In modern conditions, when enterprises are transitioning to market relations, when the forms of ownership of means of production are changing and the financing of production development should be carried out at the expense of own funds, scientific and technological progress (STP) has a decisive impact on improving the efficiency of production, which requires further improvement of the entire management system and, first of all, the planning of STP. Theory and practice show that planning is one of the main means of accelerating STP, increasing its efficiency. Planning for the development of science and technology should become the basis for planning of all subjects of the national economy.
The choice of effective directions of scientific and technological progress for a prospective period (projected or planned) is based on the consideration of various options for the development of the industry (enterprise) on this or that criterion of efficiency, i.e., to achieve a given goal with the least expenditure of resources or maximum economic efficiency.
In order to improve the planning of development of both the industry as a whole and individual enterprises, a factor model is proposed, which allowed to provide a unified methodological approach to the solution of a number of problems.
Formation of intensification programs of different levels of management (enterprise, industry, administrative district, territory), implemented for the conditions of Leningrad and Leningrad region on the basis of methodological recommendations of the North-West branch of the Central Research Institute at the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR, presented a number of new requirements of organizational and methodological nature to planning and management of scientific and technological progress at enterprises and industries of the national economy.