well, the fourth type is functional specialization, which is a little apart from the first three. Its essence lies in the fact that the plant that manufactures cars not only manufactures them, but also takes responsibility for selling them or providing certain services related to its specialization.
Technological features: cooperation
As you may have already understood, cooperation is a production relationship between several factories, each of which plays a specific role in the production process, which leads to the joint production of finished products. As for the classification of cooperation, everything is much simpler here compared to specialization. Cooperation can be either intra-industry or cross-industry. In the first case, enterprises belonging to the same industry or (which is more relevant in this case) to one intersectoral complex cooperate with each other, and in the second, respectively, belonging to different industries and different intersectoral complexes.
Geography of the complex
The geography of the machine-building complex in Russia is rather complicated, since the country is very large. However, it should be noted right away that about 90 percent of all enterprises operating in the machine-building complex are located in the west, in the European part of the country. The most saturated in this regard is the Central Federal District - a large number of enterprises belonging to various industries are concentrated there. The following industries are most represented there: aerospace, automobile, railway, machine-tool building, electronic, as well as the industries of equipment for the petrochemical industry, precision and complex mechanical engineering and the production of agricultural machinery. Naturally, these are by no means all the industries whose representations can be found there, but these are the most outstanding. Naturally, the geography of the machine-building complex is not limited only to the Central Federal District. Although, we must admit, he plays a leading role in mechanical engineering in the Russian Federation.
What about other counties? What branches of the machine-building complex are represented there? The location of production outside the Central District is also saturated in the Volga District (aerospace and pulp and paper industry, equipment for the oil and gas industry, agricultural machinery and automobile manufacturing) and in the Ural District (many industries are the same as in the Central District, but there are also enterprises engaged in the production of mining equipment and power engineering). Power engineering, shipbuilding and the production of equipment for the forest industry are characteristic in the Northwestern District, shipbuilding, production of equipment for the food industry and agricultural machinery are characteristic in the Southern District, the aerospace industry, the production of railway transport and mining equipment, and in the Siberian District, In the Far Eastern District - aircraft and shipbuilding.
Complex problems
No matter how effective machine building in Russia is, the problems of the machine building complex still remain relevant. And they all stem from the collapse of the USSR and come from the early nineties. It's no secret that in the Soviet Union mechanical engineering was at an incredibly high level, however, when the USSR collapsed, the entire engineering complex simply collapsed with it. The reason was that the quality of the products had dropped very noticeably, so that a larger and larger share of machine-building products in Russia came from imports. And most importantly, the collapse of the Soviet Union disrupted cooperation - various elements of the production process ended up in different countries and could not continue cooperation, which is why production efficiency dropped sharply. Today, of course, the state of the complex has improved significantly - new factories and enterprises have been built, production is actively underway, more profitable and efficient production ties are constantly being sought, so the problems of the complex are decreasing every day.
Machine-building complex at school
However, this article is not the first place where a person should learn about the machine-building complex of Russia. The 9th grade of the school is where for the first time children are told about the state of affairs with mechanical engineering in the country. Currently, work is underway to reform education. Naturally, this affects how children learn about the machine-building complex. Geography (grade 9) - before, everyone knew that it was then that in this lesson it would be possible to learn about mechanical engineering. Now this is no longer a required fact. However, at the same time, the importance of the local machine-building complex for the country has not decreased by one gram. The 9th grade of the school should not restrict students in obtaining this information. But all is not yet lost. Fortunately, you can find textbooks everywhere that still talk about the machine-building complex. The 9th grade lesson was preserved on paper, and there you can learn about how great the machine-building complex was in the USSR, and how Russia is gradually returning its former greatness in this field of activity. But in this article, absolutely everything that you need to know about the machine-building complex in Russia was described in detail - and this information is mandatory for every person who wants to have a normal outlook and be considered educated. After all, the Russian Federation still remains one of the strongest powers in the world, despite a serious blow in the form of the collapse of the USSR.
