The article focuses on the methodological aspects of the evaluation of the technical level of production in the light of the theory of complex techno-economic analysis of industrial activity and qualimetry. The author determines the aims and the objectives of assessing the technical level, formulates the principles of assessment. The central place in the methodology for assessing the technical level belongs to evaluation methods. On the basis of theoretical research and practical experience the classification of methods for assessing the technical level of production is described due to such features as the expression index, degree of formalization, the degree of mediation on the evaluation result, differentiation assessment indicators, information base assessment. Because of the absence of a universal method suitable for the evaluation of the technical level of production, from the variety of methods those are selected and combined which correspond to the objective evaluation, time and place of assessment, the level of knowledge about the development of an object. When choosing a method and justification of its application in practice, the author proposes the number of criteria, including the prevalence of the practical application of the method, the complexity of its development, the lighting in the methodological literature, the complexity of data collection and processing, the availability of software products that automate the processing of information. At the end of the article the technique for assessing the technical level of production on the basis of statistical indicators of engineering industry development in the Vologda Oblast in 2000 - 2012 is demonstrated. The indexes of the development of machinery and equipment are presented: the volume of shipped products, fixed assets, investments in fixed assets, number of employees. The analysis of the technical level: the degree of wear and the average age of machinery and equipment, renovation of fixed assets, capital-and labor productivity is performed. The transference of quantitative assessment into qualitative assessment allows the author to come to the conclusion of reducing technical level of production in Vologda Oblast
Keywords
management of technical development, technical level of production, qualimetric principle of evaluation, methods for assessing the technical level of production