Automation of Production, development of machinery to a degree when mechanisms are operated by automatic appliances, while the workers supervise and control their functioning, adjust and repair them. The initial stage of this process is partial automation, i. e., the use of individual automatic and semi-automatic mechanisms. Partial automation ensures higher labour productivity and better quality manufactured goods, but it does not preclude the use of manual and unskilled labour for individual auxiliary operations. Under developed socialism, a planned transition to overall automation of production, i. e., the use of automated systems on the scale of workshops and whole factories, is taking place, when all the actions necessary for processing the object of labour during a certain stage of the manufacturing process, its transportation between stages, technical control and regulation of the technological processes, and the clearing of the waste, are performed by machines, without human participation. In many Soviet industries, there are automated systems embracing an entire manufacturing cycle. They work at optimal rates and ensure maximum labour productivity, the best possible quality of output and high economic efficiency of production. Overall automation helps in attaining major social results: it 17 does away with unskilled manual labour and ensures good working conditions. The workers employed in automated shops and factories need good education, for their work is similar to that of engineers and becomes increasingly creative. Both technologically and economically, automated production necessitates organisation and remuneration of the workers’ labour that helps develop a collectivist attitude and mutual assistance among all employees. In socialist production, automation serves as the material basis for a gradual transformation of socialist into communist labour. Under modern conditions, the use of automated machine systems is usually combined with the automated management system (AMS) of production. AMSs function on the basis of computers, which collect and process economic information and solve complicated problems involved in planning and management. Automated management of production facilitates optimal planning and use of production resources, makes production a rhythmical process, and allows sound and effective decisions to be taken. The automation of production in a socialist society is carried out at a fast rate and on a planned basis, and under the conditions of full employment. Completely automated production forms the foundation of the material and technical base of communism. Under capitalism, automation is used as a means for increasing the exploitation of workers and deriving additional profit, causes excessive intensification of labour and a growth of unemployment, and exacerbates the contradictions between labour and capital.