Kalashnikov Overhauls Production Supply Management
A unified system is replacing fragmented warehouses as Russia’s industrial giants transform the way they manage production resources.
Kalashnikov Concern JSC, part of Rostec State Corporation, is extending a unified tool management system to five companies within its holding. Launched in 2024 at the concern’s main facility in Izhevsk, the project now includes Izhevsk Mechanical Plant JSC and Kirov Mayak Plant PJSC. Preparations for deployment are nearing completion at LOMO JSC, with Mytishchi Machine-Building Plant JSC next in line for implementation.
Algorithms to Cut Excess Inventory and Downtime
Previously, each company within the concern managed its own tool inventory, submitted purchase requests and set stock levels independently. Now, the separate warehouses operate under shared algorithms administered by a centralized tool management service (ESIKh). The system brings together demand planning, inventory tracking and order generation. Its software calculates how many milling cutters, drill bits and tooling components production will require, based on shift-by-shift and daily production schedules. It accounts for both planned output and the actual service life of each tool. Replenishment orders are generated automatically when stock of critical items approaches minimum levels, before shortages arise on the shop floor. The main goal is to prevent machine downtime caused by tool shortages even when excess inventory remains elsewhere in the organization. Centralized management can reduce obsolete and unusable stock, limit emergency orders and balance the workload across the holding’s supply teams.
Over time, the concern plans to bring all production-support processes into the same centralized management framework. Artificial intelligence technologies and digital assistants are expected to expand the analytical capabilities of centralized planning.
Building a Foundation for Further Growth
The rollout of ESIKh is part of the concern’s broader shift to Russian IT solutions. In 2023, with support from the Russian Foundation for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT) and under the national program Tsifrovaya ekonomika Rossiyskoy Federatsii (Digital Economy of the Russian Federation), the holding’s companies began replacing foreign software with products built on the 1C platform. The concern introduced 1C:ERP, 1C:ERP.UH and 1C:Document Management to manage production, finances and product life cycles. The project also covers engineering data management systems, supporting technological independence and information security.
In parallel, the concern overhauled planning in its tooling division in 2024 in response to an anticipated 30% increase in production output in 2025. Planning horizons were extended from one month to three, production areas began receiving weekly workload schedules, and managers introduced daily checks on plan execution. The new approach covers both production volume and scheduling as well as short-term operational planning, taking into account the standard manufacturing cycle for tooling. As a result, workshops could receive blanks and materials at least six weeks before the start of the reporting period. The shift to the new metrics, completed by the end of 2024, laid the groundwork for bringing the concern’s facilities together under a single management system.
Consolidating Production Resources
Centralized management of production resources has become an established practice among many of Russia’s major industrial holdings. From 2022 to 2024, KAMAZ PJSC introduced an automated production monitoring and management system called PIFI, enabling tighter control over tools and tooling. Over the same period, United Engine Corporation (UEC) replaced foreign product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions with Russian alternatives and centralized its technical data. From 2023 to 2025, Severstal PJSC, through its Severstal-Infocom subsidiary, consolidated equipment data to optimize operations across the group’s facilities. Since 2024, Rosatom State Corporation has used the STAKSEL (centralized tooling and tool management) solution to track production tooling and tools in one system. Rostec’s Rosel holding uses the TDM.Istok platform to manage the full equipment life cycle, from procurement through retirement.
System integrators, including LANIT, have also offered Tool Data Management (TDM) solutions since 2024 to automate tool tracking on computer numerical control (CNC) machines. This points to sustained demand across Russian industry for systems that improve tool visibility and help manufacturers manage production resources more efficiently.
A New Role for Industrial IT
Projects such as the deployment of ESIKh across Kalashnikov Concern’s facilities demonstrate the growing role of applied IT in manufacturing. Their benefits extend beyond automating core operations to improving the supporting processes that keep production running. Better tool availability and fewer interruptions can help manufacturers maintain production schedules and make more reliable use of equipment and materials.
For Russia, these systems offer a way to improve manufacturing efficiency while demonstrating the progress of domestic industrial software capable of competing with foreign alternatives.
