Direct Labor Standards Costing System

With the help of above given formula cost budget variance and efficiency variance could be calculated:

choose the most appropriate and effective overhead rate, particularly, because it guides management in its tasks of product pricing, job costing, and budgeting. Businesses can use the single company-wide method or can opt for the departmental method. Auerbach

Unit Direct Labor (Basic) = DL Std. Qty. Per Unit x DL Std. Rate Per Hr.

Management had difficulties in communicating the two variances to its senior managers. The calculation of the two variances started with the standard fixed cost per ton which was derived by following formula:

* Direct Labour variance: Unfavourable by $22.000. Again, we need to find out whether this is Price and/or efficiency driven. We know that according to the accountant information, the actual price is $16,4/unit while the Standard price is $16/unit. On the other hand, the Standard Quantity is 14.000 units while the actual Quantity is 246.000/16,4=15.000 units. Therefore:

In production costs variance chart above, Direct labor price variance(sum of direct labor variances of round, square and oval) valued at $14,913, and Oval production cost variance valued at $8,381.

The calculation of the two variances started with the standard fixed cost per tonne which was derived by following formula:

The above cost system was efficient during the 1980s because it split up overhead over three cost pools, adding an additional pool, which has machine hours as its cost driver. This proved efficient because “[w]ith increased usage of automated machines, direct labor run time no longer reflected the amount of processing being performed on parts, particularly when one operator was responsible for several machines.” Packet, pg. 7.

According to this method, every unit of the product is assigned all direct, fixed, and variable costs. This method includes the cost of direct materials and labor as well as a portion of the overhead costs associated with it in the final costing of every unit of the product.

• This cost method does not provide the best system for JDCW’s cost allocation. By using only three overhead rates the present system grossly undermines the true production costs since other activities of the production process are not acknowledged.

hours, as well as accounting for the set up labor costs for every run. The material

The information used to calculate the total direct material and total direct labor variances are retrieved from the cost/ price variance and efficiency variance data. The material variance is zero, meaning there have been no changes for the cost of materials. The labor variance was favorable due to a fall in the labor rate. The efficiency variance for direct labor tells management how efficient the direct labor was in making the actual output that was produced by the direct labor. With that being said, in this case it is considered unfavorable. This is because, both the labor rate and efficiency of the labor has been reduced. The areas that should be reviewed at Peyton Approved include product design, reduction of scrap,

Today we are fortunate to have laws to protect us from being forced to work excessive hours without being fairly compensated. We have laws to protect our children from being forced to work at an early age and these laws protect us from working in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. In 1938 our 32nd president Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to have the “Fair Labor Standards Act” passed and signed into law. This piece of legislation was a land mark in our history. It banned most child labor; it set a minimum hourly wage and set the standard work week. This was the beginning that made employers develop records to keep track of the wages that they paid to their employees and records of the hours the employees were working.

The current method of apportioning production overheads based on direct labour hours can be described as a traditional approach to product costing. In a manufacturing company’s financial statements, each item produced must be allocated some of the production overheads to make the statements compliant. Sometimes the individual costs of these items can be calculated incorrectly based on overall production overhead and the system of allocating in place, however the overall financial statement can still be accurate. This traditional method of allocating the production

The standard costs were generated monthly. A variance analysis is made by comparing the budgeted plan or standard amount with the actual amount incurred. Factory employee usually did not understand the variance system in relation to the specific problem. This is because the variance did not address the actual problem and pinpoint cost of favourable and unfavourable variance. This made the factory worker thought the variance report was irrelevant and ignored it.