GMATinsight wrote:
Does Company X strive to maintain a low defect rate in order to ensure product quality?
(1) Company X's manufacturing process has a defect rate of 2% according to quality control data.
(2) Monitoring the defect rate in a manufacturing process is essential to ensure product quality, and a low percentage indicates a well-maintained production process.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONInference(1) Knowing that quality control data says the defect rate for Company’s X’s manufacturing process is 2% tells us nothing about whether Company X strives to maintain a low defect rate. First, the quality control data may be inaccurate or fraudulent. Second, without further context, we can’t tell whether a 2% defect rate is low or high. And finally, even if a 2% defect rate is low, we don’t know whether Company X is striving to keep it low to ensure product quality. Thus, whether Company X strives to maintain a low defect rate in order to ensure product quality cannot be determined from (1) alone; NOT sufficient.
(2) Even if monitoring the defect rate in a manufacturing process is essential to ensure product quality, Company X may not monitor it. And even if a low defect rate indicates a well-maintained production process, Company X’s defect rate may be high. Thus, whether Company X strives to maintain a low defect rate in order to ensure product quality cannot be determined from (2) alone; NOT sufficient.
Even if (1) is true, the real defect rate for Company X’s manufacturing process might be higher than the quality control data suggests. And even if the defect rate is really 2%, that might be quite a high rate for Company X’s product and manufacturing process. If the defect rate is high, then (2) does not imply that Company X is striving to maintain a low defect rate. Thus, (1) and (2) together don’t tell us whether Company X strives to maintain a low defect rate.
The correct answer is E; both statements together are still not sufficient.