essay - GMAT: Argument4

Question:
The following appeared in a report presented for discussion at a meeting of the directors of a company that manufactures parts for heavy machinery.

"The falling revenues that the company is experiencing coincide with delays in manufacturing. These delays, in turn, are due in large part to poor planning in purchasing metals. Consider further that the manager of the department that handles purchasing of raw materials has an excellent background in general business, psychology, and sociology, but knows little about the properties of metals. The company should, therefore, move the purchasing manager to the sales department and bring in a scientist from the research division to be manager of purchasing department."

Discuss how well reasoned ... etc.

Answer:
The part of the argument regarding the relation between the falling revenues and the cause is understandable, only if other symptoms corresponding the sales decline don't exist. Also, the part of the argument regarding the root cause of delays in manufacturing, which is poor planning in purchasing metals, is reasonable, since if purchase of material delays, production also delays. The latter part of the argument, however, is irrational and unconvincing.

The argument identifies the purchasing manager as the cause of poor planning, but the validation is insufficient to connect them. Particularly, although the argument says that the problem is the purchasing manager's lack of knowledge on properties of metals, it's not sure how important the knowledge is in terms of planning purchase. A clearer evidence should be in place, because if the analysis of cause is wrong, the proposed solution, which is to bring in a scientist, will cause a serious negative impact on the purchase department. It can be deduced that the scientist has only knowledge of properties of metals, not other administrative skills that the predecessor had.

In summary, the argument might have a wrong deduction. If the argument had a clear explanation about the relation between delays in purchasing and the purchasing manager, the argument could be much more reasonable.