“Fast cycle time” is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organizat

Question

“Fast cycle time” is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organization to eliminate bottlenecks and delays in production. Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality. The reason is that the bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time.

The claim about quality made above rests on a questionable presupposition that _____.

(A) any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line

(B) the strategy of “fast cycle time” would require fundamental rethinking of product design

(C) the primary goal of the organization is to produce a product of unexcelled quality, rather than to generate profits for stockholders

(D) “fast cycle time” could be achieved by shaving time off each of the component processes in production cycle

(E) “fast cycle time” is a concept in business strategy that has not yet been put into practice in a factory

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

A presupposition is something that you are assuming to be true and then concluding your argument. 
A questionable statement is something which may or may not be valid.

"A questionable presupposition" just means an assumption, the validity of which is questionable, but an assumption made by the author nevertheless. In essence, it is just an assumption question. 
An assumption is something that must be necessary for the argument. The author assumes it to be true. Whether it actually is true or not, we don't have to worry about it. This question stem is telling us that the assumption he has made may not be valid.

Don't confuse this with given premises. Since the author gives them as data to back his conclusion, we assume the premises to be true while evaluating the validity of his argument.

Argument:

“Fast cycle time” is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organization to eliminate bottlenecks and delays in production. 
bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time.

Conclusion: Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality.

(A) any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line

This is the missing link. It links quality (not mentioned in premises but concluded) to fast cycle. 
The author is assuming that since the "fast cycle" eliminates bottle necks, it eliminates flaws too. The assumption is that flaws will cause a bottleneck. So removing bottlenecks means all flaws are taken care of.

(B) the strategy of “fast cycle time” would require fundamental rethinking of product design
Irrelevant. How we achieve fast cycle doesn't matter.

(C) the primary goal of the organization is to produce a product of unexcelled quality, rather than to generate profits for stockholders
Irrelevant. The argument discusses "fast cycle time" strategy. Whether organisations will use it or not, we don't have to worry.

(D) “fast cycle time” could be achieved by shaving time off each of the component processes in production cycle
How it is achieved - whether time is shaved off from each process or from some specific processes - doesn't matter.

(E) “fast cycle time” is a concept in business strategy that has not yet been put into practice in a factory
We don't know whether it has been put in practice. Our argument doesn't depend on it.

Answer (A)

nusmavrik · Answer

Straight A
P1 : “Fast cycle time” is a strategy to eliminate bottlenecks and delays in production
P2 : bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right

Assumption : bottleneck or delay would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line. If you negate this assumption the argument falls apart. Hence the answer.

craky · Answer

Althought I was not quite convinced by A at first I picked it up as other answers are out of scope

sanki779 · Answer

Option A is the answer.

Conclusion of the Passage states : Fast Cycle time will remove bottleneck and delays. This will result is improve in quality too. It is based on the assumption that in case there is some flow then it will be followed by bottlenecks and delays and this is what is present in Option A.

bvg · Answer

The argument is talking about two things here, " Fast cycle time" and " first time right" . while, it is clear that fast cycle time will speed up production, it is not clear how will the strategy of first time right is embedded within fast cycle time strategy. 
It is clear that bottlenecks and delays can be eliminated by doing first time right. But it is unclear as in how a quality is ensured by removing bottlenecks and delays. The product could be made faster without any delays but might be of inferior quality. 
please explain.

lipsi18 · Answer

“Fast cycle time” is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organization to eliminate bottlenecks and delays
in production. Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality. The reason is that the
bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time.
The claim about quality made above rests on a questionable presupposition that

(A) any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring
on a “fast cycle” production line
(B) the strategy of “fast cycle time” would require fundamental rethinking of product design
(C) the primary goal of the organization is to produce a product of unexcelled quality, rather than to generate
profits for stockholders
(D) “fast cycle time” could be achieved by shaving time off each of the component processes in production
cycle
(E) “fast cycle time” is a concept in business strategy that has not yet been put into practice in a factory

Conclusion: Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality
Reasoning: The reason is that the bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time. 
Pre-think: ‘Fast cycle time’ fixes(or cures) all the bottlenecks in the first time itself. How can we think through that ‘CFCT’ strategy is preventing all bottlenecks? As once the bottlenecks occur then only ‘FCT’ cures it.

Jump in reasoning/Flaw: Could not find any. Can someone help me here

Options: A talks about preventing the problem, but argument says that the strategy fixes the bottleneck by implementing ‘FCT’ strategy. How can we say that this strategy prevents any flaw?

D is giving information about shaving time. But we are asked about the effect on quality, not time. So this is not the right answer.
***
Can someone help me understand why Option A is right. And how the reasoning is correlated with right answer choice. Is right answer is the rephrase of the reasoning given in the argument?

Thanks in Advance,
Lipsi

adkikani · Answer

AshutoshB   GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma   nightblade354   pikolo2510   Harshgmat

Can you explain question stem and PoE?
 
How is this an assumption question?
An assumption is a MUST BE TRUE statement for the conclusion to be valid.
How can I question an assumption?

AshutoshB · Answer

Hi, I am not an expert, but I will try to help you out

First, to answer your question "An assumption is a MUST BE TRUE statement for the conclusion to be valid."

I am not sure whether you know but there are Two kinds of assumption, and still, I am not sure whether this is necessary to know

Necessary Asumption and Sufficient assumption

Sufficient Assumptions

A sufficient assumption is an assumption that, if true, would make the whole argument totally valid. A necessary assumption is an assumption that needs to be true in order for the conclusion to be possible.

For example, Frank is talking to Suzy at a bar. Therefore, Frank will get Suzy’s phone number.

What is sufficient to prove the conclusion in this case? What if Frank is a male underwear model? What if Suzy has had eight shots of tequila? Although those factors might improve Frank’s chances in real life, neither of them is enough to make the conclusion 100% true. A sufficient assumption is going to be something so strong that it actually sounds kinda silly — for instance, that Frank gets the phone number of every woman he ever talks to at a bar.

Necessary Assumptions

Now let’s use the same example to discuss what assumptions are necessary. Again, it’s not necessary that Frank is some kind of Adonis, or even that he’s marginally good looking — Suzy could give him her digits either way. So, what types of things are necessary? Well, that Suzy has a phone number, for one — otherwise it’s going to be mighty hard for her to give that number to Frank.

let go back to our question

Actually, it is an old question not sure it is relevant or not

But an easy way to do this questthe ion is by POE

Every Option except A is out of scope

For assumption, We have to establish link between QUALITY IMPROVEMENT - FAST CYCLE

goaltop30mba · Answer

is option B weakening the argument ??? Please help!!

errorlogger · Answer

Please correct the typo in option D - (D) “fast cycle time” could be achieved by   shaving  saving  time off each of the component processes in production cycle

Ishaan18 · Answer

Main conclusion - Not only does FCT speed up, but also assure quality
Basis - FCT removes bottlenecks and delays in production; Bottlenecks cannot be removed unless all work is done right the first time
Gap
 1. What if, all the work is done right at once and we compromise/hamper on quality?
 2. What if, bottlenecks have no relation with quality?
Ans.
 A. Assumption. Any flaw (quality issue) would be prevented from occurring on a fast cycle production line. Yes.
 If we negate the statement at least 1 would not be prevented. Then there are chances that quality issue might occur hence weakening the conclusion
 B. NI. The strategy doesn't have any impact. How we achieve FCT is irrelevant
 C. NI. Primary goal of the org is irrelevant. We are just discussing about FCT. What the org will use or not is irrelevant.
 D. NI. Shaving time off from each component or only from one component doesn't tell us anything about quality.
 E. NI. If the strategy is implemented or not is irrelevant. We are just discussing a strategy and what the strategy can do.

sugisuhas · Answer

i didnt understand how this answer is write

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

“Fast cycle time” is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organization to eliminate bottlenecks and delays in production. Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality. The reason is that the bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time.

The claim about quality made above rests on a questionable presupposition that _____.

(A) any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line

(B) the strategy of “fast cycle time” would require fundamental rethinking of product design

(C) the primary goal of the organization is to produce a product of unexcelled quality, rather than to generate profits for stockholders

(D) “fast cycle time” could be achieved by shaving time off each of the component processes in production cycle

(E) “fast cycle time” is a concept in business strategy that has not yet been put into practice in a factory

The question feels a bit dated in terms of what you may see on an Official GMAT now, but you can see how this falls into an ASSUMPTION category - basically, you need an answer that kind of HAS to be true for the argument in the passage to hold.

The NEGATION technique can help identify an assumption since if an assumption is necessary for an argument to work, then negating an assumption should DESTROY the argument.

The passage basically says - bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated without getting work right the first time

Answer choice A (if you were to negate it) basically says - Flaws in the product aren't going to cause a bottleneck or delay...

This pretty much destroys the argument.

(A) is your answer.

All the best.

krndatta · Answer

KarishmaB  ma'am,

How is option A related to quality?

Bottle necks and delays slow down the production. This slowing down affects the quality? So is the author assuming this(the missing link)? 
Can you please elaborate? 
And when we negate this option statement we get  "any flaw in work on a product would not cause a bottleneck or delay and so would not be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line"

So If this is the case, then there would be no compromise on the quality. Hence, there would be no need to implement the fast cycle production line, and quality remains the same. 
Is this correct? 
Please share your two cents

KarishmaB · Answer

“Fast cycle time” is a strategy of designing a manufacturing organization to eliminate bottlenecks and delays in production. Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality. The reason is that the bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time.

The claim about quality made above rests on a questionable presupposition that _____.

(A) any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line

Note that doing the process right the first time does not necessarily imply good quality. What if the raw material used is inferior quality? We may use the correct process but the product may not be good quality.

Eliminating bottlenecks and delays leads to good quality only if we know that all flaws in the product will create bottleneck or delay. Only then eliminating bottlenecks and delay will assure good quality. If low quality raw material (a flaw) does not create bottlenecks or delay, implementing “Fast cycle time” will not necessarily lead to good quality. 
Hence (A) is correct.

Posted from my mobile device

EatMyDosa · Answer

KarishmaB , @VeritasKarishma,  ChiranjeevSingh ,  GMATNinja :

Could you please help me with the  negation  of option A?

According to me, the negation is:

Original Statement : any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line

Negation :   Some flaws  in work on a product  would not cause  a bottleneck or delay and so  may not be prevented  from occurring on a "fast cycle" production line

GMATNinja · Answer

It can be tough to accurately negate answer choices, so we generally don't recommend that strategy. It's much more straightforward to think through the question without negation.

Here, the author concludes that fast-cycle time "Not only... speed  up production, but... also assures quality."

The reasoning behind this conclusion is that "the bottlenecks and delays cannot be eliminated unless all work is done right the first time."

Huh? The author somehow uses the fact that work MUST be done right the first time to eliminate bottlenecks/delays to conclude that fast-cycle time both speeds up production and assures quality. He/she seems pretty sure that fast-cycle time magically fixes all bottlenecks and delays...

So, which answer choice is a presupposition behind this argument?
 
This is exactly what the author presupposes -- he/she thinks that fast-cycle time speeds up production AND assures quality. To get to this conclusion, he/she MUST assume that fast-cycle time somehow prevents ALL bottlenecks/delays.

The argument presupposes (A), so (A) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

stackskillz · Answer

Conc : Not only does it speed up production, but it also assures quality.

(A)  any flaw in work on a product would cause a bottleneck or delay and so would be prevented from occurring on a “fast cycle” production line.   - Tbh I do find the answers for some questions loopy and I don't know why but this is one of them. Let's just negate to see what this means - "Any flaw in the product would cause bottleneck and so can/would happen on a "fast cycle" production line". In essence what we're saying is the opposite of the conclusion, i.e., fast cycle strategy prevents bottlenecks by preventing flaws or doing work right the first time. This defintely weakens the conclusion and makes it look like that's not necessarily the case. Fair enough.  Keep

(B)  the strategy of “fast cycle time” would require fundamental rethinking of product design  - Answers the question - "Does implementing fast cycle time have a specific requirement?". Based on the passage, we'd like to answer - "How does fast cycle time assure quality and speed?". Not relevant.  Drop

(C)  the primary goal of the organization is to produce a product of unexcelled quality, rather than to generate profits for stockholders  - Again same as above. Talks about the primary goal of organizations - not related to the conclusion.  Drop

(D)  “fast cycle time” could be achieved by shaving time off each of the component processes in production cycle -  "How can fast cycle time be achieved?" Again, supports a different conclusion.  Drop

(E) “ fast cycle time” is a concept in business strategy that has not yet been put into practice in a factory  - "Can fast-cycle time be used in practice?" Not the same conclusion.  Drop

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