The following appeared in a memo from the Board of Directors of Butler Manufacturing quot During the past year workers at Butler Manufacturing reported 30 percent more on the job accidents than workers at nearby Panoply Industries where the work shifts

This recommendation to shorten each work shift by an hour from the Board of Directors from Butler Manufacturing in premature to make with inconclusive evidence given. There are gaps in claims stated and other questions to be asked in order to make a more concrete recommendation. Reasons and examples will be stated in the following paragraphs.

Firstly, the memo compares two companies – Butler Manufacturing and Panoply Industries. Here, it does not state if both companies are in the same industry. Butler Manufacturing could be in the automobile manufacturing industry, whereas Panoply Industries could be manufacturing plastic bags for supermarket use. Comparing companies from two different industries is like comparing fruit to meat, they are two totally different articles. Following this examples of being in different industries, it is obvious that Butler Manufacturing’s type of work is more high risked than Panoply Industries. This could account for the additional 30% on-the-job accidents that happened at Butler Manufacturing. Therefore, the authors have to be able to recognise that the two companies at hand have to be in the same industry in order to make a comparison in safety at the workplace. Only then can they predict whether or not taking up the recommendation will result in increased safety and decreased number of on-the-job accidents.

Next, the memo also stated that a recent government report showed that fatigue and sleep deprivation are contributing factors to on-the-job accidents. This may be true as sleep deprivation does cause one to have lack of concentration, which then may result in accidents. However, the safety regulations of a company also play a significant role with regard to on-the-job accidents. Panoply Industries may have more stringent safety regulations than Butler Manufacturing has. Therefore, the fewer safety protocols in place for employees at Butler Manufacturing could attribute to the increased number of on-the-job accidents as compared to Panoply Industries. With this, the recommendation of shortening one hour of work shifts will not change the rate of on-the-job accidents, because safety regulations are not up to standard.

Lastly, the authors of this memo failed to stated what kind of injuries are being reported. Both minor and major injuries that happen at the work place could all be reported by Butler Manufacturing. Whereas only major injuries where one needs to be sent to the hospital are only reported at Panoply Industries. Again, this could contribute to the higher number of reported accidents that happen in Butler Manufacturing. As such, the authors need to re-evaluate how they go about analysing data in order to figure

To sum, there are further questions that the authors need to investigate to understand why they have higher reported accidents at the workplace. It is premature of them to conclude that reducing an hour in the work shift schedule would result in improved safety records.