Planned Standards for Labor

control quantities for equipment operation, outlays of time, and personnel levels used to perform one unit of work.

In the USSR, planned standards for labor are intended for use at enterprises using technically substantiated rates derived by the analytic-calculation method. A distinction is drawn among standards for equipment operation, standards of time, and standards for number of personnel. Planned standards for labor can be classified by sphere of application into intersectorial, intended for use at enterprises of several ministries and departments, and sectorial; by administrative and territorial boundary into nationwide, republic, raion (or basin), and local; and by degree of consolidation into differentiated, which are established for distinct processes or other small-scale components, and consolidated. The most consolidated standards are those worked out in the form of rates, including uniform and model output rates, time rates, and service rates. Standards may also be classified by the degree to which application is compulsory into mandatory uniform rates and those that are recommended, most often model rates and standards.

Rates established on the basis of planned standards have certain advantages over those developed by direct observation, that is, time and motion study. The chief advantages are their progressive level; they reflect the advanced know-how in use in the sector or in the national economy at large. The equal burden of the norms established on this basis and their lower labor intensity also constitute advantages.

Intersectorial planned standards for labor are developed by the Central Bureau of Industrial Standards for Labor, while sectorial standards are worked out by the research and standards organizations of various ministries and departments. Local standards are formulated by the enterprises themselves. The development of production demands constant refinement of standards.