Flamengo Co, a sporting goods manufacturing, decided to decentralize its operations. Which statement below is true about Flamengo after the decentralization process? Flamengo's managers now make and implement fewer decisions than they did before the decentralization. Flamengo's lower-level managers are responsible only for implementing decisions. At Flamengo, overall profit margins can mask inefficiencies within various subdivisions. At Flamengo Co., the CEO makes all the important operating and strategic decisions.

Flamengo Co, a sporting goods manufacturing, decided to decentralize its operations. Which statement below is true about Flamengo after the decentralization process? Flamengo's managers now make and implement fewer decisions than they did before the decentralization. Flamengo's lower-level managers are responsible only for implementing decisions. At Flamengo, overall profit margins can mask inefficiencies within various subdivisions. At Flamengo Co., the CEO makes all the important operating and strategic decisions.

Managerial Accounting

15th Edition

ISBN:9781337912020

Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. Tayler

Publisher:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. Tayler

Chapter10: Evaluating Decentralized Operations

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 2CMA

See similar textbooks

Similar questions

Consider the following conversation between Leonard Bryner, president and manager of a firm engaged in job manufacturing, and Chuck Davis, certified management accountant, the firms controller. Leonard: Chuck, as you know, our firm has been losing market share over the past 3 years. We have been losing more and more bids, and I dont understand why. At first, I thought that other firms were undercutting simply to gain business, but after examining some of the public financial reports, I believe that they are making a reasonable rate of return. I am beginning to believe that our costs and costing methods are at fault. Chuck: I cant agree with that. We have good control over our costs. Like most firms in our industry, we use a normal job-costing system. I really dont see any significant waste in the plant. Leonard: After talking with some other managers at a recent industrial convention, Im not so sure that waste by itself is the issue. They talked about activity-based management, activity-based costing, and continuous improvement. They mentioned the use of something called activity drivers to assign overhead. They claimed that these new procedures can help to produce more efficiency in manufacturing, better control of overhead, and more accurate product costing. A big deal was made of eliminating activities that added no value. Maybe our bids are too high because these other firms have found ways to decrease their overhead costs and to increase the accuracy of their product costing. Chuck: I doubt it. For one thing, I dont see how we can increase product-costing accuracy. So many of our costs are indirect costs. Furthermore, everyone uses some measure of production activity to assign overhead costs. I imagine that what they are calling activity drivers is just some new buzzword for measures of production volume. Fads in costing come and go. I wouldnt worry about it. Ill bet that our problems with decreasing sales are temporary. You might recall that we experienced a similar problem about 12 years agoit was 2 years before it straightened out. Required: 1. Do you agree or disagree with Chuck Davis and the advice that he gave Leonard Bryner? Explain. 2. Was there anything wrong or unethical in the behavior that Chuck Davis displayed? Explain your reasoning. 3. Do you think that Chuck was well informedthat he was aware of the accounting implications of ABC and that he knew what was meant by cost drivers? Should he have been well informed? Review (in Chapter 1) the first category of the Statement of Ethical Professional Practice for management accountants. Do any of these standards apply in Chucks case?
As manager of department B in MarIeys Manufacturing, based on the costs you identified in the previous exercise for further research, how does this impact the financial performance of your department, and what might be some questions you want to ask or solutions you might propose to Marleys management?
At the beginning of the last quarter of 20x1, Youngston, Inc., a consumer products firm, hired Maria Carrillo to take over one of its divisions. The division manufactured small home appliances and was struggling to survive in a very competitive market. Maria immediately requested a projected income statement for 20x1. In response, the controller provided the following statement: After some investigation, Maria soon realized that the products being produced had a serious problem with quality. She once again requested a special study by the controllers office to supply a report on the level of quality costs. By the middle of November, Maria received the following report from the controller: Maria was surprised at the level of quality costs. They represented 30 percent of sales, which was certainly excessive. She knew that the division had to produce high-quality products to survive. The number of defective units produced needed to be reduced dramatically. Thus, Maria decided to pursue a quality-driven turnaround strategy. Revenue growth and cost reduction could both be achieved if quality could be improved. By growing revenues and decreasing costs, profitability could be increased. After meeting with the managers of production, marketing, purchasing, and human resources, Maria made the following decisions, effective immediately (end of November 20x1): a. More will be invested in employee training. Workers will be trained to detect quality problems and empowered to make improvements. Workers will be allowed a bonus of 10 percent of any cost savings produced by their suggested improvements. b. Two design engineers will be hired immediately, with expectations of hiring one or two more within a year. These engineers will be in charge of redesigning processes and products with the objective of improving quality. They will also be given the responsibility of working with selected suppliers to help improve the quality of their products and processes. Design engineers were considered a strategic necessity. c. Implement a new process: evaluation and selection of suppliers. This new process has the objective of selecting a group of suppliers that are willing and capable of providing nondefective components. d. Effective immediately, the division will begin inspecting purchased components. According to production, many of the quality problems are caused by defective components purchased from outside suppliers. Incoming inspection is viewed as a transitional activity. Once the division has developed a group of suppliers capable of delivering nondefective components, this activity will be eliminated. e. Within three years, the goal is to produce products with a defect rate less than 0.10 percent. By reducing the defect rate to this level, marketing is confident that market share will increase by at least 50 percent (as a consequence of increased customer satisfaction). Products with better quality will help establish an improved product image and reputation, allowing the division to capture new customers and increase market share. f. Accounting will be given the charge to install a quality information reporting system. Daily reports on operational quality data (e.g., percentage of defective units), weekly updates of trend graphs (posted throughout the division), and quarterly cost reports are the types of information required. g. To help direct the improvements in quality activities, kaizen costing is to be implemented. For example, for the year 20x1, a kaizen standard of 6 percent of the selling price per unit was set for rework costs, a 25 percent reduction from the current actual cost. To ensure that the quality improvements were directed and translated into concrete financial outcomes, Maria also began to implement a Balanced Scorecard for the division. By the end of 20x2, progress was being made. Sales had increased to 26,000,000, and the kaizen improvements were meeting or beating expectations. For example, rework costs had dropped to 1,500,000. At the end of 20x3, two years after the turnaround quality strategy was implemented, Maria received the following quality cost report: Maria also received an income statement for 20x3: Maria was pleased with the outcomes. Revenues had grown, and costs had been reduced by at least as much as she had projected for the two-year period. Growth next year should be even greater as she was beginning to observe a favorable effect from the higher-quality products. Also, further quality cost reductions should materialize as incoming inspections were showing much higher-quality purchased components. Required: 1. Identify the strategic objectives, classified by the Balanced Scorecard perspective. Next, suggest measures for each objective. 2. Using the results from Requirement 1, describe Marias strategy using a series of if-then statements. Next, prepare a strategy map. 3. Explain how you would evaluate the success of the quality-driven turnaround strategy. What additional information would you like to have for this evaluation? 4. Explain why Maria felt that the Balanced Scorecard would increase the likelihood that the turnaround strategy would actually produce good financial outcomes. 5. Advise Maria on how to encourage her employees to align their actions and behavior with the turnaround strategy.
Morrisons Plastics Division, a profit center, sells its products to external customers as well as to other internal profit centers. Which one of the following circumstances would justify the Plastics Division selling a product internally to another profit center at a price that is below the market-based transfer price? a. The buying unit has excess capacity. b. The selling unit is operating at full capacity. c. Routine sales commissions and collection costs would be avoided. d. The profit centers managers are evaluated on the basis of unit operating income.
Blue is the controller at the Acme Shoe Company, a large manufacturing company located in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Acme has many divisions, and the performance of each division has typically been evaluated using a return on investment (ROI) formula. The return on investment is calculated by dividing profit by the book value of total assets.In a meeting yesterday with Bob Burn, the company president, Blue warned that this return on investment measure might not be accurately reflecting how well the divisions are doing. Blue is concerned that by using profits and the book value of assets, division managers might be engaging in some short-term finagling to show the highest possible return. Bob concurred and asked what other numbers they could use to evaluate division performance.Blue said, ‘‘I’m not sure, Bob. Net income is not a good number for evaluation purposes. Because we allocate a lot of overhead costs to the divisions on what some managers consider an arbitrary basis, net…
Profit Corp. has a subunit classified as a cost center that supports other parts of the firm but has reported costs higher than what the corporate office would like to see. Thus, the manager of this subunit is under pressure to cut operating costs without hurting the perceived quality of services provided. What general recommendations could you give to the manager of this cost center to achieve that goal?
Xerox Corporation has been an innovator in its responsibility-accounting system. In one initiative, management changed the responsibility-centre orientation of its Logistics and Distribution Department from a cost centre to a profit The department manages the inventories and provides other logistical services to the company’s Business Systems Group. Formerly, the manager of the Logistics and Distribution Department was held accountable for adherence to an operating expense budget. Now the department “sells” its services to the company’s other segments, and the department’s manager is evaluated partially on the basis of the department’s profit. Xerox Corporation’s management feels that the change has been beneficial. The change has resulted in more innovative thinking in the development and has moved decision making down to lower levels in the company. Required: Comment on the new responsibility-centre designation for the Logistics and Distribution Department.
Mindspin Labs Inc. is a manufacturing firm that has experienced strong competition in its traditional business. Management is considering joining the trend to the "service economy" by eliminating its manufacturing operations and concentrating on providing specialized maintenance services to other manufacturers. Management of Mindspin Labs has had a target ROI of 16% on an asset base that has averaged $8 million. To achieve this ROI, average total asset turnover of 2 was required. If the company shifts its operations from manufacturing to providing maintenance services, it is estimated that average total assets will decrease to $5 million.Required: Calculate net income, margin, and sales required for Mindspin Labs to achieve its target ROI as a manufacturing firm. Assume that the average margin of maintenance service firms is 2.50%, and that the average ROI for such firms is also 17%. Calculate the net income, sales, and total asset turnover that Mindspin Labs will have if the change…
Xerox Corporation has been an innovator in its responsibility-accounting system. In one initiative, management changed the responsibility-center orientation of its Logistics and Distribution Department from a cost center to a profit center. The department manages the inventories and provides other logistical services to the company’s Business Systems Group. Formerly, the manager of the Logistics and Distribution Department was held accountable for adherence to an operating expense budget. Now the department “sells” its services to the company’s other segments, and the department’s manager is evaluated partially on the basis of the department’s profit. Xerox Corporation’s management feels that the change has been beneficial. The change has resulted in more innovative thinking in the department and has moved decision making down to lower levels in the company. Required: Comment on the new responsibility-center designation for the Logistics and Distribution Department.
The trend for cost of goods sold is it is decreasing as a percentage of sales and the trend for total marketing costs as a percentage of sales is increasing. What does this suggest to the company CEO? The CEO would want to analyze the company’s cost structure – particularly the contribution margin ratio, the relevant ranges for fixed expenses and the company’s marketing and production expenses The CEO would want to analyze whether operations has done something that reduces production costs, but that has also made the product less attractive in the customers’ eyes The CEO would want to analyze the company's margin % and asset utilization The CEO would want to analyze the company's cost of capital
The following are some quotes provided by a number of managers at Hawkeye Machining Company regarding the company’s planned move toward a lean manufacturing system: Director of Sales: I’m afraid we’ll miss some sales if we don’t keep a large stock of items on hand just in case demand increases. It only makes sense to me to keep large inventories in order to ensure product availability for our customers.Director of Purchasing: I’m very concerned about moving to a lean system for materials. What would happen if one of our suppliers were unable to make a shipment? A supplier could fall behind in production or have a quality problem. Without some safety stock in our materials, our whole plant would shut down.Director of Manufacturing: If we go to lean manufacturing, I think our factory output will drop. We need in-process inventory in order to “smooth out” the inevitable problems that occur during manufacturing. For example, if a machine that is used to process a product breaks down, it…
Esme Company’s management is trying to decide whether to eliminate Department Z, which has produced low profits or losses for several years. The company’s departmental income statements show the following.