ARGUMENT:
"The falling revenues that the company is experiencing coincide with delays in manufacturing. These delays, in turn, are due in large part to poor planning in purchasing metals. Consider further that the manager of the department that handles purchasing of raw materials has an excellent background in general business, psychology, and sociology, but knows little about the properties of metals. The company should, therefore, move the purchasing manager to the sales department and bring in a scientist from the research division to be manager of the purchasing department."
ANSWER:
This argument fails to address important considerations before making the conclusion that the falling revenues that the company is experiencing is ultimately because of the purchasing manager's lack of expertise in the field of metal properties. Firstly, the author states that the falling revenues coincide with delays in manufacturing, but there is little evidence the author suggests to support this claim. For example, it is possible that the falling revenues are due to a significant increase in the cost for parts that the company uses to manufacture heavy machinery. Similarly, it is possible that the demand for the product the company manufactures has declined, as a competing organization has introduced a new, highly advanced product that performs the required tasks with minimal error. Such considerations are not discussed in the argument.
Secondly, the author suggests that the delays in manufacturing are mostly due to poor planning in purchasing metals. Once again, the author provides no evidence to support this claim, so there could be other reasons that would have led to the delays in manufacturing, that are not discussed in this argument. For example, perhaps the company uses older technology that is inefficient and slow, and is often prone to error, when compared to newer technology. Such a reason for the delay in manufacturing is not addressed by the author.
Thirdly, the author states that "these delays, in turn, are due in large part to poor planning in purchasing materials", and then suggests that the purchasing manager "knows little about the properties of metals". The author, by stating this, seeks to imply that the knowledge of the properties of metals is required for strong planning in the purchasing of metals. The author goes further to conclude that the purchasing manager should therefore be replaced by a scientist from the research division. There are several flaws in this claim. The author fails to consider the implications of having a scientist who likely has little knowledge of general business, psychology, and sociology (all strengths that the current manager carries, as stated by the argument), act as the manager of the purchasing department. The scientist may have the knowledge to purchase the right kinds of metals taking into account the properties of each metal, however, the scientist may not know how much of each metal to order or purchase, because this would require an overall knowledge of the business and industry. Perhaps a strong planning in purchasing metals requires a purchasing manager who is very experienced in general business and overall knowledge of the manufacturing industry, rather than one who is knowledgeable only in the field of metal properties. Such concerns are omitted by the author, making this argument incomplete and unconvincing.
