The head of production at your manufacturing facility said, “Our manufacturing processes are doing great. All our variances for materials, labor, and overhead are favorable. Actual costs for all our products are far below standard costs. We are killing it!” You, as company controller, just shake your head and think of how your respond to the head of production. What would you say?

The head of production at your manufacturing facility said, “Our manufacturing processes are doing great. All our variances for materials, labor, and overhead are favorable. Actual costs for all our products are far below standard costs. We are killing it!” You, as company controller, just shake your head and think of how your respond to the head of production. What would you say?

Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Series)

4th Edition

ISBN:9781305970663

Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. Mowen

Publisher:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. Mowen

Chapter14: Quality And Environmental Cost Management

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 7E: Rachel Boyce, president of a company that manufactures electronic components, has a number of...

See similar textbooks

Similar questions

Rachel Boyce, president of a company that manufactures electronic components, has a number of questions concerning quality and quality costs. She has heard a few things about quality and has asked you to respond to the following questions. Required: 1. What does it mean to have a quality product or service? Explain how product quality and conformance are related. 2. Yesterday, my quality manager told me that we need to redefine what we mean by a defective product. He said that conforming to specifications ignores the cost of product variability and that further reduction of product variability is a veritable gold minejust waiting to be mined. What did he mean?
Vincent Bassani has come to the accounting department for help in interpreting his variance report. He says that he understands that last month was not a very good one for output, but he really thought everyone put forth good effort, so he is confused about the existence of an unfavorable labor efficiency variance. He cites as an example of the workers' effort their willingness to work extra hours to get full output, even when a whole week's worth of production had to be scrapped. He knew that his materials costs would be higher, and that overtime would make his rate variance unfavorable, but he certainly didn't think his workers had been inefficient. Required: Write a short note to Vincent explaining the probable cause of the unfavorable labor efficiency variance
Drew Castello, general manager of Sunflower Manufacturing, was frustrated. He wanted the budgeted results, and his staff was not getting them to him fast enough. Drew decided to pay a visit to the accounting office, where Jeff Hollingsworth was supposed to be working on the reports. Jeff had recently been hired to update the accounting system and speed up the reporting process. “What’s taking so long?” Drew asked. “When am I going to get the variance reports?” Jeff sighed and attempted to explain the problem. “Some of the variances appear to be way off. We either have a serious problem in production, or there is an error in the spreadsheet. I want to recheck the spreadsheet before I distribute the report.” Drew pulled up a chair, and the two men went through the spreadsheet together. The formulas in the spreadsheet were correct and showed a large unfavorable direct labor efficiency variance. It was time for Drew and Jeff to do some investigating. After looking at the time records, Jeff…
Drew Castello, general manager of Sunflower Manufacturing, was frustrated. He wanted the budgeted results, and his staff was not getting them to him fast enough. Drew decided to pay a visit to the accounting office, where Jeff Hollingsworth was supposed to be working on the reports. Jeff had recently been hired to update the accounting system and speed up the reporting process. “What’s taking so long?” Drew asked. “When am I going to get the variance reports?” Jeff sighed and attempted to explain the problem. “Some of the variances appear to be way off. We either have a serious problem in production, or there is an error in the spreadsheet. I want to recheck the spreadsheet before I distribute the report.” Drew pulled up a chair, and the two men went through the spreadsheet together. The formulas in the spreadsheet were correct and showed a large unfavorable direct labor efficiency variance. It was time for Drew and Jeff to do some investigating. After looking at the time records, Jeff…
Setting materials, labor, and overhead standards is challenging. If standards are set too low, companies might purchase inferior products and employees might not work to their full potential. If standards are set too high, companies could be unable to offer a quality product at a profitable price and employees could be overworked. The ethical challenge is to set a high but reasonable standard. Assume that as a manager you are asked to set the standard materials price and quantity for the new 1,000 CKB Mega-Max chip, a technically advanced product. To properly set the price and quantity standards, you assemble a team of specialists to provide input. Required Identify four types of specialists that you would assemble to provide information to help set the materials price and quantity standards. Briefly explain why you chose each individual.
Brandt Gardner, the owner-manager of a small firm that manufactures feed processing equipment and round-hay bailers, is unhappy with the latest report on financial performance in the Kansas City, Missouri, plant. The company had recently installed a standard cost system in the Kansas City plant with the objective of controlling manufacturing costs. The performance report for the year ended revealed that the variances for materials, labor, and variable overhead were all within the desired ranges, but the fixed overhead spending and volume variances were both significantly unfavorable. Brandt wanted an explanation of the fixed overhead variances and a recommendation. Which do you think is more important for control of fixed overhead costs: the spending variance or the volume variance? Explain.
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…
You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control. After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March: Cost Formula Actual Cost in March Utilities $16,300 + $0.18 per machine-hour $ 21,520 Maintenance $38,500 + $2.00 per machine-hour $ 70,300 Supplies $0.50 per machine-hour $ 9,300 Indirect labor $94,100 + $1.50 per machine-hour $ 123,500 Depreciation $68,200 $ 69,900 During March, the company worked 17,000 machine-hours and produced 11,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 19,000…
You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control. After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March: Cost Formula Actual Cost in March Utilities $16,400 plus $0.12 per machine-hour $ 20,480 Maintenance $38,200 plus $2.00 per machine-hour $ 70,000 Supplies $0.60 per machine-hour $ 11,200 Indirect labor $94,600 plus $1.10 per machine-hour $ 116,400 Depreciation $68,200 $ 69,900 During March, the company worked 17,000 machine-hours and produced 11,000 units. The company had originally planned to work…
You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control. After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March: Cost Formula Actual Cost in March Utilities $20,600 + $0.10 per machine-hour $ 24,200 Maintenance $40,000 + $1.60 per machine-hour $ 78,100 Supplies $0.30 per machine-hour $ 8,400 Indirect labor $130,000 + $0.70 per machine-hour $ 149,600 Depreciation $70,000 $ 71,500 During March, the company worked 26,000 machine-hours and produced 15,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 30,000…
You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control. After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March: Cost Formula Actual Cost in March Utilities $16,300 + $0.18 per machine-hour $ 21,520 Maintenance $38,500 + $2.00 per machine-hour $ 70,300 Supplies $0.50 per machine-hour $ 9,300 Indirect labor $94,100 + $1.50 per machine-hour $ 123,500 Depreciation $68,200 $ 69,900 During March, the company worked 17,000 machine-hours and produced 11,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 19,000…
You have just been hired by FAB Corporation, the manufacturer of a revolutionary new garage door opening device. The president has asked that you review the company’s costing system and “do what you can to help us get better control of our manufacturing overhead costs.” You find that the company has never used a flexible budget, and you suggest that preparing such a budget would be an excellent first step in overhead planning and control. After much effort and analysis, you determined the following cost formulas and gathered the following actual cost data for March: Cost FormulaActual Cost in MarchUtilities$17,000 + $0.12 per machine-hour$ 21,080Maintenance$38,500 + $1.30 per machine-hour$ 57,000Supplies$0.60 per machine-hour$ 11,200Indirect labor$94,500 + $1.60 per machine-hour$ 125,800Depreciation$68,300$ 70,000 During March, the company worked 17,000 machine-hours and produced 11,000 units. The company had originally planned to work 19,000 machine-hours during March. Required:1.…