Parallelism with "in order to"

Which of the following is grammatically correct, or are they both gramatically correct?

• We use this product in order to increase work efficiency and to streamline testing.
• We use this product in order to increase work efficiency and streamline testing.

I tried expanding the sentences, but I'm not sure if my expansions are correct either: - We use this product in order (to increase work efficiency) and (in order to streamline testing). - We use this product in order to (increase work efficiency) and (streamline testing).

Help is greatly appreciated!

Solution 1:

I do not consider the two sentences to be grammatically equivalent, and here's why:

Your expansion of the first sentence is not accurate. It should read: We use this product in order to increase work efficiency and (we use this product in order to) to streamline testing. Notice that what you have then is the repetitive use of "to." This clearly demonstrates that the first sentence is grammatically incorrect.

Therefore, if you choose to retain the verbiage "in order to" (which, although admittedly more formal and emphatic, as you suggest, is also somewhat pompous and verbose) then you should choose the second sentence, which is grammatically fine.

Solution 2:

Parallel structure would be either one of these two:

We use this product to increase work efficiency and to streamline testing.
We use this product to increase work efficiency and streamline testing.

The words in order are superfluous and, therefore, verbose.

Non-parallel structure would be something like this:

We use this product to increase work efficiency and for streamlining testing.

This last sentence is poor style.