Understanding Machine Hours And Its Effect On The Cost Of Something Essay

In a virtual corporation environment, I believe the ABC method to be the most ideal for accurately tracking the costs involved in manufacturing, storing, delivery, and sales. For Super Bakery, Inc. the addition of multiple outsourced companies to their processes meets the criteria of products with manufacturing complexity that requires differing degrees of support services (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009, p. 876). As a result, I agree with Super Bakery Inc.’s decision to implement an ABC system.

There are many trade-offs for each of the decisions that a company makes within all three types of these cost types when quality consideration is used. If the company decides to put more time into training employees properly on operating machines and

In a virtual corporation environment, I believe the ABC method to be the most ideal for accurately tracking the costs involved in manufacturing, storing, delivery, and sales. For Super Bakery, Inc. the addition of multiple outsourced companies to their processes meets the criteria of products with manufacturing complexity that requires differing degrees of support services (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009, p. 876). As a result, I agree with Super Bakery Inc.’s decision to implement an ABC system.

“Auerbach Enterprises uses machine hours as the cost driver to assign overhead costs to the air conditioners. The company has used a company-wide predetermined overhead rate in past years, but the new controller, Bennie Leon, is considering the use of departmental overhead rates beginning with the next year. “(Schneider, 2012). One product is affected more than the other by use of departmental rates rather than companywide rate.

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:

Cost drivers can be identified for each activity or cost category based on observation, discussions with management, simulations and statistical studies. The key is to determine the behavior of indirect costs with respect to activity or resource usage in each activity center (Leslie, 2009). These efforts have identified the eight cost drivers shown in Table 3.

The wages of general production employees who are idled due to machine breakdown are classified as indirect costs. Direct costs are usually variable and change as production volumes change. Thus, direct materials and direct labor are typically variable costs. For special orders, some direct costs can be fixed, however. The costs (depreciation, electricity, and routine maintenance) associated with a machine dedicated to one product are direct costs of that product. Indirect costs cannot be easily and conveniently assigned to a special order. Rather, these costs are common costs, in that they are incurred to produce a variety of special orders. Maintenance costs of general purpose equipment, the supervisor’s salary, and utilities are direct costs needed to produce special orders in general, but are indirect costs for a particular special order. Moreover, general production costs, including property taxes, insurance, lawn care, cafeteria costs, and miscellaneous supplies consumed in production are indirect costs properly allocated to special orders manufactured.

Under a traditional system, overhead cost is allocated to an activity based on hours or rates for direct labor or machine usage. However, this approach does not clearly indicate how much overhead cost will be needed in order to complete a job through a particular function. ABC methodology is to be used as an alternative to traditional accounting where a business 's overhead costs (indirect costs such as electrical energy consumption for heating or cooling, or indirect cost associated with marketing) are allocated as a proportion of direct costs, to an activity. This approach is unsatisfactory because there can be cases where two activities could absorb the same direct costs

5. Automation reduces per unit labor costs but it has two disadvantages. What are these?

One of the best aspects of the way the time-driven ABC system was put into place at Kemps was how efficiently and accurately management determined the main issues with the current cost system and responded with appropriate and relevant solutions. For example, one of the greatest problems the company was facing was that many of its operating costs were spread out equally over a customer base that was growing more diverse and demanding more personalized and varied service, effectively cutting or potentially eliminating entirely Kemps’ profit margins for a product. Therefore,

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.

A direct cost can be traced to a product or service which includes: Direct labor- which is the cost of the labor that’s directly connected to a product or services. Direct labor is sometimes called touch labor, since direct labor workers typically touch the product while it is being made.( Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen and Peter C. Brewer p 39-40) An example of direct labor is an assembly line worker. Labor cost that cannot be physically traced to the creation of products, or that can be traced only at great cost and inconvenience, are considered to be indirect labot.( Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen and Peter C. Brewer p 40) Direct material are those materials that become an integral part of the finished product and whose cost can be traced to the finished product.( Ray H. Garrison, Eric W. Noreen and Peter C. Brewer p39-40) Manufacturing overhead is the third element so manufacturing cost, it includes all costs of manufacturing except direct materials and direct labor. Manufacturing overhead includes items such as indirect materials; indirect labor; maintenance and repairs on production equipment; and heat and light, property taxes, depreciation, and insurance on manufacturing facilities. Only cost associated with operating the factory are consider to be manufacturing overhead cost. A company also incurs other costs associated with its selling administive functions, but these costs are not included as part of manufacturing overhead. Only those

Under the new cost system, two broad sources of costs were identified: manufacturing and SM&A. All costs within these categories were reclassified as either volume driven or order driven. Hence, four cost pools were set up.

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.