Learning from the Soviet Union Means Learning to Win: Group Technology and the Mitrofanov Method

Gary Magee and Wayne Geerling

Chapter Chapter 4 in Socialism with a Human Face, 2022, pp 111-165 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter explores the GDR’s search for new and distinctly socialist sources of productivity growth in the l950s and 1960s. It examines the case of the Mitrofanov Method. This method, developed by the Soviet engineer, Sergei Mitrofanov, gave rise to the concept of group technology, a manufacturing technique in which parts having similar characteristics can be produced together on the same machines at significantly reduced costs. The method was embraced by the East German regime as evidence of the superiority of socialist production. The chapter details the successes and failings of the major state-wide campaign promoting its adoption and, deploying concepts from behavioural economics, discusses how the system was able, seemingly effectively, to mobilise itself in some arenas, regions or activities, but not others.

Keywords: Mitrofanov method; group technology; Productivity; East Germany; Socialist industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-981-19-0664-0_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-0664-0_4

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