From Turn-Key to Functional Design: Two Case Studies of Joint Industrial Investments of the IDRO in Food Industry Before and After the Islamic Revolution

One of the best methods to understanding our historical failures and successes in technological and industrial cooperation is focus on the lived experience of individuals and organizations that are directly involved in an event or the formation of events related to that field. Accordingly, in this research by semi- unstructured interviews, we have been attempted to focus on the story of one of the former project engineers of the IDRO, Dr. Dariush Mahjoobi, in projects related to joint ventures, both in the pre-revolutionary period and in the post-revolutionary period and explain the differences of pre and post revolution era. The research results show that the kind of insight on the concept of technology is very important in the technological cooperation and the aim of policy-maker from cooperation with foreign (development of internal technological capabilities or local content requirement). So, when our focus instead of equipment and machinery, concentrates on achieving the knowledge of relationship in production procedure and flowsheet of necessary requirement in one manufacturer and at the end lead to layout design, the results of the cooperation are more effective. Accordingly, in the food industry, the turn-key approach before the revolution had turned Iran into an importer of equipment. But the experience of Sanandaj Milk Project after the revolution and mastering the Functional design allows the project to be managed according to local needs.