A typical product cycle for a consumer goods company consists of four

Question

A typical product cycle for a consumer goods company consists of four consecutive, non-overlapping steps that must be completed in sequence before a product can be launched:

Step 1: Product Development — 8 weeks

Step 2: Consumer Testing — 4 weeks

Step 3: Regulatory Review — 2 weeks

Step 4: Legal Review — 2 weeks

The company plans to launch two complementary products, A and B, at the same time and begins developing both products simultaneously. Product A follows the standard timeline. However, Product B requires 10 weeks for Product Development instead of 8. To meet the original launch date, the remaining steps for Product B must be adjusted, with the following condition in place: Consumer Testing always takes twice as long as Legal Review, and Legal Review always takes the same amount of time as Regulatory Review.

For Product B to meet the original launch date, select for  Consumer Testing  the number of weeks it must take for Product B to complete Consumer Testing, and select for  Regulatory Review  the number of weeks it must take to complete Regulatory Review, that would be jointly consistent with the given information. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Official Solution:

The Product Development step for Product B took 2 weeks longer than expected — 10 weeks instead of 8. To launch both products A and B at the same time, the company must make up for this delay by saving 2 weeks across the remaining three steps. This means steps 2 through 4 for Product B must take a total of 6 weeks instead of the usual 8.
 
Let  x  be the number of weeks for both the Legal Review and the Regulatory Review (since these steps always take the same amount of time). Then Consumer Testing, which always takes twice as long as Legal Review, would take  2x  weeks. So:
 
2x (Consumer Testing) + x (Regulatory Review) + x (Legal Review) = 6

4x = 6

x = 1.5 
 
Therefore, Consumer Testing would take 3 weeks, and Regulatory Review would take 1.5 weeks.

Correct answer:

Consumer Testing  "3"

Regulatory Review  "1.5"

catinabox · Answer

The total time to launch Product A = 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 weeks = 16 weeks.

For Product B, Step 1 takes 10 weeks. Therefore, for Product B to be launched at the same time as Product A, Steps 2, 3, 4 must be completed in 6 weeks.

Let's say the time taken for a legal review = T weeks.

We've been told that time taken for legal review = time taken for regulatory review = T weeks.

We've also been told that time taken for Consumer Testing = 2 * T = 2T

Now, 2T + T + T = 6 weeks
or 4T = 6, therefore, T = 1.5 weeks.

Time taken for Consuemr Testing = 2* 1.5 = 3 weeks.
Time taken for Regulatory Review = T = 1.5 weeks.

Customer Testing	Regulatory Review	Weeks
		0.5
		1
		1.5
		2
		2.5
		3

A typical product cycle for a consumer goods company consists of four

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GMAT Two-part Analysis (TPA) Questions

A typical product cycle for a consumer goods company consists of four

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