Seligram, Inc.: Electronic Testing Operations Case Analysis Essay

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

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.

(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

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:

Wilkerson employs a Normal Cost System, which means that they use predetermined overhead rates along with actual costs for direct material and direct labor. Normal costing systems are appropriate when overhead costs are a relatively small percentage of total manufacturing costs and product diversity is limited. For Wilkerson, normal costing does not make sense. Overhead costs make up over 50 percent of total manufacturing costs and their product offering is relatively more diverse. This indicates that the current accounting system in place may be distorting costs significantly. Supporting data:

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

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.

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:

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.

• 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.

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