As there is no possibility of an accurate chronological chart, the worker may undertake more than he can do, thus delaying work which should have been done by others.  On the other hand, he may underestimate his capacity, and be left idle because work he should have done has been assigned to others.  Either of these leads to a sense of insecurity, to wavering attention, to “hit or miss” guess work, “rule-of-thumb methods,” which are the signs of Traditional Management.

WITH CONSCIOUS AND WRITTEN RECORDS COME DEFINITE PROGRAMMES.—­We turn now to the case where the record is conscious,—­that is, where the worker keeps in mind exactly what he has done.  With this conscious record the idea of capacity develops.  The man realizes what he can do.  So also, the idea of method develops, and the man realizes how he can do the work.  Third, there comes gradually an idea of a margin; that is, of a possible way by which capacity can be increased for a higher speed, or methods can be slightly varied to meet any particular deviation in the work to be done.

From this ability to estimate capacity, and to plan the method ahead, comes the ability to lay out a more definite programme.  When the record becomes written the exactness of the programme increases.  Methods also become written, and, though accurate prediction is not possible, such prediction is more and more nearly approached.  This increasing accuracy is the work of Transitory System in all its stages.

STANDARD RECORDS PERMIT OF STANDARD PROGRAMMES.—­In the last case, the record is standardized, that is, the result of the method of processes of analysis and synthesis.  Through this process, as has been shown, the reason for success is discovered and rendered usable.  The programme becomes standard, results can be predicted accurately, and methods by which these results can be best obtained are also standard.

It may at first escape notice that these standardized records, of the ultimate or scientific management type, imply not a greater rigidity, but a greater elasticity.  This because of the nature of the elements of the records, which may, in time, be combined into a great number of different, predictable programmes.

SUMMARY

RESULTS OF RELATIONS BETWEEN RECORDS AND PROGRAMMES ON THE WORK.—­The most noteworthy result of the closer relations between records and programmes which appear during the evolution of Scientific Management is the fact that they cause constant simplification.  The more carefully records are standardized, the simpler becomes the drafting of the programme.  As more and more records become standard, the drafting of programmes becomes constantly an easier and cheaper process.

PROGRAMMES BECOME RECORDS.—­Under Traditional Management the record that follows a programme may appear very different from the programme.  Under Scientific Management the record that follows a programme most closely resembles the programme.  Improvements are not made between the programme and the following record,—­they find their place between the record and the following programme.  Thus programmes and records may be grouped in pairs, by similarity, with a likelihood of difference between any one pair (one programme plus one record) and other pairs.