Seligram, Inc.: Electronic Testing Operations Case Analysis Essay

(TCO B) You are the project manager for three projects. You are about to estimate costs for these three projects. Given the below information on each project, recommend an appropriate estimation method and justify your answer for each.

The company has hired you as an outside consultant to review the cost system and make recommendations. You decide that

The current cost system allocates overhead costs once a year, as a function of direct labor dollars. This allocation strategy results in:

Under an ABC system, the allocation of costs to products is achieved through at least four analytical steps. Firstly, costs are grouped into activity levels. Secondly, cost drivers are

3. Briefly describe how the current production cost assignment system works. What are the consumption ratios (activity percentages) for assigning manufacturing overhead to each product at present?

Model Description The model takes much of the busywork out of the case, enabling students to spend more time on interpretation and evaluation. Like most case models, the student and instructor versions differ only in regard to the input data. The instructor’s version contains the complete base case inputs, while these inputs are zeroed out in the student version of the model. The model for this case takes the input data (cost pool values and allocation rates) and allocates overhead costs from the three overhead departments to the three patient services departments using all four allocation methods. Additionally, the model calculates the profitability of each patient services department under each allocation method. The model’s (instructor’s version) Input Data and Key Output sections are as follows:

The Theory of Constraints indicates that excess capacity from ‘subordinate’ departments should be utilized to lessen the strain on the bottlenecked department. Until the constraint on production has been removed management should subordinate everything else to the constraint. The proposed action of outsourcing inspection from the coating and sharpening department will free-up more valuable direct labor hours in the area of constraint. A separate inspection station before the final stage of production should be added to the production process. An employee from the chemical bathing stage will be cross-trained to inspect products as needed for the brief periods of inspection required. Because the second process has been deemed subordinate to the area experiencing constraint its excess capacity can be utilized in a more valuable capacity. Each additional hour in the coating and sharpening process will result in a firm benefit of $1250, or the contribution margin per unit of constraint for the Model C210. The addition of an inspection

Overhead costs include rent, office staff, depreciation, and other. Once the flexible budget was complete, variances between the actual and flexible budget could be calculated (Exhibit B). The variance for frame assembly was favorable with actual costs being $82,663 less than in the flexible budget. The variances for wheel and final assembly however were both unfavorable. Wheel assembly had an unfavorable variance of $50,650, while final assembly variance was the highest at an unfavorable variance of $231,200. Taking into account these three aspects of direct cost, direct cost has an unfavorable variance $199,187. Although most overhead costs are fixed, 2/3 of other costs are variable and increase with the increased production. As shown in Exhibit B, overhead variance is unfavorable at $60,000. The direct cost variance and overhead variable together lead to a total unfavorable variance of $259,187.

3. Under the new activity-based costing (ABC) system, compute the indirect cost allocation rates for each of the three activities:

Under the existing cost system for the turning machine area, there are two direct costs and three cost pools for overhead costs. The two direct costs are simply Direct Labor and Direct Material, which are traced to the cost object, which is Machine Parts. The total overhead is split into three cost pools, which are the following: overhead applied on direct labor, overhead applied on material dollars, and overhead applied on ACTS machine hours. Furthermore, each cost pool is broken down into direct and period sub categories. The mentioned cost pools for the following cost drivers: Direct Labor dollars, Material dollars, and machine hours.

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.

Develop and diagram an activity based cost model using the information in the case. Provide your best estimates about the cost and profitability of Wilkerson’s three product lines. What difference does your cost assignment have on reported product costs and profitability? What causes any shifts in cost and profitability?

A work breakdown structure (WBS) will develop for this project and the WBS is based on the project charter, scope statement, and other relevant information. Gantt chart and network diagram also will be well prepared for this project. While preceding the planning stage, the resource usage cash flow report will showing the hours each person is assigned to work on each task each week. Furthermore, the probability/ impact matrix and list of prioritized risks for the project will be included in the project