Programme as here used is a plan for doing work, the plan which the planning department lays out and hands over for the performers, or the workers, to do.

UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT NO ACCURATE PROGRAMME IS POSSIBLE.—­Under Traditional Management the plan is at best a repetition of records of unscientifically planned work.  The most that the managers can hope to do is to lay out the time in which they expect, after consulting previous elapsed time records, the work to be done.  Methods are not prescribed, so there is no assurance that the calendar will be followed, for the times are set by guess, or at best by referring to old unscientifically made records.

UNDER TRANSITORY MANAGEMENT CALENDARS CAN BE DESIGNED.—­Under Transitory Management, with the introduction of systems, that is, records of how the work has been done best at various times, come methods and a possibility of a more exact calendar.  There is some likelihood under Transitory System of the work being done on time, as the method has been considered and, in many cases, is specified.

UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ACCURATE CALENDARS POSSIBLE.—­Under Scientific Management programmes are based on accurate records scientifically made and standardized, and a calendar may be made that can be conformed to with exactness.

PROGRAMMES A MATTER OF ROUTING.—­The problems of a programme under Scientific Management are two, both problems of routing:—­

    1. to route materials to the work place.
    2. to route the worker to the placed materials.

At first glance it might seem simpler to consider the worker as static and the materials as in motion.  The “routing” of the worker is really often not a question of motion at all, as the worker, if he were operating a machine, for example, would not change his position between various pieces of work—­except to rest from fatigue—­enough to be considered.  The word “routing” is used figuratively as regards the worker.  He is considered as transported by the management through the day’s work.

But, whether the work move, or the worker, or both, programmes must so plan out the progress of each, in detail, for as many days ahead as possible, that the most efficient outcome will ensue.

ROUTING OF WORK.—­The work is routed through schedules of materials to buy, schedules of material to handle, and schedules of labor to be performed.  The skilled worker finds all the materials for his work ready and waiting for him when he arrives at the task, this being provided for by programmes made out many tasks ahead.

ROUTING OF WORKERS.—­The workers themselves are routed by means of the route sheet, route chart, pin plan and bulletin board.

The devices for laying out the work of the workers appeal to the imagination as well as the reason.  The route chart is a graphical representation of a large river, starting with the small stream,—­the first operation, gathering to itself as the tributaries, the various other operations,—­till it reaches its full growth, the completed work.