Specialisation of Production, a form of social division of labour among and within the different industries and enterprises at different stages of the production process. In socialist society, specialisation is a planned process. There are three basic types of production specialisation in industry: a) finished product, i. e., the production by an enterprise (association) of the given commodity for final consumption (e. g., automobile, tractor, machine-tool building plants, garment-making factories, etc.); b) parts, i.e., the production of certain parts of the finished product (e. g., bearing plants, tire factories etc.); c) technological (stage), i.e., specialising in certain manufacturing operations, performing part of the technological process (e. g., foundries, spinning mills, etc.). Specialisation encourages modern efficiency technologies, makes possible the more rational organisation of production and the greater mechanisation and automation of labour, enables its efficiency and quality to be improved, and substantially reduces manual labour and time spent on ancillary operations. All this eventually leads to higher efficiency of social production and quality of output. Specialisation in industry is combined with cooperation of production. Expanded specialisation and cooperation together with the rational combining of similar enterprises is an important condition for technical progress and the rational organisation of social labour. Specialisation in agriculture is based on the natural and climatic conditions peculiar to each region and economic division. Where it differs from industrial specialisation is a result mainly of the peculiarities of the land as the basic means of production. The amelioration and gaining higher yields from the soil require, besides fertilisers and weed control, proper crop rotation (see Fertility of the Soil, Economic). The need to overcome the seasonal nature of agricultural production makes it necessary to grow crops with varying ripening periods. Therefore, specialisation in agriculture does not mean the rejection of varied production within one economic unit. It means the selection, for a given economic division, of the major kinds of production yielding the bulk of marketable produce and their economically feasible link with ancillary and supporting lines of production. There are several kinds of specialisation: zonal specialisation (e. g., zones of sheep farming, grain zones, etc.); inter-enterprise specialisation (cattle farming, grain, vegetable, vinicultural enterprises, etc.); and intra-enterprise specialisation calling for the division of the enterprise into sections specialising in the production of certain kinds of produce. A wide range of measures to advance specialisation and concentration based on inter-enterprise cooperation is currently being carried out in the agriculture of the USSR (see Inter-Farm Enterprises, Amalgamations and Organisations in the USSR), including establishment of agro-industrial complexes (see Integration, Agro-Industrial under Socialism). Specialisation is gaining momentum in trade, services and other economic sectors. Specialisation in the world socialist economic system is a progressive form of international socialist division of 336 labour (see Division of Labour, Socialist International), and is carried out through finished product, technological, part and assembly specialisation. Specialisation intensifies and deepens economic cooperation among the socialist countries, and makes their social production more effective. Specialisation is most effective in the more progressive industries, such as computer production, automation and mechanisation industries, the nuclear power industry, etc.