As early as the end of the 1970s, planning began at Kombinat Fortschritt Landmaschinen for the successor to the very successful ZT 300 series. Due to the excellent basis provided by the ZT 303 and ZT 323 models, the 320 series was not a purely new development, but rather an extensive and well-considered model upgrade based on the predecessor model. After the basic model of the new series, the ZT 320, was already technically outdated at the time of its introduction due to the lack of all-wheel drive, VEB Traktorenwerk Schönebeck very quickly concentrated on the production of the ZT 323, which had become significantly more efficient in terms of fuel consumption compared to the ZT 303 and thus seamlessly followed on from the latter's sales successes.