The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Quiot Manufacturing.
"During the past year, Quiot Manufacturing had 30 percent more on-the-job accidents than at the nearby Panoply Industries plant, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. Experts say that significant contributing factors in many on-the-job accidents are fatigue and sleep deprivation among workers. Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Quiot and thereby increase productivity, we should shorten each of our three work shifts by one hour so that employees will get adequate amounts of sleep."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The author concludes that shortening the work shift helps reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Quiot and be more productive because workers can get more sleep. A number of assumptions about the causes of few accidents at Panoply plant, the link between sleep and on-the-job accidents need to be reexamined in order to evaluate the arguments.
There are many other reasons that might explain the fewer on-the-job accidents at Panoply.
- They have fewer workers
- Their workers are more skilled
- They have a better working environment that is less susceptible to such accidents
Shortening work shift by one hour does not necessarily help the workers getting more sleep.
- Some workers may have a lifestyle that does not sleep a lot
- Some people may spend more time on other personal matters instead of getting more sleep
It is also assumed that fatigue and sleep deprivation are cause of all such accidents
- Maybe fatigue and sleep deprivation are significant contributing factors only for a small proportion of such accidents
- Maybe a lack of training is a more important factor
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Comments
Thanks for the insightful
Thanks for the insightful feedbacks!
So do I also need to argue that even if there are fewer accidents that does not mean a higher productivity?
Yes, you do. That will be
Yes, you do. That will be even better.
hmm isn't that automatically
hmm isn't that automatically implied? I can't come up with any reason to argue about that
I mean, since there are fewer
I mean, since there are fewer mistakes in work, the overall productivity should increase, if other things remain the same.
Sorry, this will be more
Sorry, this will be more clear:
There is absolutely no proof provided that to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents would definitely be helpful to productivity. This assumption is unwarranted because there are a myriad of affecting factors beside the amount of accidents happened in the workplace, which could also contribute to the productivity of Quiot Manufacturing. Organizational structure, arrangement of producing, as well as different procedures of the productions can entirely possibly affect the productivity.
But even if there are other
But even if there are other factors that affect the productivity, if we can alleviate one of them, it has to be somewhat helpful, right? And the prompt also doesn't say something like "significantly improve"
You made a condition: 'if
You made a condition: 'if other things remain the same', if this condition is true, Yes, but the topic only says: 'to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Quiot', other things may not keep the same.
It means there is no direct relation between on-the-job accidents and productivity. Suppose the factory uses a new technology which greatly reduced accidents, however, one procedure may need double time to finish for safety reasons, so in this situation, the productivity is not getting better.
Let's analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
During the past year, Quiot Manufacturing had 30 percent more on-the-job accidents than at the nearby Panoply Industries plant, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. //your argument 1. and more:
*using samples in one year is not enough. How are other years?
*maybe Panoply Industries plant is another industry. It means it is not comparable.
condition 2:
Experts say that significant contributing factors in many on-the-job accidents are fatigue and sleep deprivation among workers.//your argument 3. best argument:
maybe fatigue and sleep deprivation are not the reasons for 30 percent more on-the-job accidents, but other reasons like: training...
conclusion:
Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Quiot and thereby increase productivity, we should shorten each of our three work shifts by one hour so that employees will get adequate amounts of sleep.//your argument 2, but need more to argue and thereby increase productivity:
first, It doesn't mean more sleep can improve the productivity, second, there are other or better approaches to improve the productivity like better management, technologies...