Properly measuring the efficiency of manufacturing equipment

Question

Properly measuring the efficiency of manufacturing equipment is a complex procedure. Suppose an advertisement announces the sale of new super-efficient foam concrete manufacturing equipment that can produce more foam concrete per minute than any other equipment available. Does higher productivity imply higher efficiency? What if the quality of all the foam concrete produced by this equipment is inferior?

The objection raised above against the efficiency measure described in the advertisement challenges the truthfulness of which of the following statements?
(A)Ways to measure the efficiency of foam concrete manufacturing equipment are representative of the ways to measure efficiency of any other manufacturing equipment.

(B)Producing foam concrete is the primary purpose of foam concrete manufacturing equipment.

(C)The quantity of foam concrete produced is relevant to measuring efficiency of foam concrete producing equipment.

(D)The only factor relevant to measuring the efficiency of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment.

(E)The quality of the product manufactured should be considered when measuring the efficiency of manufacturing equipment.

OA to follow

jaituteja · Answer

IMO... The answer should be C as in the premise our objective is measuring efficiency.. Now that author compares productivity of one equipment with another.
Here, 
Does higher productivity imply higher efficiency? It asks where higher productivity refers higher efficiency.
What if the quality of all the foam concrete produced by this equipment is inferior? This stem supports the previous question by stating that quality of foam concrete varies..

Now since quality is inferior that means the productivity is not upto the mark and thus destroys the "higher productivity imply higher efficiency" statement.

aceacharya · Answer

Its D for me as well. C merely questions the relevance of productivity, which is the very basis of the advertisement mentioned in the premise. The arguments do not question merely the relevance , rather the exclusive relevance of productivity

jaituteja · Answer

Its D... i got it wrong...

The language of the question is really tempting..!!!

We need to find out the answer that states "quality is not relevant to efficiency.."...

summer101 · Answer

I am not convinced with the OA. The argument is saying productivity is not the only measure of efficiency. If D had said as below it would make sense. 
D)The only factor relevant to measuring the  efficiency  of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment.

But the current wording which says "The only factor relevant to measuring the  productivity  of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment. --- This doesnt make sense.

Can anyone help please?

mohnish104 · Answer

Its a straight D. The clue lies in the question stem "challenge the truthfulness ".

akashb106 · Answer

Can you explain in detail how did you get D? I eliminated D because of

measuring the productivity of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment. 
To me this statement does not make sense because we are comparing efficiency...

I chose C because the answer states

The quantity of foam concrete produced is relevant to measuring efficiency of foam concrete producing equipment.

The passage also questions the fact that quantity does not equal efficiency.

But OA is D. I am not sure where is my reasoning wrong? Please help.

mohnish104 · Answer

akashb106 Lets say there is an inspector who inspects such machines. He concludes that although the machine has a high productivity, unless and until the quality of the foam manufactured can't be determined, the efficiency can't be determined.

In reply the manufacturer says  : The only factor relevant to measuring the productivity of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment.

Hence the inspector in his argument is attempting to validate or in this case the challenge the very truthfulness of the manufacturer's reply.

Hope it helps.

jlgdr · Answer

Answer should be D.
Please someone correct answer choice D which repeats productivity twice since Guerrero apparently made an ugly mistake there
Cheers
J

dheeraj24 · Answer

hi jlgdr, Could you please elaborate on why the correct answer is D and Not C. Thanks in advance

Ekland · Answer

It CANNOT be D unless there is a typo there.
D as it stands is NONSENSICAL. How can u say the only way o doing X is doing X? may be if the the first of the two productivity is efficiency it would be right.
There is no answer yet in that question.

nikhiljd · Answer

The objection in the argument says ..
 Does higher productivity imply higher efficiency? What if the quality of all the foam concrete produced by this equipment is inferior? 
Now this statement challenges the truthfulness of which of the statments.
D: The only factor relevant to measuring the productivity of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment. 
HOW?????
what does D say ???
the ONLY factor to measure productivity is Productivity itself AKA QUANTITY ... not quality not anything....
Now the argument if we look at it is challenging this statement with everything its got.
Now I choose C;
WHY ???? because it says  The quantity of foam concrete produced is relevant to measuring efficiency of foam concrete producing equipment  so I am thinking OH! there you go I have QUANTITY RELEVANT EFFICIENCY all that i need ..
but Quantity is relevant.... yes it is .... HOW RELEVANT???? .... Oppps I am not told that ... This aint really strong ... so it is wrong...
Hmm... Coming to terms with this type of question... 
pointed noted ... good question ... NEXT....

Ekland · Answer

Only C stands a chance.

D is nonsense.
It beats to pulp how people just try to agree with OA even when there is a clear error.

if the OA had said B I bet you many would fall over themselves explaining why it's B.

putasockinit · Answer

Why can't it be B ? Seems to me that the option states quite explicitly that producing foam concrete is the main purpose of foam concrete manufacturing equipment, thereby completely disregarding quality of production.
Moreover,the objection raising author himself/herself has conformed to the colloquial definition of productivity (the question "Does higher productivity imply higher efficiency?") i.e. higher no. of products manufactured per unit time. So I'm not sure if D is the best answer. I'd say the author would agree with the truthfulness of statement D which basically just reinforces the concept of productivity.
Thoughts?

sayantanc2k · Answer

It seems that there is a typographical error. Option D should be:
"The only factor relevant to measuring the   efficiency   of manufacturing equipment is the productivity of such equipment."

Assuming the above correction :-

The objection raised: "Does higher productivity imply higher efficiency? What if the quality of all the foam concrete produced by this equipment is inferior?"

The objection is almost a rephrasing of the counter statement of option D - "The only factor relevant to measuring the productivity of manufacturing equipment is NOT the productivity of such equipment. " Thus D is correct answer.

However there is no objection raised against whether primary purpose is producing foam or not - in fact there is no mention of this aspect in the passage. Hence something that has not been referred at all cannot be objected to. Thus B is wrong.

putasockinit · Answer

Thanks for the response sayantanc2k! The addition of 'only' will definitely change things a lot. But tell me, don't you think option D could've been better stated as "The only factor relevant to measuring the EFFICIENCY of manufacturing equipment is NOT the productivity of such equipment."? Don't you think the objection raised i.e. "Does higher productivity imply higher efficiency? What if the quality of all the foam concrete produced by this equipment is inferior?" hints more at how the definition of efficiency stands incomplete if it were to only rest on productivity?

KarishmaB · Answer

Can you please put up a snapshot of the question from the source? Option (D), as written, certainly has an error.

sayantanc2k · Answer

I would again use the negation technique:

If the advertisement challenges the truthfulness of a statement, it would support the negative of the statement.

The statement you have written is (say S1): "The only factor relevant to measuring the EFFICIENCY of manufacturing equipment is NOT the productivity of such equipment."

Negative of the above (say S2: "The only factor relevant to measuring the EFFICIENCY of manufacturing equipment is  NOT  the productivity of such equipment."

If the advertisement challenges S1, it would support S2. But does the advertisement support S2? No, rather the advertisement opposes S2.
Thus to say in other way, the advertisement supports statement S1 (your statement) - it does not challenge S1.

Do you see my reasoning?

mvictor · Answer

clearly it's between C and D.
I too think that there is a typo in D, otherwise it doesn't make sense...
we need to look for efficiency not productivity...

sayantanc2k · Answer

The typographical error has been rectified. Thank you.

Properly measuring the efficiency of manufacturing equipment

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Properly measuring the efficiency of manufacturing equipment

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