Hi, I attempted the question myself and timed it. I took 32 minutes as its my first time writing one.
The above mentioned report claims that falling revenues are caused due to the delays in manufacturing and these delays are caused due to poor planning in purchasing metals. Even though the purchasing manager has good business sense, a scientist should be made in charge of the purchasing as the scientist would have better understanding of the properties of the metals as opposed to the manager. This conclusion is based on poor reasoning and has failed to take into account other possible key factors that might have caused the drop in revenues.
Firstly, the report readily assumes that the drop in revenue is caused by the delays in manufacturing. This statement was made without providing any evidence that connects both these events i.e. delays in manufacturing and drop in revenue. The only basis the argument uses is that the occurrences of these events coincide. Correlation does not imply causation. The drop in revenue could be a result of external factors such as market conditions or new competitors. In a scenario where the economic conditions are not favourable, manufacturing might have slowed down which in turn could have reduced the demand of machine parts. New direct competitors entering the market with better offerings or pricing also can be a directly impact the revenue of the company.
Additionally, the argument claims that the delays are caused by poor planning in purchasing raw materials. Just like the first claim the argument had assumed, it also fails to provide any evidence that poor planning of raw materials caused the delays in manufacturing. The delays could have been caused by a number of possible scenarios namely – a lack of labour availability, infrastructure issues such as loss of electricity during manufacturing hours or poor planning that is not related to purchasing of raw materials. The argument fails to take into account other key factors or the evidence of having done so.
Lastly it suggests replacing the purchasing manager with a scientist who has a better understanding of the properties of the materials. This suggestion is fundamentally flawed on many grounds. First of all, it tries to solve an issue for which the root caused is being assumed without any evidence, secondly it fails to take into account the possible implications of this suggestion. The manager even though has a good background in business, psychology and sociology might not have proven experience in sales. If the manager fails to perform in the sales team – he or she directly impacts the revenue of the company ,worsening the problem that is being fixed. Similarly a scientist who has the expertise on the raw materials might not be good at the business aspect of purchasing materials. An inexperienced manager could make bad deals that could have a strong impact on the cost and time of purchasing these materials – which can further cause a loss of revenue.
As the argument fails to take into account several key factors and makes conclusions without any concrete evidence, it is deeply flawed. This argument could be strengthened if it could provide facts that connects the loss in revenue to the incompetency of the purchasing manager.