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Break even Analysis

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Break even analysis is an important part in production management and decision making. In this assignment, the key elements of the break-even analysis will be discussed. The key elements of break-even analysis are fixed cost, variable cost, total revenue, break-even point and margin of safety. Although break-even analysis is very useful, it has disadvantages.
Break-even analysis is based on the production cost of the company which includes the fixed cost and variable cost. Then the total cost of the production is compared with the total sales revenue to find out the breakeven point. The break even analysis is useful to determine how much sales does the company need to make in order to break even. (Holland, 1998) It is broadly used in …show more content…

At the beginning, the total cost is higher than the sales revenue. The business is making a loss at this stage. After the output reached a certain level, the total cost is equal to the total revenue. According to Atrill and McLaney, ‘the break-even point is the point at which total revenue is equal to total cost’ (Atrill & McLaney, 2008: 241). At this point, there is neither profit nor loss. Output above the breakeven point where the sales revenue is greater than total cost will make profit. The total cost was covered by the sales revenue. Therefore the company is making profit. One of the real world examples is Royal Mail had made a loss of £66milion compare to 48 million last year. The operating profit also decreases from £184 to £52. The Royal Mail said that the loss was caused by a continuing fall in mail volumes and had been limited by cost cutting. This shows that if the costs are high and level of output is low, the company would not make a profit. (BBC, 2010)

From the break-even chart above, the break-even point is the point where the total cost and total sales revenue intersect which is 200 units. At this point, there is no net loss or profit. The company will have to sell 200 units of goods in order to break even. At 100 units of output, the company is making a loss because the total cost is above the total sales revenue. On the other hand, at 300 units of output, the company is making a profit as the

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