In summary, the planning process is highly struc- 

 tured with only a little room for flexibility. Yet, 

 it is apparent that the leadership has no intention 

 of drastically weakening or confusing the somewhat 

 ponderous vertical chain of command. The use of the 

 GKNT and increased autonomy accorded to facility man- 

 agement do represent, however, efforts to enhance 

 flexibility and responsiveness at, respectively, the 

 highest and lowest levels. Recent Soviet develop- 

 ments in the application of integrated planning and 

 control techniques at the branch level are discussed 

 shortly in connection with multi-agency programs. 



Horizontal Relationships 



Horizontal relationships among facilities at com- 

 parable levels within and across the various bureau- 

 cratic subsystems, of course, are essential for the 

 functioning of any economic system. At the very 

 least, supplier-customer relations must be well elab- 

 orated, including those for which the product is R&D 

 results. Traditionally in the Soviet system, how- 

 ever, the arrangement of such relations has not been 

 handled directly by the facilities involved, at least 

 not formally, but rather by officials in the facili- 

 ties' parent management organs. For example, with 

 transmission of technical documentation and other 

 "disembodied" technology, Academy departments and 

 ministry technical administrations would be expected 

 at least to approve and possibly to plan the trans- 

 fer. For a new project used as capital equipment by 

 a second facility, the transfer would be more com- 

 plex. The producing ministry's technical and econom- 

 ic-planning administrations would jointly plan the 

 production. They in turn would coordinate with their 

 ministry's Main Administration for Sales (Glavsbyt) , 

 which would arrange the transaction with the consumer 

 ministry's Main Administration for Supply (Glavsnab) . 

 The latter, in turn, would represent and interact 

 with the consumer establishment. 



In practice, of course, the procedure has neces- 

 sarily been more flexible, with substantial formal 

 and informal interaction between producer and consum- 



135 



