The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of AltaManufacturing.
"During the past year, Alta Manufacturing had thirty percent moreon-the-job accidents than nearby Panoply Industries, where the work shifts areone hour shorter than ours. Experts believe that a significant contributingfactor in many accidents is fatigue caused by sleep deprivation among workers.Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Alta, we recommendshortening each of our three work shifts by one hour. If we do this, ouremployees will get adequate amounts of sleep."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to beanswered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument onwhich it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to thesequestions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
==============================================================================
==============================================================================
While it might be true that we should shorten each of our three workshifts by one hour, the vice president doesn't make cogent inference tovalidate it in this memo. We can easily tell that the high rate of on-the-jobaccidents should be reduced, but this argument is rife with holes and weakassumptions. Thus, readers can easily come up with many questions that willundermine or even topple the recommendation made by the vice president.
By emphasizing that Alta Manufacturing had thirty percent more on-the-jobaccidents that Panoply Industries, the author wants to show us that PanoplyIndustries has fewer accidents and bridge it with shorter work shifts. However,we have to consider the assumptions of this seemingly reasonable inference. ArePanoply and Alta comparable to each other? It's quite likely that Alta Industriesis the company who makes textile products which is quite safe and staffs thereare less likely to get hurt. In contrast, Alta is a car manufacture, so meltpots, lathes are everywhere and one careless move will make big loss. Thedifferent natures of the jobs will make big difference. Furthermore, does thenumber 30 percent really make sense? What if no-the-job number of accidents inPanoply is 1 every 10 years, which means that of Alta is still small? If 1.3accidents on average are happening each decade, this issue, from my point ofview, cannot be considered bothering because it's a normal phenomenon in amanufacture factory. Unless some further comprehensive information is provided,this recommendation may not be taken into account.
By almost the same token, the vice president cites some experts' opinion,which says that most of the accidents are caused by fatigue, and the fatigue isderived from sleep deprivation. This information is quite unconvincing. Theaccidents are probably induced by tear and wear of the machines instead ofoverwork. Mismanaging is still a cause of accidents. In addition, derelicts whoare distracted are also the possible triggers of severe accidents. To say theleast, even if those kinds of accidents are made by fatigue, we have no clue tosay that it is always made by sleep deprivation. Everyone will get bored if thework is too heavy or the workshop is too stuffy and sultry. The tasks they aredoing and the milieu of the factory have to be considered when the reason forfatigue is explained. In order to improve the argument and validate hisinference, the vice president has to exclude all the other possibilities thatwill lead to the same result.
Last, the author of this argument simply thinks that all the staffs willuse this one more hour to sleep. The employees of Alta may like to have muchmore free time after work, but they don't promise extra time is definitelyallocated to sleep. Will they use this one more hour to build their body, whichwill make them even more tired? Granted that employees will sleep one more hourdue to the new policy, they are still likely to be sleep insufficient. If thishappens, shortening work shifts will not reduce the rate of on-the-jobaccidents; instead, the efficiency of manufacturing process is probablyimpeded. Hence, some more complicated situations have to be considered and thenwe can begin make this suggestion a step further.
A safe producing process is no doubt welcome and important no matter to acompany or to the employees. Nevertheless, whether we should achieve this goalby shortening work shifts in Alta Manufacturing remains to be scrutinized. Tomake a grandiose and complete argument, the vice president has to provide somemore information and answer many questions asked by readers. Otherwise, theargument will be recognized unwarranted. | 
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
发表于 2013-1-20 13:25:33
收藏
收藏
楼主
