In order to reduce the number of items damaged while in transit to

A. The change in packing policy led to an increase in expenditure on packing material and labor. - does not explain why the customer complaints increased despite the change. Hence, eliminate (A).

B. When packing material is compressed too densely, it loses some of its capacity to absorb shock. - Now we know that the usage of too much packaging material defeats the intended purpose of protecting the products from damage. Hence, (B) is the right answer choice.

C. The amount of packing material used in a carton does not significantly influence the ease with which a customer can unpack the package. - Customer's ease is irrelevant to the conclusion drawn. hence, eliminate (C).

D. Most of the goods that TrueSave ships are electronic products that are highly vulnerable to being damaged in transit. - (D) informs us about the ''kind'' of goods that are shipped; it still does not explain why the complaints about product damage are still on the rise. Hence, eliminate (D)

E. TrueSave has lost some of its regular customers as a result of the high number of damaged items they received. - Irrelevant to the conclusion drawn. Hence, eliminate (E)

Official Explanation

Situation: Mail-order company TrueSave wants to reduce the number of items damaged while in transit to customers. Packaging consultants recommended that to achieve this goal, the company should use more packing material to fill empty spaces in its cartons. The company’s packers began using as much packing material as they could, yet reports of damaged items rose rather than fell.

Reasoning What would help explain why the company’s acting on the recommendation did not achieve its goal? Th e recommendation involved increasing the amount of packing material, so there must have been something about that increase that led to more damage. More damage would be likely to result if stuffing more packing material into shipping boxes made the packaging less effective.

A. An increase in expenditure on packing material and labor might affect the company’s profitability, but it would have no effect on whether items were damaged in transit.

B. Correct. Th is statement adequately explains why more items, rather than fewer, were damaged in transit.

C. If customers were able to remove their items just as easily from boxes filled with more packing material as from boxes using less packing material, the items would be unaffected by an increase in the amount of packing material used.

D. The kind of goods TrueSave ships most frequently is not relevant to the question of why increasing the amount of packing material failed to reduce the number of items damaged in transit, since they most likely shipped this same kind of goods both before and after making the recommended change.

E. The loss of regular customers helps explain why TrueSave turned to the packaging consultants for help, but it does not help explain why those consultants’ recommendation failed to reduce the number of items damaged in transit.

The correct answer is B.

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