Few managers will accept verbal orders for the manufacture of expensive goods, without asking for a confirmation in writing. When those orders are transmitted to the manufacturing department, it is just as important that they shall be in writing. Manufacturing orders are of two classes: general orders to the superintendent to manufacture a certain quantity of goods, and specific orders to shop foremen to do some part of the work. For convenience, these orders will be referred to in this discussion as _Production_ orders and _Shop_ orders. =23. Production Orders.= The production order is the written instructions to the superintendent to manufacture certain goods. It is his authority to secure the necessary material, to employ the required number of men, and to convert that material and labor into the finished product. The production order may call for the manufacture of the quantity of goods of a certain type required to fill one or more customers' orders; the manufacture of a certain quantity of goods to be placed in stock, from which to fill future orders; the conversion of a definite quantity of raw material into finished products; or even the manufacture of an indefinite quantity of raw material into an equally indefinite quantity of the finished product, but within a definite period of time. Usually the production orders of one factory will be confined to one class, though there are some exceptions. In the first class, we find shops manufacturing special machinery, jobbing foundries, and mills manufacturing underwear and hosiery. In the latter business the goods are sold in advance, from samples, and only the quantities or particular styles required to fill orders are manufactured. The second class includes furniture factories, typewriter factories, the manufacture of tools, and numberless similar industries in which a stock of standard goods is manufactured for future sale. An example of the third class is found in a harness factory. In this business, a certain number of sides of leather are issued to the cutting room to be cut. Since the leather is not uniform in weight or texture, it is not possible to cut an entire side of leather into pieces of the same size, or the same parts of a harness──as lines or traces. The cutter must use his best judgment, so cutting the leather that it will produce the largest possible volume of usable stock, with the least waste. The definite factor is the side of leather which is to be converted into an indefinite quantity of finished, or semi─finished product.