Arg- Alta

The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Alta Manufacturing.

“During the past year, Alta Manufacturing had thirty percent more on-the-job accidents than nearby
Panoply Industries, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. Experts believe that a
significant contributing factor in many on-the-job accidents is fatigue and sleep deprivation among
workers. Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Alta and thereby increase
productivity, we should shorten each of our three work shifts by one hour so that our employees will get
adequate amounts of sleep.”

The vice president of Alta Manufacturing stated that the on-the-job injuries of their company were thirty
percent more than that of Panoply Industries. The vice president belives that the reason behind this
phenomenon is due to fatigue and sleep-deprivation caused by longer work shifts. He insists that the
company should reduce the work hours to increasse productivity.This was inspired from their
neighboring industry- Panoply. However there are major flaws in the reasoning.

To begin with, the vice-president mentioned the conclusions of the study drawn by the experts. But he
never mentioned the statistics considered to conduct the study nor the numbers and percentages that
support the experts' beliefs. Taking hypothetical beliefes without mathematical proof and implementing
measures accordingly will jeapordize the efficiency of the firm. The company should instead publish a
report with the statistics of the study they conducted and inferences drawn from it.

Moreover, the experts linked the fatigue and sleep deprivation directly to work hours without providing
any proof or research supporting it. It is important to explore various possiblities that lead to reduced
efficiency in the industry. The experts should test and trial various factors from broad perspective rather
than focusing on one significant factor. They should also attach proofs with comprehensive resarch to
support their conclusions. Increased work hour might be one reason but there can be many other
factors like age, strength and nutrition that might directly result in injuries.

Finally, the vice president the Alta manufacturing compared the progress of their firm with one Panoply
industries. He presented and compared the work hours of both firms. But he never mentioned the
similarities and differences between these two firms. He suggested to implement the strategies of latter
on the former company for increased productivity. Implementing the work hour format of a baking
company on a hospital firm will result in massive failure. Hence it is important that the vice president
compares progress of the Alta Manufacturers with a firm that shares the goals and outputs of their own.
Even if they find a similar company with their goals, factors like labour size, production scale, revenue,
sales demand etc., should be taken into considration.

The conclusion drawn by the vice president on productivity based on the work hours is majorly flawed.
The reasoning merely mentioned the results without providing the statistics and numbers that support
them. The results drawn from the study were the products on analysing only two factors - fatigue and
sleep deprivation. A much more detailed analysis with more number of resulting factors is required to
support reasoning. The vice president compared the work shifts of two industries without providing the
relation between them. Comparing the Alta Manufacturing with Panoply and implementing the latter's
strategies on former without correlation might hinder the productivity of the industry. Hence a detailed
research consisiting of statistics and results of a comprehensive study should be considered to
implement changes within the industry.