Production Engineering, Administration and Management: A Series of Articles Providing a Complete Survey of the Economics of Production for Aeronautical Engineers

6.01. The borderline between an art and a science can be a narrow one. In an over‐simplified description it might be defined in terms of the content which is susceptible to measurement by standard and objective means. Most arts have some theory and in them some things which can be measured. Nearly all sciences have a region wherein success is only attained by exercising skill in the art and where no predetermined answer can be got by theory and measurements alone. It can be stated that the conversion of the complex subjects of management or production engineering into sciences depends to a great extent on the use of measurements which will ultimately serve as the raw material for theories or laws. The term ‘scientific management’, when first used, was certainly premature. What should have been suggested is that scientific methods were being used to convert arts into sciences. Even now, after some forty years of development there is some doubt whether the term is not ambitious and a little boastful. But there are clear signs that, in the best cases, the content of art is diminishing to a point where it can reasonably be considered to be the junior partner.