Product Costing System

The traditional costing method is a distribution of manufacturing overhead costs to the actual products manufactured. By using this

“Companies can choose to use the accounting job order costing method when they have a single product line or numerous products to manufacture. However, it is less costly and less time-consuming if they elect to use process costing when calculating the manufacturing of a single product line. With similarities

Actual costing is rarely used because managers can’t wait until the end of the year to obtain product costs. Information about product costs is needed as the year goes for planning, control, and decision making.

Number of skus was considered driver for Technical Support. The product weight was considered driver of resource consumption only for General & Administrative costs. Moreover, materials and direct labor were allocated based on the bill of materials and routings (exactly the way they were allocated in Standard Costing system). Finally, Material Handling & Setup, Order Processing and Production Planning were driven to products using number of orders. Consequently, ABC solves the major issue regarding the Standard Costing system: the assumption that all overhead costs can be included into one cost pool. All the drivers are summarized in exhibit 3. Exhibits 4 and 5 present respectively the ABC drivers and allocation rates.

1. Product Cost: Product costs are costs, both direct and indirect, of producing a product in a manufacturing firm or of acquiring a product in a merchandising firm and preparing it for sale (Rich et al, 2010). For example, the metal used in making a car, the hours put into making that car, and depreciation on equipment are product costs. The product costs incurred by Grear Rafting include:

Generally, product expenses include all those costs associated with the acquisition, manufacture or production of a product. Drury (2007)

I believe a business should consider costing because by having reasonable product prices they could win over customers from their competitors. However, I also believe costing can make the difference between excellent idea and ruinous one. Costing can be vital to a company because it can allow them to estimate the costs of many things such as products, good and even services. As a result of estimating what the prices of the business could be then save more money.

Process costing is an easier system to use when costing homogenous products compared to other cost allocation methods. Each process applies direct materials, labor and manufacturing overhead to the production cost total. Management accountants take the total number of goods leaving the process and divide the total process cost by this number. This creates a simple average cost for each item produced. Another advantage is that business owners use process costing because it creates a flexible production process. Companies needing to refine their process can simply add or remove a process as necessary. This also allows companies to lower their production cost for each good. Adding a process allows companies to produce slightly different goods or improve product quality. This flexibility ensures companies can produce at the most competitive cost in the economic marketplace. Also process costing provides an approach to allocate costs to

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

main strategy for the North American market is to aim for higher sales, while raising the proportion of locally produced automobiles. Toyota Motor Corp have reached a stage where investments made over the last several years to expand production capacity are beginning to show returns and improved profitability can be expected. Toyota’s goal is to bolster local production through additional investment, and contribute to the regional economy by expanding its operations. At present, our production capacity in North America is approximately 1.25 million units (including our joint venture with GM). However, Toyota Motor Corp plan to boost this to 1.45 million units during 2003.

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.

Process costing is consisting of three ingredients which are direct materials, direct labor and manufacturing overhead. Direct material is the raw material which needs to produce a product, for example rubber for shoes, plastics for straws and etc. direct labor is a person who work and complete the product before it is completely produce. And manufacturing over head is about the indirect materials, indirect labor, and some indirect related to the factory.

During the 1980s the limitations of traditional product costing systems began to be widely publicised. These systems were designed decades ago when most companies manufactured a narrow range of products, and direct labour and materials were the dominant factory costs. Overhead costs were relatively small, and the distortions arising from inappropriate overhead allocations were not significant. Information processing costs were high, and it was therefore difficult to justify more sophisticated overhead allocation methods.

Toyota orders the raw materials from all over the world and in the interest of maximizing their availability of raw materials; they maintain good relationships with their suppliers. Toyota uses Just-in-Time system to manage the supply of raw materials as well as optimizing the supply and production processes.

Cost accounting is a type of accounting process that aims to capture a company's costs of production by assessing the input costs of each step of production as well as fixed costs such as depreciation of capital equipment. Cost accounting will first measure and record these costs individually, then compare input results to output or actual results to aid company management in measuring financial performance (Cost Accounting, n.d.).