Quality Chairs Inc. (QC) manufactures chairs for industrial use. Laura Winters, the Vice President for Marketing at QC, concluded from market analysis that sales were dwindling for QC's standard three-foot chair due to aggressive pricing by competitors. QC's chairs sold for $890 whereas the competition's comparable chair was selling for $750. Winters determined that a price drop to $750 would be necessary to regain market share and reach a targeted annual sales level of 10,000 chairs. Cost data based on sales of 10,000 chairs: Budgeted Quantity Actual Quantity Actual Cost Direct materials (board feet) 89,700 81,200 $ 1,258,500 Direct labor (hours) 72,200 74,625 876,700 Machine hours (hours) 12,250 12,100 251,700 Finishing and packing (hours) 7,350 7,250 126,700 The current profit per unit is: Multiple Choice $588. $638. $813. $788. $738.
Q: McGilla Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $915 per set and…
A:
Q: Scott Incorporated has been in business for several months. Because of increased competition in the…
A: Break-even analysis is a technique widely used by production management. It helps to determine the…
Q: Tool Industries manufactures large workbenches for industrial use. Sam Hartnet, the Vice President…
A: Target profit is the amount of profit that an entity targets or is expected to achieve in the future…
Q: Nytre Limited sells executive office chairs for a price of $195 each. The contribution margin ratio…
A: The targeted sales are calculated as sum of fixed cost and target profit divided by contribution…
Q: What is the breakeven point in revenues for 2018 if the additional $16,500 is spent for advertising?
A: Break-even point is a situation of no profit and no loss. The total cost of the product is equal to…
Q: Titan Computer Company manufactures a tablet computer called AllPad. The company sells these tablets…
A: Competitive strategy: Cost leadership and differentiation are the two competitive strategies. In…
Q: The Variable Speed Company manufactures a line of high quality tools. The company sold 1,130,000…
A: Company sold 1130000 hammers at a selling price of $5.3 per unit in last year. The company estimates…
Q: McGilla Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $825 per set and…
A: Selling price of new line of golf club is $825 per set. Variable cost per set of new club is $385…
Q: Derby Phones is considering the introduction of a new model of headphones with the following price…
A: Break even point (BEP): Breakeven is the point where total expenses are equal to total revenue. at…
Q: Miller Cereals is a small milling company that makes a single brand of cereal. Recently, a business…
A: As the file was found corroupted, all the figures will be reclaculated basis the % difference…
Q: Bubbles Inc. has observed that their primary product, Apex Wrap is losing market share. Due to this…
A: Rolling budget: A rolling budget is a budget prepared by the company with a speciality that the…
Q: The market price for a product has been $69 per unit, but competitive pressures have reduced the…
A: The question is based on the concept of Cost Accounting.
Q: McGilla Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $739 per set and…
A: Payback(PB) Period shows times in which amount invested in project will be earned back. Net Present…
Q: TwoShaft Inc. manufactures a wide variety of parts for recreational boating, including boat engines.…
A: Direct cost is the cost that is directly involved in the production process of the company.
Q: McGill Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $925 per set and…
A: New line of gloves Selling Price= $925 Variable cost=$480 Number of units to be sold=75,000 sets…
Q: Block Island TV currently sells large televisions for $380. It has costs of $320. A competitor is…
A: Operating income is the income which is realized from business operations after subtracting…
Q: Thomas Arr Golf Corp has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $1000 per…
A: Depreciation Expense under Straight line method: Under Straight Line method, the Asset is equally…
Q: The market price for a product has been $50 per unit, but competitive pressures have reduced the…
A: Manufacturing costs: Manufacturing costs are the costs which are involved in converting the raw…
Q: Columbus Inc. sells a high end hair dryer in a super competitive marketplace. As a result, market…
A: To make a desired amount of profit, a cost is set as a target that cost is called a target unit…
Q: Peterson Corporation is considering implementing a JIT production system. The new system would…
A: Just-In-Time production (JIT) system is a managerial approach in which minimum inventories are kept…
Q: Maxwell Company produces a variety of kitchen appliances, including cooking ranges and dishwashers.…
A:
Q: McGilla Golf is evaluating a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $950 per set and have a…
A: In the given question we need to calculate the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in the price and…
Q: Ram Co. is trying to decide whether or not to discontinue one of its products, slow cookers. Last…
A: Variable cost means the cost which vary with the level of output and fixed cost means the cost which…
Q: the cost of inputs. Finally, there is the 3rd OM option, which would reduce production costs by 25%.…
A: Profit means the financial benefit earned when the income from a business activity exceeds the costs…
Q: Current Operations Proposal of Vice President of Sales $2.5 $2 280,000 units Unit Price Unit Sales…
A: Income statement: Under this Statement showing the company’s performance over a period of time by…
Q: Miller Cereals is a small milling company that makes a single brand of cereal. Recently, a business…
A: Project financial statement is the estimated figure of income and expense. The operating profit is…
Q: Harvey Company produces two models of blenders: the “Super Model” (priced at $400) and the “Special…
A: ABC costing uses different cost drivers to the overheads. These cost drivers are based on the…
Q: Marquette Manufacturing produces "invisible" electric dog fences, sold through retail locations…
A: Variable costs are the costs which changes with the variation in output and vice versa to this,…
Q: Benchmark Industries manufactures large workbenches for industrial use. Wally Garcia, the vice…
A: Budgeted amounts are prepared so that they can help the firm in attaining the actual output within…
Q: Tidwell, Inc., has two plants that manufacture a line of wheelchairs. One is located in Dallas, and…
A: 1) Current cost per unit = 31,680,000 /20,000 = 1,584 Current profit per unit = 1,782 – 1,584= 198…
Q: Megaphone Corporation produces a molded plastic casing, M&M101, for many cell phones currently…
A:
Q: Divine Electronics Ltd. manufactures a line of headphones. Sales are increasing, and management is…
A: Constrained resources are those, which are available in limited quantity to an organization.
Q: Quality Chairs Inc. (QC) manufactures chairs for industrial use. Laura Winters, the Vice President…
A: Budgeting is a process. This means budgeting is a number of activities performed in order to prepare…
Q: Titan Computer Company manufactures a tablet computer called All Pad. The company sells these…
A: Competitive strategy: Cost leadership and differentiation are the two competitive strategies. In…
Q: A large brokerage company is assessing the introduction of a new computer system to improve routing…
A: Since you have posted a question with multiple sub-parts, we will solve the first three sub-parts…
Q: Berwin Inc. is a small industrial equipment manufacturer with approximately $3.5 million in annual…
A: Introduction: Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is the ratio of net income to…
Q: Bert Asiago, a salesperson for Convertco, received an order from a potential new customer for 50,000…
A: Relevant costs: Relevant costs are those costs in any managerial decision-making process that…
Q: What absolute increase in unit sales and revenue would be necessary to recoup the incremental…
A: Total sales unit in option (a) 1,250,000 Total sales unit in option (b) 1,500,000
Q: McGilla Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $965 per set and…
A: We are caluclating CFAT in excel
Q: Miller Cereals is a small milling company that makes a single brand of cereal. Recently, a business…
A: Projected Income Statement Status Quo % Increase Two products Difference Sales Revenue…
Q: Aussie Ltd has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The club will sell for $700 per set and…
A: The NPV is the method of the capital budgeting that helps to analyze the profitability of the…
Q: McGilla Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $790 per set and…
A: NPV is the net current worth of cash flows that are expected to occur in the future.
Q: Galveston Pump Corporation is considering implementing a JIT production system. The new system would…
A:
Q: Columbus Inc. sells a high end hair dryer in a super competitive marketplace. As a result, market…
A: Profit per Unit = Selling Price - Unit Cost
Q: Whitaker Company produces two models of blenders for restaurants: the “Super Model” (priced at…
A: Total overhead=Machining Cost+Inspection Cost+Rework Cost Overhead per machine hour=Total…
Q: McGilla Golf has decided to sell a new line of golf clubs. The clubs will sell for $920 per set and…
A: NPV is a techniques under Capital Budgeting which help in decision making on the basis of future…
Q: Sarah has talked with the marketing department about the situation and suggested that the company…
A: To identify the machine hour we have to firstly calculate the contribution per unit hour. then we…
Q: One Manila Inc.'s president, Zane Cruz, is concerned about the prospects of one of the firm's major…
A: Profit=Selling Price-Cost Price
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
Cost Volume Profit (CVP) analysis is a cost accounting method that analyses the effect of fluctuating cost and volume on the operating profit. Also known as break-even analysis, CVP determines the break-even point for varying volumes of sales and cost structures. This information helps the managers make economic decisions on a short-term basis. CVP analysis is based on many assumptions. Sales price, variable costs, and fixed costs per unit are assumed to be constant. The analysis also assumes that all units produced are sold and costs get impacted due to changes in activities. All costs incurred by the company like administrative, manufacturing, and selling costs are identified as either fixed or variable.
Marginal Costing
Marginal cost is defined as the change in the total cost which takes place when one additional unit of a product is manufactured. The marginal cost is influenced only by the variations which generally occur in the variable costs because the fixed costs remain the same irrespective of the output produced. The concept of marginal cost is used for product pricing when the customers want the lowest possible price for a certain number of orders. There is no accounting entry for marginal cost and it is only used by the management for taking effective decisions.
Quality Chairs Inc. (QC) manufactures chairs for industrial use. Laura Winters, the Vice President for Marketing at QC, concluded from market analysis that sales were dwindling for QC's standard three-foot chair due to aggressive pricing by competitors. QC's chairs sold for $890 whereas the competition's comparable chair was selling for $750. Winters determined that a price drop to $750 would be necessary to regain market share and reach a targeted annual sales level of 10,000 chairs.
Cost data based on sales of 10,000 chairs:
Budgeted Quantity | Actual Quantity | Actual Cost | |||||||
Direct materials (board feet) | 89,700 | 81,200 | $ | 1,258,500 | |||||
Direct labor (hours) | 72,200 | 74,625 | 876,700 | ||||||
Machine hours (hours) | 12,250 | 12,100 | 251,700 | ||||||
Finishing and packing (hours) | 7,350 | 7,250 | 126,700 | ||||||
The current profit per unit is:
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps with 1 images
- Bienestar, Inc., has two plants that manufacture a line of wheelchairs. One is located in Kansas City, and the other in Tulsa. Each plant is set up as a profit center. During the past year, both plants sold their tilt wheelchair model for 1,620. Sales volume averages 20,000 units per year in each plant. Recently, the Kansas City plant reduced the price of the tilt model to 1,440. Discussion with the Kansas City manager revealed that the price reduction was possible because the plant had reduced its manufacturing and selling costs by reducing what was called non-value-added costs. The Kansas City manufacturing and selling costs for the tilt model were 1,260 per unit. The Kansas City manager offered to loan the Tulsa plant his cost accounting manager to help it achieve similar results. The Tulsa plant manager readily agreed, knowing that his plant must keep pacenot only with the Kansas City plant but also with competitors. A local competitor had also reduced its price on a similar model, and Tulsas marketing manager had indicated that the price must be matched or sales would drop dramatically. In fact, the marketing manager suggested that if the price were dropped to 1,404 by the end of the year, the plant could expand its share of the market by 20 percent. The plant manager agreed but insisted that the current profit per unit must be maintained. He also wants to know if the plant can at least match the 1,260 per-unit cost of the Kansas City plant and if the plant can achieve the cost reduction using the approach of the Kansas City plant. The plant controller and the Kansas City cost accounting manager have assembled the following data for the most recent year. The actual cost of inputs, their value-added (ideal) quantity levels, and the actual quantity levels are provided (for production of 20,000 units). Assume there is no difference between actual prices of activity units and standard prices. Required: 1. Calculate the target cost for expanding the Tulsa plants market share by 20 percent, assuming that the per-unit profitability is maintained as requested by the plant manager. 2. Calculate the non-value-added cost per unit. Assuming that non-value-added costs can be reduced to zero, can the Tulsa plant match the Kansas City per-unit cost? Can the target cost for expanding market share be achieved? What actions would you take if you were the plant manager? 3. Describe the role that benchmarking played in the effort of the Tulsa plant to protect and improve its competitive position.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.Danna Martin, president of Mays Electronics, was concerned about the end-of-the year marketing report that she had just received. According to Larry Savage, marketing manager, a price decrease for the coming year was again needed to maintain the companys annual sales volume of integrated circuit boards (CBs). This would make a bad situation worse. The current selling price of 18 per unit was producing a 2-per-unit profithalf the customary 4-per-unit profit. Foreign competitors kept reducing their prices. To match the latest reduction would reduce the price from 18 to 14. This would put the price below the cost to produce and sell it. How could these firms sell for such a low price? Determined to find out if there were problems with the companys operations, Danna decided to hire a consultant to evaluate the way in which the CBs were produced and sold. After two weeks, the consultant had identified the following activities and costs: The consultant indicated that some preliminary activity analysis shows that per-unit costs can be reduced by at least 7. Since the marketing manager had indicated that the market share (sales volume) for the boards could be increased by 50% if the price could be reduced to 12, Danna became quite excited. Required: 1. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION What is activity-based management? What phases of activity analysis did the consultant provide? What else remains to be done? 2. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Identify as many nonvalue-added costs as possible. Compute the cost savings per unit that would be realized if these costs were eliminated. Was the consultant correct in the preliminary cost reduction assessment? Discuss actions that the company can take to reduce or eliminate the nonvalue-added activities. 3. Compute the unit cost required to maintain current market share, while earning a profit of 4 per unit. Now compute the unit cost required to expand sales by 50%, assuming a per-unit profit of 4. How much cost reduction would be required to achieve each unit cost? 4. Assume that further activity analysis revealed the following: switching to automated insertion would save 60,000 of engineering support and 90,000 of direct labor. Now, what is the total potential cost reduction per unit available from activity analysis? With these additional reductions, can Mays achieve the unit cost to maintain current sales? To increase it by 50%? What form of activity analysis is this: reduction, sharing, elimination, or selection? 5. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Calculate income based on current sales, prices, and costs. Then calculate the income by using a 14 price and a 12 price, assuming that the maximum cost reduction possible is achieved (including Requirement 4s reduction). What price should be selected?
- Boxer Production, Inc., is in the process of considering a flexible manufacturing system that will help the company react more swiftly to customer needs. The controller, Mick Morrell, estimated that the system will have a 10-year life and a required return of 10% with a net present value of negative $500,000. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that he did not quantify the potential sales increases that might result from this improvement on the issue of on-time delivery, because it was too difficult to quantify. If there is a general agreement that qualitative factors may offer an additional net cash flow of $150,000 per year, how should Boxer proceed with this Investment?Bannister Company, an electronics firm, buys circuit boards and manually inserts various electronic devices into the printed circuit board. Bannister sells its products to original equipment manufacturers. Profits for the last two years have been less than expected. Mandy Confer, owner of Bannister, was convinced that her firm needed to adopt a revenue growth and cost reduction strategy to increase overall profits. After a careful review of her firms condition, Mandy realized that the main obstacle for increasing revenues and reducing costs was the high defect rate of her products (a 6 percent reject rate). She was certain that revenues would grow if the defect rate was reduced dramatically. Costs would also decline as there would be fewer rejects and less rework. By decreasing the defect rate, customer satisfaction would increase, causing, in turn, an increase in market share. Mandy also felt that the following actions were needed to help ensure the success of the revenue growth and cost reduction strategy: a. Improve the soldering capabilities by sending employees to an outside course. b. Redesign the insertion process to eliminate some of the common mistakes. c. Improve the procurement process by selecting suppliers that provide higher-quality circuit boards. Required: 1. State the revenue growth and cost reduction strategy using a series of cause-and-effect relationships expressed as if-then statements. 2. Illustrate the strategy using a strategy map. 3. Explain how the revenue growth strategy can be tested. In your explanation, discuss the role of lead and lag measures, targets, and double-loop feedback.Maxwell Company produces a variety of kitchen appliances, including cooking ranges and dishwashers. Over the past several years, competition has intensified. In order to maintainand perhaps increaseits market share, Maxwells management decided that the overall quality of its products had to be increased. Furthermore, costs needed to be reduced so that the selling prices of its products could be reduced. After some investigation, Maxwell concluded that many of its problems could be traced to the unreliability of the parts that were purchased from outside suppliers. Many of these components failed to work as intended, causing performance problems. Over the years, the company had increased its inspection activity of the final products. If a problem could be detected internally, then it was usually possible to rework the appliance so that the desired performance was achieved. Management also had increased its warranty coverage; warranty work had been increasing over the years. David Haight, president of Maxwell Company, called a meeting with his executive committee. Lee Linsenmeyer, chief engineer; Kit Applegate, controller; and Jeannie Mitchell, purchasing manager, were all in attendance. How to improve the companys competitive position was the meetings topic. The conversation of the meeting was recorded as seen on the following page: DAVID: We need to find a way to improve the quality of our products and at the same time reduce costs. Lee, you said that you have done some research in this area. Would you share your findings? LEE: As you know, a major source of our quality problems relates to the poor quality of the parts we acquire from the outside. We have a lot of different parts, and this adds to the complexity of the problem. What I thought would be helpful would be to redesign our products so that they can use as many interchangeable parts as possible. This will cut down the number of different parts, make it easier to inspect, and cheaper to repair when it comes to warranty work. My engineering staff has already come up with some new designs that will do this for us. JEANNIE: I like this idea. It will simplify the purchasing activity significantly. With fewer parts, I can envision some significant savings for my area. Lee has shown me the designs so I know exactly what parts would be needed. I also have a suggestion. We need to embark on a supplier evaluation program. We have too many suppliers. By reducing the number of different parts, we will need fewer suppliers. And we really dont need to use all the suppliers that produce the parts demanded by the new designs. We should pick suppliers that will work with us and provide the quality of parts that we need. I have done some preliminary research and have identified five suppliers that seem willing to work with us and assure us of the quality we need. Lee may need to send some of his engineers into their plants to make sure that they can do what they are claiming. DAVID: This sounds promising. Kit, can you look over the proposals and their estimates and give us some idea if this approach will save us any money? And if so, how much can we expect to save? KIT: Actually, I am ahead of the game here. Lee and Jeannie have both been in contact with me and have provided me with some estimates on how these actions would affect different activities. I have prepared a handout that includes an activity table revealing what I think are the key activities affected. I have also assembled some tentative information about activity costs. The table gives the current demand and the expected demand after the changes are implemented. With this information, we should be able to assess the expected cost savings. Additionally, the following activity cost data are provided: Purchasing parts: Variable activity cost: 30 per part number; 20 salaried clerks, each earning a 45,000 annual salary. Each clerk is capable of processing orders associated with 100 part numbers. Inspecting parts: Twenty-five inspectors, each earning a salary of 40,000 per year. Each inspector is capable of 2,000 hours of inspection. Reworking products: Variable activity cost: 25 per unit reworked (labor and parts). Warranty: Twenty repair agents, each paid a salary of 35,000 per year. Each repair agent is capable of repairing 500 units per year. Variable activity costs: 15 per product repaired. Required: 1. Compute the total savings possible as reflected by Kits handout. Assume that resource spending is reduced where possible. 2. Explain how redesign and supplier evaluation are linked to the savings computed in Requirement 1. Discuss the importance of recognizing and exploiting internal and external linkages. 3. Identify the organizational and operational activities involved in the strategy being considered by Maxwell Company. What is the relationship between organizational and operational activities?
- Nico Parts, Inc., produces electronic products with short life cycles (of less than two years). Development has to be rapid, and the profitability of the products is tied strongly to the ability to find designs that will keep production and logistics costs low. Recently, management has also decided that post-purchase costs are important in design decisions. Last month, a proposal for a new product was presented to management. The total market was projected at 200,000 units (for the two-year period). The proposed selling price was 130 per unit. At this price, market share was expected to be 25 percent. The manufacturing and logistics costs were estimated to be 120 per unit. Upon reviewing the projected figures, Brian Metcalf, president of Nico, called in his chief design engineer, Mark Williams, and his marketing manager, Cathy McCourt. The following conversation was recorded: BRIAN: Mark, as you know, we agreed that a profit of 15 per unit is needed for this new product. Also, as I look at the projected market share, 25 percent isnt acceptable. Total profits need to be increased. Cathy, what suggestions do you have? CATHY: Simple. Decrease the selling price to 125 and we expand our market share to 35 percent. To increase total profits, however, we need some cost reductions as well. BRIAN: Youre right. However, keep in mind that I do not want to earn a profit that is less than 15 per unit. MARK: Does that 15 per unit factor in preproduction costs? You know we have already spent 100,000 on developing this product. To lower costs will require more expenditure on development. BRIAN: Good point. No, the projected cost of 120 does not include the 100,000 we have already spent. I do want a design that will provide a 15-per-unit profit, including consideration of preproduction costs. CATHY: I might mention that post-purchase costs are important as well. The current design will impose about 10 per unit for using, maintaining, and disposing our product. Thats about the same as our competitors. If we can reduce that cost to about 5 per unit by designing a better product, we could probably capture about 50 percent of the market. I have just completed a marketing survey at Marks request and have found out that the current design has two features not valued by potential customers. These two features have a projected cost of 6 per unit. However, the price consumers are willing to pay for the product is the same with or without the features. Required: 1. Calculate the target cost associated with the initial 25 percent market share. Does the initial design meet this target? Now calculate the total life-cycle profit that the current (initial) design offers (including preproduction costs). 2. Assume that the two features that are apparently not valued by consumers will be eliminated. Also assume that the selling price is lowered to 125. a. Calculate the target cost for the 125 price and 35 percent market share. b. How much more cost reduction is needed? c. What are the total life-cycle profits now projected for the new product? d. Describe the three general approaches that Nico can take to reduce the projected cost to this new target. Of the three approaches, which is likely to produce the most reduction? 3. Suppose that the Engineering Department has two new designs: Design A and Design B. Both designs eliminate the two nonvalued features. Both designs also reduce production and logistics costs by an additional 8 per unit. Design A, however, leaves post-purchase costs at 10 per unit, while Design B reduces post-purchase costs to 4 per unit. Developing and testing Design A costs an additional 150,000, while Design B costs an additional 300,000. Assuming a price of 125, calculate the total life-cycle profits under each design. Which would you choose? Explain. What if the design you chose cost an additional 500,000 instead of 150,000 or 300,000? Would this have changed your decision? 4. Refer to Requirement 3. For every extra dollar spent on preproduction activities, how much benefit was generated? What does this say about the importance of knowing the linkages between preproduction activities and later activities?Kimball Company has developed the following cost formulas: Materialusage:Ym=80X;r=0.95Laborusage(direct):Yl=20X;r=0.96Overheadactivity:Yo=350,000+100X;r=0.75Sellingactivity:Ys=50,000+10X;r=0.93 where X=Directlaborhours The company has a policy of producing on demand and keeps very little, if any, finished goods inventory (thus, units produced equals units sold). Each unit uses one direct labor hour for production. The president of Kimball Company has recently implemented a policy that any special orders will be accepted if they cover the costs that the orders cause. This policy was implemented because Kimballs industry is in a recession and the company is producing well below capacity (and expects to continue doing so for the coming year). The president is willing to accept orders that minimally cover their variable costs so that the company can keep its employees and avoid layoffs. Also, any orders above variable costs will increase overall profitability of the company. Required: 1. Compute the total unit variable cost. Suppose that Kimball has an opportunity to accept an order for 20,000 units at 220 per unit. Should Kimball accept the order? (The order would not displace any of Kimballs regular orders.) 2. Explain the significance of the coefficient of correlation measures for the cost formulas. Did these measures have a bearing on your answer in Requirement 1? Should they have a bearing? Why or why not? 3. Suppose that a multiple regression equation is developed for overhead costs: Y = 100,000 + 100X1 + 5,000X2 + 300X3, where X1 = direct labor hours, X2 = number of setups, and X3 = engineering hours. The coefficient of determination for the equation is 0.94. Assume that the order of 20,000 units requires 12 setups and 600 engineering hours. Given this new information, should the company accept the special order referred to in Requirement 1? Is there any other information about cost behavior that you would like to have? Explain.Marchete Company produces a single product. They have recently received the results of a market survey that indicates that they can increase the retail price of their product by 8% without losing customers or market share. All other costs will remain unchanged. Their most recent CVP analysis is shown. If they enact the 8% price increase, what will be their new break-even point in units and dollars?
- Wright Plastic Products is a small company that specialized in the production of plastic dinner plates until several years ago. Although profits for the company had been good, they have been declining in recent years because of increased competition. Many competitors offer a full range of plastic products, and management felt that this created a competitive disadvantage. The output of the companys plants was exclusively devoted to plastic dinner plates. Three years ago, management made a decision to add additional product lines. They determined that existing idle capacity in each plant could easily be adapted to produce other plastic products. Each plant would produce one additional product line. For example, the Atlanta plant would add a line of plastic cups. Moreover, the variable cost of producing a package of cups (one dozen) was virtually identical to that of a package of plastic plates. (Variable costs referred to here are those that change in total as the units produced change. The costs include direct materials, direct labor, and unit-based variable overhead such as power and other machine costs.) Since the fixed expenses would not change, the new product was forecast to increase profits significantly (for the Atlanta plant). Two years after the addition of the new product line, the profits of the Atlanta plant (as well as other plants) had not improvedin fact, they had dropped. Upon investigation, the president of the company discovered that profits had not increased as expected because the so-called fixed cost pool had increased dramatically. The president interviewed the manager of each support department at the Atlanta plant. Typical responses from four of those managers are given next. Materials handling: The additional batches caused by the cups increased the demand for materials handling. We had to add one forklift and hire additional materials handling labor. Inspection: Inspecting cups is more complicated than plastic plates. We only inspect a sample drawn from every batch, but you need to understand that the number of batches has increased with this new product line. We had to hire more inspection labor. Purchasing: The new line increased the number of purchase orders. We had to use more resources to handle this increased volume. Accounting: There were more transactions to process than before. We had to increase our staff. Required: 1. Explain why the results of adding the new product line were not accurately projected. 2. Could this problem have been avoided with an activity-based cost management system? If so, would you recommend that the company adopt this type of system? Explain and discuss the differences between an activity-based cost management system and a traditional cost management system.Danna Wise, president of Tidwell Company, recently returned from a conference on quality and productivity. At the conference, she was told that many American firms have quality costs totaling 20 to 30% of sales. The quality experts at the conference convinced her that a company could increase its profitability by improving quality. However, she was of the opinion that the quality of Tidwell Company was much less than 20%probably more in the 4 to 6% range. However, because the potential for increasing profits was so great if she was wrong, she decided to request a preliminary estimate of the total quality costs currently being incurred. She asked her controller for a summary of quality costs, with the costs classified into four categories: prevention, appraisal, internal failure, or external failure. She also wanted the costs expressed as a percentage of both sales and profits. The controller had his staff assemble the following information from the past year, 20X1: a. Sales revenue, 37,240,000; net income, 4,000,000. b. During the year, customers returned 40,000 units needing repair. Repair cost averages 9 per unit. c. Twelve inspectors are employed, each earning an annual salary of 80,000. The inspectors are involved only with final inspection (product acceptance). d. Total scrap is 200,000 units. Of this total, ninety percent is quality related. The cost of scrap is about 10 per unit. e. Each year, approximately 800,000 units are rejected in final inspection. Of these units, seventy-five percent can be recovered through rework. The cost of rework is 1.80 per I unit. f. A customer cancelled an order that would have increased profits by 600,000. The customers reason for cancellation was poor product performance. g. The company employs 10 full-time employees in its complaint department. Each earns 48,600 a year. h. The company gave sales allowances totaling 180,000 due to substandard products being sent to the customer. i. The company requires all new employees to take its 4-hour quality training program. The estimated annual cost of the program is 120,000. Required: 1. Prepare a simple quality cost report classifying costs by category. 2. Compute the quality cost-sales ratio. Also, compare the total quality costs with total profits. Should Danna be concerned with the level of quality costs? 3. Prepare a pie chart for the quality costs. Discuss the distribution of quality costs among the four categories. Are they properly distributed? Explain. 4. Discuss how the company can improve its overall quality and at the same time reduce total quality costs. 5. By how much will profits increase if quality costs are reduced to 3% of sales?Baghdad Company produces a single product. They have recently received the result of a market survey that indicates that they can increase the retail price of their product by 10% without losing customers or market share. All other costs will remain unchanged. If they enact the 10% price increase, what will be their new break-even point in units and dollars? Their most recent CVP analysis is: