1. A method for the control of the heat treatment of metal workpieces in an automated industrial heat treating furnace comprising the steps of: providing a first batch in a series of batches of metal work pieces to be heat treated, assigning a heat treatment program to the first batch, manually attaching one or more batch thermoelements to the first batch, transmitting the heat treatment program to a programmable logic controller (PLC) of an industrial heat treating furnace, transporting the first batch into the furnace, starting a heat treatment cycle that is based on the assigned heat treatment program, performing the heat treatment cycle on the first batch, unloading of the batch from the furnace, wherein the heat treatment program is assigned only to the first batch during heat treatment of the first batch, the thermoelements are attached only to the first batch during heat treatment of the first batch, and for a subsequent batch in the series of batches, performing the following steps: selecting a model batch whose heat treatment program is to be used, and then automatically assigning a model program which is associated with the selected model batch to the subsequent batch for heat treating said subsequent batch.