Page 62 - Countertrade
P. 62
TECHNOLOGY
The low level of technology used within the enterprise was a major
weakness. His solution was to buy in better technology. Manufacturers in
the West either refused to build the equipment wanted or priced it out of
reach of Revda. Ivan decided that the equipment needed could be built in-
house.
Equipment that was built included an electrostatic plating system, a
vacuum extrusion system and elevators. The West would have taken a
year to build and install an electrostatic plating system. By creating his
own experimental brigade to design and build the system cost 50 million
roubles and the cut the time by three quarters.
In January 1995 new, fully automatic, thermoplastic machines were
introduced (made internally) to produce for car mirrors etc. The machines
which they replaced had been purchased second mouldings hand from
the Ukraine in 1991. Initially lack of experience of their use resulted in a
number of explosions.
The enterprise manufactured about 50 per cent of its requirement of non-
standard machinery using their own designs. The next project the
experimental brigade will tackle will be the production of glass-making
equipment.
The next project for Ivan is uncertain but could be revolutionary, in a free
market sense.
