Shiraki: Overtime work is a bad response to situations where orders fr

Question

Shiraki: Overtime work is a bad response to situations where orders from clients exceed normal production capacity: overtime is expensive, and the quality of work declines as the proportion of overtime work increases.

Jackson: The alternative-increasing basic capacity-has the same disadvantages, because inexperienced staff must be hired and experienced production staff must be reassigned to train newly hired workers.

Assuming that both of the positions above are correct, clarification of which of the following issues would be most important in deciding which of the two alternatives to choose?

A. Is the elevated level of orders likely to be a chronic rather than a temporary condition?

B. Has overtime work been resorted to in the past when orders received have gone beyond normal capacity?

C. Will suppliers of needed raw materials, fuels, etc., be able to step up deliveries to sustain a higher-than-normal level of production?

D. Would it be possible to increase the proportion of the company's work that is carried out off-site by subcontractors?

E. Is labor-saving machinery being used optimally in all phases of production?

CR16812

chetan2u · Accepted Answer

The argument wants us to choose an option that helps us to decide within the two options - overtime working OR increasing basic capacity by hiring new staff.

C, D and E affect the two options -overtime working AND increasing basic capacity by hiring new staff- equally, so can be straight way eliminated, that is..

C. Will suppliers of needed raw materials, fuels, etc., be able to step up deliveries to sustain a higher-than-normal level of production?
  the raw materials does not help in choosing overtime working vs increasing manpower. If raw material is not available, you cannot meet the order irrespective of the two options you take.

D. Would it be possible to increase the proportion of the company's work that is carried out off-site by subcontractors?
 Same as C. If yes, then both options can be discarded, if beneficial. But if not, we are back to square one - which option is better??

E. Is labor-saving machinery being used optimally in all phases of production?
 Again, either it will result in discarding the two options, or one of the option has to be chosen, but with no data on which should be preferred.

Let us look at the remaining two choices.
 ]
A. Is the elevated level of orders likely to be a chronic rather than a temporary condition?
 Now this is something that helps us make our decision.
If it is a temporary condition, then it is better not to invest in permanent work force and its training. 
But if it is something that will stay for a long time, it would be better to look at increasing basic capacity.
Correct

B. Has overtime work been resorted to in the past when orders received have gone beyond normal capacity?
 SO what. We do not know if it was useful then, and whether necessary study was done on increasing basic capacity.

A

Kritisood · Answer

IMO A, as by answering A we would better be able to choose among the two alternatives. If its a temp situation then alternative 1 and if its a chronic situation then alternative 2.

abhinav261289 · Answer

We need to choose the option which would help in differentiating and comparing the effectiveness of the two alternatives provided in the argument.
(A) does that. 
 
A. Is the elevated level of orders likely to be a chronic rather than a temporary condition?

If the elevated level of orders is likely to be chronic, i.e. , a long term problem, initial effort spent on training of new staff would be compensated later by the increase in productivity once the staff has been trained (Remember, it's a one time expense). On the other hand, if the problem is temporary, it makes more sense to utilise the overwork alternative as that would prove to be more effective.

carouselambra · Answer

My take on this question :

Shikari (S) : OT(Overtime) is bad, expensive, quality of work declines
Jackson (J) : Alt(Alternative increasing basic capacity) has the same disadvantages

We need to find an option that shows us either of the below :
1. OT> Alt
2. OT<Alt

Shiraki: Overtime work is a bad response to situations where orders from clients exceed normal production capacity: overtime is expensive, and the quality of work declines as the proportion of overtime work increases.

Jackson: The alternative-increasing basic capacity-has the same disadvantages, because inexperienced staff must be hired and experienced production staff must be reassigned to train newly hired workers.

Assuming that both of the positions above are correct, clarification of which of the following issues would be most important in deciding which of the two alternatives to choose?

A. Is the elevated level of orders likely to be a chronic rather than a temporary condition?
If this is a temporary condition, investment in Alt does not make sense.
Correct.

B. Has overtime work been resorted to in the past when orders received have gone beyond normal capacity?
Even if this was resorted to in the past, what is the guarantee that OT will be successful now?

C. Will suppliers of needed raw materials, fuels, etc., be able to step up deliveries to sustain a higher-than-normal level of production?
Third party factor- should not be considered

D. Would it be possible to increase the proportion of the company's work that is carried out off-site by subcontractors?
In a way, we can eliminate the need both for OT and Alt in this case.

E. Is labor-saving machinery being used optimally in all phases of production?
Third party factor- should not be considered

Sidharth003 · Answer

Hey VeritasKarishma AjiteshArun would really appreciate your guidance on this one. I am unable to make the connection of the OA with the stem. The stem tells us that 2 different methods have the "same disadvantages": increased expense and reduction in quality of output. How would evaluating the "temporariness" of the problem help us evaluate which plan is better?

Appreciate it
Thanks in advance.

Appreciate it
Thanks in advance.

KarishmaB · Answer

Problem: Orders exceeding normal capacity

Solution 1: Overtime work. But leads to expensive and lower quality work
Solution 2: Increase capacity. Will also lead to expensive and lower quality work because inexperienced staff must be hired and experienced production staff must be reassigned to train new workers

But note that the issues in solution 2 will lead to expensive and lower quality work temporarily. Once capacity is increased (more staff is hired and trained), the experienced staff will be available for work and inexperienced staff would have been trained. 
The solution 1 issues will not sort out over time because overtime will always be expensive and a strain on overworked workers.

So how do we evaluate the two solutions? Which one to choose?
If the problem (orders more than capacity) is temporary, overtime work is ok. Increasing capacity will waste resources. 
But if it is chronic, increasing capacity will help. The same disadvantages may persist initially but eventually they will be resolved in solution 2.

Hence, (A) is correct. 
 Sidharth003  - You need to understand the two solutions being offered and look at how they are different to evaluate which one to choose.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Shiraki: Overtime work is a bad response to situations where orders fr

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