Grate Care Company specializes in producing products for personal grooming. The company operates six divisions, including the Hair Products Division. Each division is treated as an investment center. Managers are evaluated and rewarded on the basis of ROI performance. Only those managers who produce the best ROIs are selected to receive bonuses and to fill higher-level managerial positions. Fred Olsen, manager of the Hair Products Division, has always been one of the top performers. For the past two years, Fred’s division has produced the largest ROI; last year, the division earned an operating income of $2.56 million and employed average operating assets valued at $16 million. Fred is pleased with his division’s performance and has been told that if the division does well this year, he will be in line for a headquarters position.
For the coming year, Fred’s division has been promised new capital totaling $1.5 million. Any of the capital not invested by the division will be invested to earn the company’s required
After receiving the proposal and reviewing the potential effects, Fred turned it down. He then wrote a memo to corporate headquarters, indicating that his division would not be able to employ the capital in any new projects within the next eight to 10 months. He did note, however, that he was confident that his marketing and engineering staff would have a project ready by the end of the year. At that time, he would like to have access to the capital.
Required:
- 1. Explain why Fred Olsen turned down the proposal to add the capability of producing a crimping and waving iron. Provide computations to support your reasoning.
- 2. Compute the effect that the new product line would have on the profitability of the firm as a whole. Should the division have produced the crimping and waving iron?
- 3. Suppose that the firm used residual income as a measure of divisional performance. Do you think Fred’s decision might have been different? Why?
- 4. Explain why a firm like Grate Care might decide to use both residual income and
return on investment as measures of performance. - 5. Did Fred display ethical behavior when he turned down the investment? In discussing this issue, consider why he refused to allow the investment.
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Chapter 10 Solutions
Cornerstones of Cost Management
- Lamothe Solutions is a management consulting firm. Its Business Division advises firms on the adoption and use of financial systems. Civic Division consults with state and local governments. Civic Division has a client that is interested in implementing a new costing system in its public works department. The division's head approached the head of Business Division about using one of its associates. Corporate Division charges clients $770 per hour for associate services, the same rate other consulting companies charge. The Civic Division head complained that it could hire its own associate at an estimated variable cost of $370 per hour, which is what Business pays its associates. Required: a. What is the maximum price that Civic Division should pay? b. What is the maximum transfer price that Business Division should obtain for its services, assuming that it is operating at capacity?arrow_forwardHorsepower Hookup, Inc., is a large automobile company that specializes in the production of high-powered trucks. The company is determining cost allocations for purposes of performance evaluation. A portion of company bonuses depends on divisions achieving cost management goals. This necessitates highly accurate support department cost allocation. Management has also stated that it has the means to implement as complex a method as necessary. The general manager over the Mid-Size D wants to get a good idea of what factors are driving the costs of the support departments in order to make accurate cost allocations, so finding accurate support department cost drivers is important. Support department costs include Janitorial ($163,100) and Security ($285,400). The Janitorial costs vary depending on the number of vehicles produced, increasing with larger production volumes. Security costs are fixed based on the size of the lot, and do not change with respect to how many vehicles are in the…arrow_forwardHorsepower Hookup, Inc., is a large automobile company that specializes in the production of high-powered trucks. The company is determining cost allocations for purposes of performance evaluation. A portion of company bonuses depends on divisions achieving cost management goals. This necessitates highly accurate support department cost allocation. Management has also stated that it has the means to implement as complex a method as necessary. The general manager over the Mid-Size D wants to get a good idea of what factors are driving the costs of the support departments in order to make accurate cost allocations, so finding accurate support department cost drivers is important. Support department costs include Janitorial ($163,100) and Security ($285,400). The Janitorial costs vary depending on the number of vehicles produced, increasing with larger production volumes. Security costs are fixed based on the size of the lot, and do not change with respect to how many vehicles are in the…arrow_forward
- Horsepower Hookup, Inc., is a large automobile company that specializes in the production of high-powered trucks. The company is determining cost allocations for purposes of performance evaluation. A portion of company bonuses depends on divisions achieving cost management goals. This necessitates highly accurate support department cost allocation. Management has also stated that it has the means to implement as complex a method as necessary. The general manager over the Mid-Size D wants to get a good idea of what factors are driving the costs of the support departments in order to make accurate cost allocations, so finding accurate support department cost drivers is important. Support department costs include Janitorial ($163,100) and Security ($285,400). The Janitorial costs vary depending on the number of vehicles produced, increasing with larger production volumes. Security costs are fixed based on the size of the lot, and do not change with respect to how many vehicles are in the…arrow_forwardThe Carla Vista Burkett Company uses a responsibility reporting system to measure the performance of its three investment centers: Planes, Taxis, and Limos. Segment performance is measured using a system of responsibility reports and return on investment calculations. The allocation of resources within the company and the segment managers' bonuses are based in part on the results shown in these reports. Recently, the company was the victim of a computer virus that deleted portions of the company's accounting records. This was discovered when the current period's responsibility reports were being prepared. The actual operating results appeared as follows. Determine the missing amounts. (Round Return on Investment to 1 decimal place, e.g. 52.7%.) Service revenue Variable costs Contribution margin Controllable fixed costs Controllable margin Average operating assets Return on investment $ Planes 5,018,000 1,518,000 25,018,000 12% Taxis $459,000 $ 189,000 79,000 10% Limos 329,000 389,000…arrow_forwardLamothe Solutions is a management consulting firm. Its Business Division advises firms on the adoption and use of financial systems. Civic Division consults with state and local governments. Civic Division has a client that is interested in implementing a new costing system in its public works department. The division's head approached the head of Business Division about using one of its associates. Corporate Division charges clients $780 per hour for associate services, the same rate other consulting companies charge. The Civic Division head complained that it could hire its own associate at an estimated variable cost of $380 per hour, which is what Business pays its associates. Suppose that Civic Division will charge the client interested in implementing a costing system by the hour based on cost plus a fixed fee, where the cost is primarily the consultant's hourly pay. Assume also that Civic Division cannot hire additional consultants. That is, if it is to do this job, it will need…arrow_forward
- Lamothe Solutions is a management consulting firm. Its Business Division advises firms on the adoption and use of financial systems. Civic Division consults with state and local governments. Civic Division has a client that is interested in implementing a new costing system in its public works department. The division's head approached the head of Business Division about using one of its associates. Corporate Division charges clients $780 per hour for associate services, the same rate other consulting companies charge. The Civic Division head complained that it could hire its own associate at an estimated variable cost of $380 per hour, which is what Business pays its associates. Suppose that Civic Division will charge the client interested in implementing a costing system by the hour based on cost plus a fixed fee, where the cost is primarily the consultant's hourly pay. Assume also that Civic Division cannot hire additional consultants. That is, if it is to do this job, it will need…arrow_forwardThe Medford Burkett Company uses a responsibility reporting system to measure the performance of its three investment centers: Planes, Taxis, and Limos. Segment performance is measured using a system of responsibility reports and return on investment calculations. The allocation of resources within the company and the segment managers' bonuses are based in part on the results shown in these reports. Recently, the company was the victim of a computer virus that deleted portions of the company's accounting records. This was discovered when the current period's responsibility reports were being prepared. The printout of the actual operating results appeared as follows. 3 # E D Determine the missing pieces of information. Format all dollar amounts with $, commas, and zero decimal places. Format percentages with % and zero decimal places. F3 + C Service revenue Variable costs Contribution margin Controllable fixed costs. Controllable margin Average operating assets Return on Investment F4 4…arrow_forwardTom and Jerry are both managers of sales teams at Flint Corp., a furniture company whose most popular item is a tweed couch. Tom and Jerry are very competitive and each attempt to outperform one another every year. Currently, Tom's department has better metrics, which has resulted in larger bonuses for Tom and his team. Flint Corp. evaluates both departments based upon each team's respective return on investment and economic value added. The departments reported the following financial data during the most recent year: Operating Income Sales Average Operating Assets Total Assets Current Liabilities Jerry $125,613 $2,791,400 $953,900 $1,103,880 $208,630 Tom $183,995 $3,679,900 $1,321,120 $1,521,480 $296,860 It should be noted that Flint uses average operating assets as its definition of investment, and it has a minimum required rate of return of 8.72% and a tax rate of 22%. Flint has used a variety of ways to acquire capital and has the current makeup: proportion of equity is 38%, the…arrow_forward
- The Personnel Department at LastCall Enterprises handles many administrative tasks for the two divisions that make up LastCall: LaidBack and StressedOut. LaidBack division manages the company’s traditional business line. This business, although lucrative, is currently not growing. StressedOut, on the other hand, is the company’s new business, which has experienced double-digit growth for each of the last three years. The cost allocation system at LastCall allocates all corporate costs to the divisions based on a variety of cost allocation bases. Personnel costs are allocated based on the average number of employees in the two divisions. There are two basic activities in the Personnel Department. The first, called employee maintenance, manages employee records. Virtually all of this activity occurs when employees are hired or leave the company. The other activity is payroll, which is an ongoing activity and requires the same amount of work for each employee regardless of the…arrow_forwardThe Personnel Department at LastCall Enterprises handles many administrative tasks for the two divisions that make up LastCall: LaidBack and StressedOut. LaidBack division manages the company’s traditional business line. This business, although lucrative, is currently not growing. StressedOut, on the other hand, is the company’s new business, which has experienced double-digit growth for each of the last three years. The cost allocation system at LastCall allocates all corporate costs to the divisions based on a variety of cost allocation bases. Personnel costs are allocated based on the average number of employees in the two divisions. There are two basic activities in the Personnel Department. The first, called employee maintenance, manages employee records. Virtually all of this activity occurs when employees are hired or leave the company. The other activity is payroll, which is an ongoing activity and requires the same amount of work for each employee regardless of the…arrow_forwardThe Personnel Department at LastCall Enterprises handles many administrative tasks for the two divisions that make up LastCall: LaidBack and StressedOut. LaidBack division manages the company’s traditional business line. This business, although lucrative, is currently not growing. StressedOut, on the other hand, is the company’s new business, which has experienced double-digit growth for each of the last three years. The cost allocation system at LastCall allocates all corporate costs to the divisions based on a variety of cost allocation bases. Personnel costs are allocated based on the average number of employees in the two divisions. There are two basic activities in the Personnel Department. The first, which is called employee maintenance, manages employee records. Virtually all of this activity occurs when employees are hired or leave the company. The other activity is payroll, which is an ongoing activity and requires the same amount of work for each employee regardless of the…arrow_forward
- Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning