OREANDA-NEWS. The experts of KAMAZ and Tatarstan’s Ministry of Industry and Trade worked out a conception, a draft proposal and a feasibility study to establish the industrial engineering center (IEC) for auto industry design and technology. The project is planned to be realized in four years.

This project, which is expected to have an outstanding influence on the Russian auto industry development, was first discussed more than two years ago at the suggestion of KAMAZ – at a meeting of the Council of Chief Designers and Leading Experts on High Technology Sectors of the Economy which took place on the 25th of November 2010 in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny under the chairmanship of Russia’s Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov. In pursuance of the decisions taken at this meeting, in 2011 Tatarstan’s President Rustam Minnikhanov wrote a letter addressed to the Russian Prime Minister who gave a favorable answer to it.

The idea to establish the engineering center was later supported at a meeting of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Tatarstan’s delegation led by Rustam Minnikhanov in Sochi in July 2012. Then Mr. Putin noted that the state had always supported KAMAZ with orders and credits, and it would support that activity too. “How it will develop will influence not only the company’s competitiveness, but also the growth of our auto industry on the whole,” emphasized the Russian President.

The idea took shape after two years. For now, the working group has prepared necessary raw data to develop a draft proposal and a feasible study – a list of laboratories, equipment, software, required areas, a list of test roads, etc. – and developed a draft proposal and a feasible study. The materials will be submitted to the Ministry of Economy and Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. It should be noted that KAMAZ is interested in the establishment and development of such a center around which almost all Russian auto producers will concentrate. But at the same time the company plans to keep its Research and Development Center and continue its own developments.

As for the project, the establishment of the industrial engineering center due to consolidation of the scientific, educational and production potential with the state’s financial support will enable to implement innovative projects in the Russian auto industry. Besides, the established center will help to form a modern engineering complex, including a necessary infrastructure for development, research, test and certification of new models of vehicles, a component base and personnel training on the world level.

The fast and intense introduction of super-computer technologies will shift an emphasis from a study of characteristics of physical prototypes to their mathematical models, which will enable to greatly reduce costs for research and development of new models of equipment and its components. To check designed models and certify products, it is planned to construct laboratories and a test ground. Besides, it is planned to work out a comprehensive program of training personnel for the industrial engineering center and the auto industry on the whole in integration with business processes at all stages of a lifecycle of vehicles. It stipulates the establishment of a flexible system for attraction, development and retention of skilled experts, including arrangement of working and housing conditions.

All this will enable to solve many problems in the auto industry connected with a technology gap and a poor R&D infrastructure, as well as with Russia’s WTO accession.