Kanthal specializes in production and sales of electrical resistance heating elements and is headquartered in Hallstahammar in Sweden. In 1985, Kanthal had about 10,000 customers and 15,000 items produced with sales revenue of SEK 850 million between 1985-87. Kanthal consists of three divisions:
- Kanthal Heating Technology
- Kanthal Furnace Products
- Kanthal Bimetals
It has manufacturing facilities in Sweden, Brazil, UK, USA, Germany and Italy. In 1985, Kanthal had a change in leadership with a new President, Carl-Erik Ridderstrale. Upon becoming President, Ridderstrale initiated a new strategic plan (Kanthal 90) to ensure the resources were adequately allocated to increase profits while maintaining a return on capital in excess of
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The activity based costing system implies that high volume activities consume less resources and should be more profitable. However, with the new costing system, the management could see the hidden costs previously not visible, associated with individual product lines, orders and customers and their respective profit margins. In Exhibit 7, Customer # 33519 and 33527 are both comparably high volume but 33519 is less profitable due to the high non stocked item costs associated with customer 33519. Similarly, Customer # 33518 and 33537 have similar volumes, however, 33518 is more profitable due to lower non-stocked costs. Thus it implied, that high volume customers are not always profitable due to costs associated with manufacturing non-stocked items requiring special services. The customers who ordered more in stock items were on average more profitable than customers requiring non-stocked items. The non-stocked items required special services, increased manufacturing costs and also were seldom low volume orders. Previously, the traditional cost system did not take into account the differences between the manufacturing costs of a product order requiring stocked items vs non-stocked items in final product pricing and profit analysis. With the new costing system, Kanthal realized that only 40% of its customers were profitable, with 5% of most profitable generating 150% of profits and least 10% of customers losing 120% of profits.
In fact, two of the
Assuming that the company’s goal is to maximize profits, the current cost system is not an appropriate tool for strategic planning. The ambiguity of the overhead costs per product makes it difficult to accurately analyze the cause and effect relationships of changes and/or improvements to specific product line.
Southwest Airlines is a company that is known for its low ticket prices and profitability despite the highly risky industry in which it operates. This essay examines the cost behavior, cost volume profit (CVP), activity based costing (ABC), budgeting process, costing and decision making policies of the firm. The essay will discuss how the airline integrates these concepts in its daily operations.
Overhead costs are not in proportion to the production output because of the method they are using. This leads to inaccurate pricing and costing decisions. An Activity Based Costing System would help find the real relationship between the products produced and overhead.
Activity-based costing can be defined as the managers allocate costs depending on the quantity of resources a product or service consumed in the manufacture of goods and services. The activity based
On January 13th of 1999, a 17 year old Korean girl by the name of Hae Min Lee when missing after school in Baltimore, Maryland. Lee’s body was discovered in Leakin park; three weeks later in a shallow grave. The police arrested and charged Lee’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed with the murder six weeks later. The police alleged Syed because of phone records they obtained also their only witness Jay Wilds. In the murder case of Hae Min Lee, Adnan Syed should not have been convicted. Syed should not have been convicted on the account of Syed has no history of violence, the single witness in the case has major inconsistencies in his story about the events that occurred, and the lack of evidence that firmly connects Syed to the murder.
Kanthal is company that specializes in the production and sales of electrical resistance heating elements. Kanthal has about 10,000 customers and they produce about 15,000 items. The company consists of three divisions and these three divisions are as follows:
| The Purpose of this project is to increase overall sales by developing new products, increasing productivity and national presence and reducing dependence on equipment suppliers. To accomplish this creation of a new manufacturing plant is required. The plant will be built in a
Glaser Health Products manufactures medical items for the health care industry. Production involves machining, assembly and painting. Finished units are then packed and shipped. The financial controller is interested to introduce an activity-based costing (ABC) system to allocate (or distribute) indirect costs to products. Indirect costs, as distinct from direct costs, cannot be unambiguously linked to specific products. The controller would like to calculate product costs based on ABC for planning and control, not inventory valuation.
Question 1: Assuming Bachand’s proposed system is accepted; compare the profitability of a franchised PK store to a corporate-owned store.
The decision maker of the project who is going to decide to implement the provided solution is Linda Metzler, production planning manager of MRL. Her objective is minimizing the cost while keeping the reputation of the company at high levels considering the future of the company. Her decision criteria and performance measures are in detail in the next part and environment related assumptions are described in assumptions.
Businesses – from manufacturing, merchandising and service industries alike – take careful considerations for their costing systems. Setting-up competitive prices in the market can be a result of proper costing methods. Misallocation of costs may lead to incorrect price estimates, continuous production of unprofitable products, and ineffective processing schedules. In this case study, we will discuss the costing methods Zauner Ornaments are currently using and upon conclusion, it will enable us to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of each costing method.
INTRODUCTION Businesses – from manufacturing, merchandising and service industries alike – take careful consideration in the analysis of their costing systems in order to be able to set up competitive prices in the market. Misallocation of costs may lead to incorrect price estimates, continuous production of unprofitable products, and ineffective processing schedules. In this case study, we will discuss the costing methods which Zauner Ornaments have used or is currently using and, in conclusion, be able to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of each costing method. CASE CONTEXT The case seeks to assist Zauner’s comptroller, Yu Chia-yi, in determining the best costing method for their overhead costs. In addition we also aim to
With this system each customer’s order cost the same amount to complete causing orders with high profit limits to subsidized orders with low profit limits making it difficult for Super Bakery to know the true cost for an order. The company changed to the activity-based costing (ABC) system allowing the managers the ability to recognize the cost and profit margins for each sale. The ABC system associates the costs with the activities allowing managers the opportunity to access a system that allocates overhead costs that uses multiple bases. Costs can be traced back to each individual’s account regardless of the product provider letting managers know which products are profitable and which ones are not. The traditional costing system allocates cost to departments or jobs instead of overhead cost pools. The traditional costing system makes it difficult to know which activity or product is making a profit.
Nowadays, we know that activity based costing system assigns overhead costs to products or services products that using a two-stage process, which focuses on activities. ABC is a relatively new and very important topic in managerial accounting. ABC allows us to find a way that we could determine the profitability of every product, profitability of every customer we serve, and the profitability of our process. Contents in brief, first that comparing potential advantages of ABC versus traditional costing methods. The
It is a global leading company in the design, manufacturing and also sale of home upgrading products, with sales in the year 2002 of US$1.2 B. Its major areas of business are power tools, solar powered lighting, electronic measuring tools and floor care appliances. The company manufactures and trade electrical and electronic appliance. This company has attained an average income growth of 33% yearly over the past 5 years. The company operate in two segments floor care and appliances and also power equipment.