From Development to Mass Production: Infrastructure for High-Tech Manufacturing

Technological leadership is typically associated with proprietary R&D, new products, and modern manufacturing facilities. But between development and mass production lies a substantial body of work that isn't always visible behind the final result. A prototype needs testing, the technology must be refined through pilot batches, and the production process has to be made reproducible. In parallel, you need engineers, metrology, documentation preparation, suppliers, and initial customers.

In the coming years, this challenge becomes particularly pressing. Presidential Decree No. 309 sets a target to increase by 2030 the share of domestically produced high-tech goods and services based on proprietary development lines by one and a half times compared to 2023, as a proportion of total consumption.¹ The Federal Law on Technological Policy specifically highlights technology development infrastructure, including facilities for validation, prototyping, testing, and pilot production.² In other words, the question is no longer just how many new technologies can be created, but how many of them can be brought to industrial application.

To accomplish this, a company doesn't necessarily need to have all the required equipment and expertise in-house. Some work can be performed at a technology park or engineering center, some at a university, research institution, or another company's facility. What matters more is this: the needed operation must be available at the moment when a project would otherwise stall without it. This is precisely where regional infrastructure begins to function as a practical tool for industrial development.

Different starting positions

Regional capabilities vary considerably. In a study by the Institute of Regional Economics and Intergovernmental Relations at Financial University, infrastructure conditions were assessed across 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The evaluation considered industrial-technological, financial-institutional, digital, human capital-educational, and scientific-technological characteristics. The composite indicator ranges from 2.26 to 88.36 points, with an average of 44.62 points.³ 

If a region regularly generates demand for interconnected operations, it makes sense to develop a dedicated facility that combines several stages of a technology project. If expensive equipment is needed by several companies only a few times a year, creating it for the sake of "having" regional infrastructure may prove unjustified. And when equipment formally exists but a project fails to reach implementation due to lack of engineers or an initial customer, building a new facility won't solve the problem at all.

Not building everything from scratch

The first approach involves full-cycle technological infrastructure. This is needed where several interdependent stages exist between prototype and product launch: design, prototyping, pilot manufacturing, testing, metrological support, conformity assessment, and small-batch production. The point of such a solution isn't to concentrate the maximum amount of equipment at one site. What matters is that the output of one stage can be transferred to the next without additional constraints, and when deviations are detected, changes can be implemented.

Unique research and testing equipment is expensive, has limited operating hours, and is often used sporadically. In such situations, it's more rational to organize distributed and inter-regional access. A company formulates the technical task, an operator helps select the method and facility, and then the work is performed where the necessary equipment and specialists already exist. For some projects, it's sufficient to send samples; for others, engineers need to travel or participate remotely in the experiment. In this case, the region doesn't lose the project but gains the missing function without duplicating capital-intensive infrastructure.

An engineer matters more than equipment manuals

Even state-of-the-art testing equipment doesn't solve production challenges by itself. A company may understand what result it needs but not know which research method to choose, how to modify the technological process, or who should be responsible for implementation. This is why engineering and technological support serves as a distinct tool.

The work begins with diagnosing the production problem and preparing technical specifications. Next comes selection of technology and equipment, calculations and testing, and documentation preparation. Crucially, the engineering team must participate not only in consultation but also in subsequent implementation of the solution. This way, the infrastructure organization is accountable not for allocated time on equipment, but for a specific technical result that the company can use in production.

This brings us to the staffing question. Sustainable infrastructure operations require more than just development engineers. Someone needs to maintain complex equipment, monitor measurement methodologies and quality, and train backup personnel. A separate function involves technology transfer: such a specialist receives requests from enterprises, clarifies the task, finds external contractors, and organizes access to necessary resources. Without this role, even a well-developed network of laboratories and centers remains largely inaccessible to users who may not know in advance where the equipment they need is located.

A project needs not only resources but also a customer

The next group of instruments relates to production cooperation. For complex products, simply gathering several suppliers around a large company isn't enough. You need a participant who defines the parameters of the final product, ensures component compatibility, and can formulate requirements for contractors. An anchor project then forms around a specific product or technology, and supplier development becomes part of its implementation.

This approach changes the nature of support. A supplier enterprise may need not a subsidy per se, but rather refinement of manufacturing technology, production and testing of prototypes, mastery of quality control methods, preparation of documentation, or engineer participation in joint component development. Success here is measured not by the fact of signing a contract, but by whether the supplier can consistently reproduce the required characteristics after project completion and apply the acquired competencies to subsequent orders.

A separate problem arises when a technology has already been created but no one is ready to become the first user. The customer fears taking on the risks of a new solution, while the developer cannot validate its performance in a real process without access to a site. This requires instruments for demand formation and initial industrial testing. If no ready solution exists yet, the process may begin with pre-commercial procurement and targeted development. If the product already exists, testing, pilot operation, and innovation procurement take center stage. After characteristics are confirmed, a first qualified order becomes possible—a limited batch that tests not a single prototype but the production facility's readiness to consistently manufacture products of the required quality.

Six instruments—one objective

In practical terms, the set of measures can be reduced to six groups. They don't replace one another and can be used simultaneously within a single technology project.

For regional policy, this leads to a fairly practical conclusion. Full-fledged infrastructure doesn't mean that every region must possess a complete set of laboratories, pilot lines, and testing facilities. What matters more for a region is understanding its own production needs, supporting frequently demanded functions, and having working access to those capabilities that are more rational to share with other territories.

This approach is more complex than simply counting technoparks and purchased equipment. It requires looking at actual projects, capacity utilization, quality of engineering support, and the presence of customers. But the result becomes clearer as well. Good infrastructure is infrastructure where a technology project doesn't stall between the prototype stage and serial production.