Life cycle of a car. Life cycle of mgkm

However, the general modern trend is to reduce its continuation, acceleration, due to manufactured products.

The life cycle of goods can be divided into several main stages:

Stage of bringing a product to market

• It is characterized by a very high degree of uncertainty of results, since it is difficult to determine in advance whether a new product will be successful.
• The marketing efforts of the enterprise are aimed at informing consumers and intermediaries about.
• At this stage, the enterprise has high costs for production, also high due to the low volume of output.
• at this stage no.

Growth stage

• Characterized by rapid development of sales.
• If the product turns out to be successful and moves into the growth phase, the manufacturer begins to decline in goods due to an increase in production volume and sales price.
• Prices may be lowered, which may allow the enterprise to gradually cover the entire potential market.
• Marketing costs continue to be high.
• At this stage, the company usually has competitors.

Maturity stage

• The volume of demand reaches its maximum.
• The market at this stage is highly segmented, enterprises are trying to satisfy all possible needs. It is at this stage that the likelihood of repeated technological improvement or modification of the product is most effective.
• The main task of the enterprise at this stage is to maintain and, if possible, expand its market share and achieve sustainability over direct competitors.

Decline stage

• Manifests itself in a decrease in demand.
• As sales and profit prospects decline, some firms reduce their investments and exit the market. Other firms, on the contrary, try to specialize in the residual market if it is of economic interest or the decline occurs gradually. However, with the exception of occasionally observed cases of market revival, the cessation of production of a technologically obsolete product becomes inevitable.

Product life cycle

Each product lives on the market for a certain time. Sooner or later it is replaced by another, more perfect one. In this regard, the concept of a product life cycle is introduced (Fig. 9.3).

Product life cycle— the time from the initial appearance of a product on the market until the cessation of its sale in this market. (This should not be confused with the production life cycle, which includes R&D, development in production, production itself, operation and discontinuation.) The life cycle is described by changes in sales and profit indicators over time and consists of the following stages: start of sales (market introduction) , growth, maturity (saturation) and decline.

Rice. 9.3. Product life cycle

Market introduction stage is characterized by a slight increase in sales volume and may be unprofitable due to high initial marketing costs, small volumes of product output and the lack of development of its production.

Sales growth stage characterized by rapid growth in sales volume driven by consumer acceptance of the product, profitability increases, the relative share of marketing costs typically falls, prices are constant or fall slightly.

On maturity stages sales growth slows down and even begins to fall, since the product has already been purchased by the majority of potential consumers, competition intensifies, marketing costs usually increase, prices may decrease, profits stabilize or decrease. When upgrading the product and/or market segments, it is possible to extend this stage.

Recession manifests itself in a sharp decline in sales and profits. Product upgrades, price reductions, and increased marketing costs can only prolong this stage. It is necessary to note that the maximum profit, as a rule, in comparison with the maximum sales volume, shifts towards the initial stages of the life cycle. This is due to increased costs of maintaining sales at later stages of the product life cycle.

The concept of life cycle is applicable to a class of product (telephone), type of product (cordless telephone), to a specific brand of product (radio telephone of a specific company). Of greatest practical interest is the study of the life cycle of a specific brand of product. This concept is also applicable to such phenomena as style (clothing, furniture, art, etc.) and fashion. Different marketing strategies are used at different stages of the life cycle.

Life cycle curve shape, as a rule, remains more or less the same for most products. This means that once a product appears on the market, if consumers like it, then its sales volume grows and then falls. However, the duration and intensity of the transition from one stage to another vary greatly depending on the specifics of the product and market. The transition from stage to stage occurs quite smoothly, so the marketing function must closely monitor changes in sales and profits in order to grasp the boundaries of the stages and make changes to the marketing program accordingly.

It is especially important to catch the stage of saturation, and even more so - recession, since keeping a product that has exhausted itself on the market is unprofitable, and in terms of prestige, it is simply harmful. Obviously, you also need to choose the right moment to enter the market with some new product.

If a similar product is already falling, it is hardly worth starting commercial activities on the market. Obviously, when it is determined that a product is at the stage of maturity or saturation, then efforts must be made to develop a new product to replace the product that has exhausted itself.

Other options for life cycle curves are also possible (Fig. 9.4).

Despite the popularity of product life cycle theory, there is no evidence that most products go through a typical 4-phase cycle and have standard life cycle curves. There is also no evidence that the turning points of the various phases of the life cycle are to any degree predictable. In addition, depending on the level of aggregation at which a product is considered, different types of life cycle curves can be considered.

Rice. 9.4. Various life cycle curve options

The first thing to remember is that market research does not start with the product, but with the needs of consumers. For example, consumers have a need for transport (Figure 9.5). Such needs may remain constant, grow from century to century, and may never reach a decline phase.

Rice. 9.5. Life cycles of needs, technologies, products

The need for transport is concretized into the demand for certain technological methods of satisfying it (from primitive vehicles, from horse-drawn carriages to cars and other modern vehicles).

The life cycle of technological methods, although shorter than the needs, can be extremely long.

Technological methods can be implemented using various specific technical and technological solutions. For example, cars can use steam, piston, turbine, and electric engines, which also have their own life cycle. Radio transmitting devices consistently used vacuum tubes, semiconductors, and integrated circuits. Hidden under each such curve is a series of life cycle curves for individual technical and technological innovations. These life cycle curves can be very short and they certainly tend to shorten.

The nature of the life cycle curve is often the result of management actions and is not due to external causes. Many managers believe that every product inevitably follows its own life cycle curve. When sales volume stabilizes, instead of updating the technology and looking for new market opportunities, managers classify the product as a “cash cow” and begin to look for other business.

In addition, the main thing is to focus on consumer needs, rather than focusing on selling products. The life cycle concept has a product rather than a marketing orientation. The product of a particular organization will “die” if needs change, if a competitor makes a better offer, if new technologies allow us to offer something new to consumers. Therefore, it is better to focus your efforts on identifying the causes of change rather than studying their consequences using a life cycle curve.

Identifying the reasons for changes will allow us to anticipate future changes and develop a product policy that is maximally adapted to them.

When developing and implementing it, it is necessary to take into account that the same product in different markets may be at different stages of its life cycle.

In practice, most companies sell multiple products in different markets. In this case, the concept " product portfolio", which refers to the totality of products produced by the company. The product portfolio must be balanced and include products at different stages of the life cycle, which ensures the continuity of the organization's production and sales activities, constant profit generation, and reduces the risk of not receiving the expected amount of profit from the sale of products, at the initial stages of their life cycle.

The full life cycle of a product refers to the time (and corresponding actions) that passes from setting a clear task to create this product (car, tractor, etc.) to its complete physical or moral wear and tear and disposal. The full life cycle of a car includes the following stages: · marketing and development of technical specifications for a new car; · development of design documentation, production and testing of a prototype and pilot series (design pre-production); · development of technological documentation. Manufacturing, purchasing, installation and debugging of necessary equipment (technological preparation of production); · production of a car or tractor. It is at this stage that the ideas embodied by the designer in drawings are implemented according to the scenario and using methods determined by the technologist; · handling (warehousing, preparation for transportation, delivery to the consumer, storage, etc.); · operation (use of machines in accordance with the operating instructions, maintenance and repair); · recycling (disassembly, sorting, reuse and recycling). Based on the design (drawings, technical requirements, etc. developed by the designer) of the vehicle, technological preparation for production is carried out - technological documentation is developed, the necessary equipment, tools and accessories are purchased, developed, manufactured and installed, the necessary materials and semi-finished products are ordered, and orders are placed for the production of purchased components, etc. Only after the completion of this preparatory stage does the production of parts, components and systems of the machine, its assembly, adjustment, and control tests begin. It was after the start of serial production that we can say that a new car was “born”, but its independent “life” had not yet begun. The car still needs to be prepared for delivery to the storage location; it will remain for some time at the site (storage) of finished products. The car still needs to be delivered to the seller (by rail or road transport, water transport, possibly under its own power), and it will also be stored there in the warehouse. It must still be prepared for sale - re-opened, adjusted, if necessary, equipped, washed - brought into full readiness for independent “life” with the consumer. This path (after the machine is released from the manufacturer before the start of operation) is called circulation. And this stage should not be forgotten at the design stage either. After all, when loading a tractor or a car onto a sea vessel or a railway platform, it is necessary to lift and secure it, and for this it is necessary to provide convenient and reliable devices, as well as think through the entire technology of loading, transportation and storage. After completing the path from manufacturer to consumer, the operation stage begins. The machine begins to fulfill its intended purpose and demonstrate all its best (and worst) consumer qualities and service properties. And if it is not convenient for use, maintenance and repair, then a bad word is given to the designer who did not take into account, did not provide for, did not think through... And now the car has exhausted its service life, cannot be repaired and is removed from service, but its life cycle It doesn't end there yet. There is a recycling phase ahead. If we consider that every year in the world tens of millions of cars require recycling (in Moscow alone this figure exceeds 160 thousand, throughout Russia - 1.5 million, and in the USA an order of magnitude more), then the concern of environmentalists about creating a strict system becomes understandable. recycling of used vehicles. Thus, the European Union Commission for Nature Conservation recommends returning cars that have reached the end of their useful life to the manufacturer for disassembly and recycling. Special enterprises are also being created to recycle old cars. When assessing the environmental safety of a car, its suitability for recycling is taken into account. In particular, the time required to drain the vehicle (free it from residual fuel, oils, coolant, etc.) and dismantle its individual components and parts is estimated, which directly affects the efficiency of recycling. Therefore, when creating a machine, the designer must also take these factors into account. So, the life cycle of a product is considered complete only after its complete and environmentally safe disposal. Since the full life cycle of a machine is not limited to its production and operation, each stage requires information about the machine (design and technological documentation, operating instructions, instructions for disassembling and sorting components and parts for their processing, etc.). In this case, the information can relate to a single stage separately, or be general, repeated at several or even all stages. It is possible that some information about a machine may be required at some stage of its life cycle only in certain cases - for example, at the recycling stage, it may be necessary to clarify the grade of material of a part for its optimal processing. All this information is initially available in the design documentation, and it can be requested. Of course, it is most convenient to use all this information if it is stored electronically and is well structured. That is why CALS technologies are now being widely developed and implemented in the world, i.e. information uniformly presented in electronic form about the design of the product, its manufacturing technology and technological equipment, about the features of operation, maintenance, repair and about disposal that is safe for society and nature - processing, recycling, disposal, etc. In accordance with CALS technology, the full life cycle machines must have electronic information support at every stage - from the development of technical specifications to complete disposal. Automotive and tractor manufacturing technology mainly considers only the stage of technological preparation of production and the actual production (manufacturing) of cars and tractors, bearing in mind that the following stages (handling, operation, repair and disposal) are largely determined by the perfection of production and the sophistication of machine manufacturing technology. 3. Features of the market for this product, competitive advantages and disadvantages of the product. The history of the birth of the car market in Russia is connected with one of the most swinish Soviet myths that “in Russia before the revolution there was no car industry, it was created only during the time of industrialization.” It’s not true, by the standards of world markets of that time, pre-revolutionary Russia had a fairly decent fleet of cars and several manufacturers, the most famous of which was the Russian-Baltic Plant, which produced several hundred cars (“Russobalt”) per year. Another feature of the car market is the monstrously low “humanitarianism” (the share of personal cars). There were far fewer privately owned vehicles on the roads than corporate-owned trucks and cars. The decent organization of public transport and total poverty singled out individual owners of personal cars into a caste (who are still called “car enthusiasts” by inertia). A Soviet man had to make a tank or a machine gun, and not roll it out in his own car (and it’s not far from freethinking). Another feature is the critically low connectivity of the country’s territories with good roads and the very low mobility of people, almost a serf-like attachment to one place of residence. This feature continues to have an impact to this day. The rapid filling of the market during the five pre-crisis years is explained by the rapid growth of incomes of Russians and the fact that the purchase of real estate in the country is practically prohibited, which gives the purchase of a car (partly) the character of an investment. Today, the saturation of the market with cars is only half as high as the same saturation of European markets, and just five years ago the Russian market was three times behind. The cost of owning a car for a Russian family is significantly higher in percentage terms (up to 20% of income) than in Europe, Japan and the USA (3-6%), despite the fact that Russia has certainly become a motorized nation. In the scenario of owning a car, it is still significant A special feature is self-repair, because... This service is practically absent on the market, or it is inadequately expensive and of poor quality; the service network in most Russian markets has not yet developed. A characteristic feature is still the significant flow of cars from the saturated markets of megacities (primarily from Moscow) “to the regions.” Another wave is a tsunami of right-hand drive Japanese cars from the Far East and European cars, or cars produced in European territories, moving towards each other. In the Urals region these two flows meet. So far, the only significant Asian flow is the flow of Korean cars, but a wave of cars from China is not far off. The Russian market still practically lacks such institutions of a developed automobile market as auction systems and networks of used car dealers, civilized trade-in practice (based on civilized systematic work with a permanent client base), insurance and, to a large extent, credit products remain poor.

A machine (automobile), like any product, has characteristic stages of its life cycle, which is shown schematically in Fig. 1.2. This diagram illustrates the need for continuous improvement in vehicle design and manufacturing technology. At the research and development stage, market needs and current trends in machine development are studied, the design and manufacturing technology are developed, prototypes are produced, and product sales begin. This period is generally unprofitable.

At the implementation stage, entry into the market is launched, machine service is developed, for which certain funds are spent. By the end of this period, as a rule, the period of unprofitability ends. At the growth stage, the market is conquered, sales increase, and profits reach a maximum. The maturity stage is characterized by the achievement of maximum sales and its decline, as well as a decrease in profits due to additional costs of working with competitors. The final stage of recession is characterized by a significant decrease in sales and profits due to changes in the market situation and the efforts of competitors.

Fig.1.2. Stages of the product life cycle: 1 – research and development stage; 2-stage of implementation; 3 – growth stage; 4 – stage of maturity;

5 – stage of decline

To eliminate unprofitable periods, manufacturing companies improve their products by overlapping the stages of the life cycles of subsequent machine models. This is shown schematically in Fig. 1.3. Typically, during the growth phase, when maximum profits are achieved, the research and development phase for the next machine model begins. Thus, in general, long-term stable, profitable operation of the manufacturer is ensured.

For a specific car, after it leaves the manufacturer, pre-sale preparation, and warranty mileage, the maintenance and repair cycle (ERC) begins, which occupies the bulk of its life time and accounts for the bulk of labor, material and financial costs.

The duration of this cycle depends on the ratio of the costs of manufacturing the car and ensuring its performance during operation. In addition to the duration, the structure of the ERC, which includes the types and quantities of preventive and repair impacts, also occupies an important place.

Rice. 1.3. Machine life cycle overlay diagram

Service of equipment (machines, equipment) also has its own life cycle. Its distinctive feature is the discrepancy with the stages of the life cycle of machines. While machines are in the maturity stage, the service cycle is at the beginning of the growth stage. Companies receive about 70% of their revenue from the sale of service services when sales of the machines themselves have declined. The difference in the life cycles of machines and their service is shown schematically in Fig. 1.4.

A machine (car, tractor) can have a life cycle of 8-12 years, and its service life cycle can reach 50-80 years. At the same time, up to 70% of income from the sale of service services falls on the stages of maturity and decline. In general, income for the life cycle of services exceeds income from the sale of machines during their life cycle by 4-5 times.

Currently, in our country and in many other countries, a planned preventive system has been adopted to ensure the operability of vehicles during operation. It combines two strategies: prevention and elimination of failures. Since on average 5 times more money is spent on eliminating a failure than on preventing it, a preventative strategy remains preferable.

Rice. 1.4. Differences in the life cycles of machines (1) and their service (2)

According to the main document defining the system of technical maintenance and repair (MRO) of cars in Russia, the following types of impacts are provided: daily maintenance (EO), TO-1, TO-2, seasonal maintenance (SO), current repair (TR), major repairs (CR). In recent years, preventive maintenance (PR) has become increasingly widespread, combining mainly a preventive strategy, as well as a repair one.

Usually there is a certain relationship between specific types of maintenance. For example, every four TO-1s perform TO-2. Current repairs are usually carried out on demand, that is, when failures occur, so its place in the structure of the ERC based on operating time is not determined. Similar types of maintenance and repair are used abroad with slightly different names and values ​​for the frequency of preventive maintenance, determined by other operating conditions, vehicle reliability and the organization of car service.

In developed automotive countries, the life cycle of a car is insignificant in duration, which is due to many factors: the state of the production base of the automotive industry, car service, roads, car storage conditions, organization of car service, natural and climatic conditions, the level of financial security of the population and others.

Typically a car goes through two (sometimes three) stages of its overall lifespan. First, it is intensively used with high reliability for 2-3 years, and then, with a significant reduction in price, it enters the secondary market. After this, the intensity of its operation decreases due to deterioration in reliability indicators. For passenger cars, the prestige of the car is of no small importance for the population in order to match the level of security. The second stage usually ends by 6-7 years from the start of operation. After this, the cars usually go either to overhaul plants using modern restoration technologies, or to car recycling plants (usually cars), where they are dismantled for secondary materials.

In Russia, the stages of the life cycle and service life of cars are still somewhat different. This is due to a significant lag in the domestic automotive industry, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, as well as a significant lag in the car service industry, both in organizational terms and in terms of production base. This leads to a long service life of vehicles (20 years) with high operating costs.

Improving the organization of car service based on the patterns of changes in the technical condition of the car during operation, the use of modern methods and means of diagnosis, prevention, and repair will make it possible to reduce the costs of ensuring the operability of cars.

Product life cycle
According to the ISO 9000 series international standards for product quality management, a typical life cycle includes the following stages: 1) marketing, 2) R&D, 3) logistics, 4) preparation and development of production processes, 5) production itself, 6) control, testing and inspection of products during the production process and final control, 7) packaging and storage of finished products, 8) sales and distribution, 9) installation and operation, 10) technical assistance in maintenance,! 1) disposal after use.
The division of stages of the product life cycle (PLC) proposed by ISO does not fully comply with the principles of classification according to the place and time of work. For example, the place and time of operation (stage 9) may coincide with the time and place of technical assistance (stage 10). At the same time, the 1st and 2nd stages are given enlarged, and the production stage is divided into five stages (from 3rd to 7th). At the same time, work on the organizational and technological preparation of new production, which is characterized by significant complexity, capital and labor intensity, has not been allocated to a separate stage. The above arguments, as well as the differentiation of costs by stages of life cycle, indicate the appropriateness of the following structure (Fig. 2.1).
Legend: - strategic marketing; - R&D; - organizational and technological preparation of new production (OTPP); - production (including tactical marketing); - preparing goods for operation (transportation, installation, start-up); - operation and repairs; - disposal of goods after use and replacement with a new model (therefore the circle is not closed).
Rice. 2.1. Typical product life cycle structure

It is necessary to analyze the life cycle cycle in order to establish the rationality and proportionality of the distribution of resources across the stages of the life cycle, the duration of work at these stages and to find reserves for resource saving. Statistical data indicate that for mechanical engineering products, operating costs for their standard service life (the sum of costs at stages 5,6 and 7) are up to 30 times higher than production costs (the sum of costs at stages 1-4). For example, the cost structure for the life cycle of GAZ 51 type trucks over 10 years of their operation, according to the author’s calculations, is approximately the following (Table 2.1)
Table 2.1
Cost structure for the life cycle of GAZ 51 type trucks

The costs of preparing a car for operation include the costs of delivering the car to the consumer, building a garage and repair base, purchasing a working stock of spare parts, training maintenance and repair personnel, i.e. these are all one-time costs for the consumer, except for the price of the car.

The costs of car disposal in table. 2.1 with a minus sign, since the consumer received income from this operation by dismantling the car for spare parts and scrap metal (disassembly costs are less than the profit from sales). The costs of recycling complex monoblock structures (metallurgical furnaces, oil equipment, etc.), as well as dismantling nuclear energy facilities, are significant (with a plus sign).
An analysis of the cost structure for life cycle shows that over 10 years of vehicle operation, costs in this area are approximately 20 times higher than production costs. Along with this, the cost of developing a car is only 0.3% of the total cost of life cycle. These figures confirm the results of an analysis of the organization of marketing research, R&D and vehicle quality, indicating a discrepancy between their global achievements. Domestic cars are inferior to the best foreign ones in terms of fuel consumption per unit of useful effect, environmental friendliness, ergonomics, storability, comfort, patentability, operating and restoration conditions. Automotive manufacturers should increase the share of costs for strategic marketing and R&D to apply modern approaches and management methods and ensure the competitiveness of cars.
According to American statistics, losses at subsequent stages of the life cycle of objects due to poor quality of management decisions at the early stages of the life cycle are approximately in the following proportion: 1: 10: 100: 1000, where 1 is a dollar “saved” at the development stage due to ignoring modern research and development methods; 10 - losses in dollars at the stage of development of the facility; 100 - loss on! production stages; 1000 - losses at the operational stage (the design solution is replicated many times).
Product reproduction cycle
In general, the reproduction process is considered according to the scheme
D -)¦ SP -)¦ P -)¦ T -)¦ D1 gt; D,
where D is money (capital);
SP - means of production and labor;
P - production;
T - finished goods;
D1 - income from the sale of goods, which should be
more than D, in this case extended reproduction will be ensured
production (if profits are invested).

The reproduction of certain types of goods can be described if there is data on the structure of the life cycle of goods and the turnover of produced, designed and future models of goods. The reproduction of a product according to its different models is best described by the dynamics of the scale of production (Fig. 2.2.).

Designations: - produced model; - designed model; - promising (in standards) model;
T1 - production growth (mastery) of the 1st model;
T12 - maturity period (mass production) of the 1st model;
T13 - decline in production of the 1st model.
Figure 2.2. Product reproduction cycle
Analysis of Fig. 2.2 allows us to draw the following conclusions: as a result of conducting marketing research, developing reasonable standards for the competitiveness of the projected and promising models, a strategy for developing new market segments has been determined, which will increase the product production program. Therefore N]lt; N2lt; N3;
Depending on the quantity and parameters of the market for the company's goods, the A-B-C-D-E curve may differ for different objects. The duration of periods Tj, T2 and T3 is determined by the complexity of the product, production conditions, competitiveness of the product and the company in specific markets. In principle, the more complex a product is, the longer its life cycle will be. The more competitors there are in a given market, the shorter the product life cycle; To maintain the company's profit margin at the optimal level, it is recommended to set point D, the transition point from one product model to another, at half of the release program for the new model. At transition point D, the old and new product models will be produced simultaneously in approximately equal quantities. Then there will be an increase in the production of the new model and a decline in the old one. In practice, it is very difficult to organize such a transition scheme to a new model. Therefore, sometimes the transition to a new model is carried out by completely stopping the production of the old model, switching production to a new model and launching new lines at full load (point D shifts to point E). However, when using this scheme during the changeover period, the company will not receive income. To build the reproduction cycle of a product, it is necessary to predict its parameters: the coordinates of points A, B, C, D, E in time and according to the program of each product model. This is a very difficult task, because it is necessary to conduct marketing research, develop standards for the competitiveness of goods in specific markets, and predict the technical and economic indicators of the product and the company’s business plan over time. Construction of the reproduction cycle of a product is the beginning of the formation of a company's strategy.
In order to specify the time parameters of the reproduction cycle of a product, it is additionally recommended to build strip graphs of the transition from one product model to another (Table 2.2).
The construction of strip graphs of the reproduction cycle of a product makes it possible to visualize in dynamics the stages at which the models are located, to ensure parallel and sequential execution of work in order to speed up entry to the market with a new product model and to optimize its reproduction cycle.

An example of the dynamics of the reproduction cycle of a product

1.1 Products manufactured
1.2
Project
Tire
May

1.3
Persian
pitch
tive

Legend to the table. 2.2: />P - development (strategic marketing and R&D);
O - development (organizational and technological preparation of new production);
P - production (including tactical marketing);
B - implementation (preparation for functioning at the consumer);
E - operation (use, repair and disposal after removal); 2, 3 - model number.

There are three, somewhat different, life cycles of a machine. In the first case, the life cycle of a machine as a product is understood as the entire period of its production and further existence.

The life cycle of production of similar machines begins with pre-production. This is followed by the stage of development and the beginning of industrial production, then comes the stage of increasing production volume. The subsequent stage of sustainable production of machines is characterized by the greatest economic effect. This stage lasts the longest. Then comes a period of decline in sales and production of cars. The phase of decommissioning completes the life cycle of machine production.

The life cycle of a machine as a product begins with the end of its production and ends with the loss of the necessary consumer properties. The most important stage of this life cycle is the implementation stage, which includes storage, transportation, installation, startup and debugging of the machine.

The above life cycles are taken into account when studying organizational issues of production, distribution, operation, disposal, etc.

1.5. The most important blocks of the machine

Any machine has a very specific set of basic functional parts (blocks). In this case, the term block refers to a part of a machine, which is a group of functionally combined elements. Structure is the general, qualitatively defined and relatively stable structure of the object under consideration (in our consideration, a machine). Today's most common machines that perform mechanical work include the following structural components.

1. The important part of the machine is worker (executive)organ, by which the machine performs work useful to us. It is argued that all other parts of the machine - the engine, transmission mechanism and work control devices - are secondary, since they are designed to ensure that the working body can perform the necessary movements and transmit the necessary forces.

The concept of a working body has a larger volume and content than the concept of a tool. So, for example, the working part of a lathe is a spindle on which a chuck is installed for fastening the part, and a support that moves the cutter during operation. In this case, the tool of operation of the machine (lathe), which is part of the working body and directly affects the body being processed, is the cutter.

2. Engine, driving the working element.

3. Transmission mechanism(transmission) serves to transform and transmit movement from the engine to the working body of mechanical machines.

4. Control devices, serving to control the operation of the machine.

5. Finally, all the above parts of the machine are connected together. For this purpose, each machine has frame (body).

However, we note once again that what was stated above about the components of machines applies to mechanical machines. But we know that there are machines that influence material objects by chemical, electrical, electrophysical (electric spark), light beam (lasers), electrochemical, magnetic, electromagnetic and other methods. On the other hand, there are machines that work not with material objects, but with certain processes of the world external to them. These are energy machines that convert and produce the energy we need, as well as control machines of complex technical systems and various computers. It is clear that the structure of machines that perform not only mechanical work or perform non-mechanical work has a significant, but not fundamentally important, difference from the structure of machines that perform mechanical work. This means that it is possible and necessary to identify the main blocks (the most important and indispensable parts) of any machines and establish their relationship (structure).

First, we list the main blocks of the machine, regardless of its principle of operation and design. The first, central and predetermining essence of the machine is, apparently, the block of energy conversion into the forms of movement of the material tools of the machine necessary for the implementation of work. Next we should name the block for receiving external energy or energy carriers, as well as the block for receiving information, converting it and transmitting control actions to all other blocks of the machine. The energy of one or another form of motion of matter, converted in the main organ (block) of the machine, is transferred by special devices (block of devices) to the executive (working) organ, which includes a receiver of the work object and a device that ensures the delivery of the finished product (the result of the machine’s operation).