Multimachine Operation

the technically sound and organizationally supported simultaneous operation of several machines by one worker. A planned combination of mechanized operations on some machines and manual or mechanized and manual operations on others ensures successful operation of the equipment in multimachine operation sections.

Multimachine work became widespread in various sectors of industry at the time of the Stakhanovite movement (in 1935, E. V. Vinogradova and M. I. Vinogradova operated 40 machines and later 216 automatic machines in the textile industry). Multimachine operation became particularly widespread in 1939; during the development of socialist emulation it emerged as a special form of Stakhanovite labor. The Stakhanovites of the Ural mash plant and the Kharkov Machine-tool Building Plant were the initiators of the multimachine operator movement (1939). Multimachine operation spread even further during the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), when workers switched to operation of two or more machines to replace workers who had gone to the front.

In the postwar period the acceleration of scientific and technological progress created the objective prerequisites for extensive introduction of multimachine operation. With the appearance of automatic devices and flow lines, the actual conditions are created for changing the nature of the labor of a multimachine worker, making him into an operator who controls the operation of an independent section of automated production.

The spread of multimachine operation is promoted by the development of intraplant specialization, the use of general-purpose technological equipment, an increase in the level of centralization in operation of work positions, production planning, and improvements in the establishment of standards.

Multimachine operation is an important reserve for raising labor productivity and producing savings in labor resources. It demands particularly high worker qualifications; where such workers operate more machines than established by the norms, their wages increase depending on use of work time and equipment, the complexity of the work or operation, and working conditions. The wage rates of workers used to determine piece-work rates are increased depending on the number of units of equipment over the norm that are being operated.

The multimachine operation system is also used in other socialist countries (for example, Poland and Rumania).