Concept explainers
CURRENT DESIGNS
The executive learn at Current Designs has gathered to evaluate the company's operations for the last month. One of the topics on the agenda is the special order from Huegel Hollow, which was presented in CD2. Recall that Current Designs had a special order to produce a batch of 20 kayaks for a client, and you were asked to determine the cost of the order and the cost per kayak.
Mike Cichanowski asked the others if the special order caused any particular problems in the production process. Dave Thill, the production manager, made the following comments: “Since we wanted to complete this order quickly and make a good first impression on this new customer, we had some of our most experienced type I workers run the rotomold oven and do the trimming. They were very efficient and were able to complete that part of the manufacturing process even more quickly than the regular crew. However, the finishing on these kayaks required a different technique than what we usually use, so our type II workers took a little longer than usual for that part of the process.”
Deb Welch, who is in charge of the purchasing function, said, “We had to pay a little more for the polyethylene powder for this order because the customer wanted a color that we don't usually stock. We also ordered a little extra since we wanted to make sure that we had enough to allow us to calibrate the equipment The calibration was a little tricky, and we used all of the powder that we had purchased. Since the number of kayaks in the order was fairly small, we were able to use some rope and other parts that were left over from last year's production in the finishing kits. We've seen a price increase for these components in the last year, so using the parts that we already had in inventory cut our costs for the finishing kits.”
Instructions
(a) Based on the comments above, predict whether each of the following variances will be favorable or unfavorable. If you don't have enough information to make a prediction, use “NEI” to indicate “Not Enough Information.”
(1) Quantity variance for polyethylene powder.
(2) Price variance for polyethylene powder.
(3) Quantity variance for finishing kits.
(4) Price variance for finishing kits.
(5) Quantity variance for type I workers.
(6) Price variance for type I workers.
(7) Quantity variance for type II workers.
(8) Price variance for type II workers.
(b) Diane Buswell examined some of the accounting records and reported that Current Designs purchased 1,200 pounds of pellets for this order at a total cost of $2,040. Twenty (20) finishing kits were assembled at a total cost of $3,240. The payroll records showed that the type I employees worked 38 hours on this project at a total cost of $570. The type II finishing employees worked 65 hours at a total cost of $796.25. A total of 20 kayaks were produced for this order.
The standards that had been developed for this model of kayak were used in CD2 and are reproduced here. For each kayak:
54 pounds of polyethylene powder at $1.50 per pound
1 finishing kit (rope, seat, hardware, etc.) at $170
2 hours of type 1 labor from people who run the oven and trim the plastic at a standard wage rate of $15 per hour
3 hours of type II labor from people who attach the hatches and seat and other hardware at a standard wage rate of $12 per hour.
Calculate the eight variances that are listed in part (a) of this problem.
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 11 Solutions
Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making
Additional Business Textbook Solutions
Principles of Accounting Volume 2
Horngren's Financial & Managerial Accounting, The Managerial Chapters (6th Edition)
Horngren's Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis (16th Edition)
Horngren's Financial & Managerial Accounting, The Financial Chapters (6th Edition)
Intermediate Accounting
Cost Accounting (15th Edition)
- You have just begun your summer internship at Omni Instruments. The company supplies sterilized surgical instruments for physicians. To expand sales, Omni is considering paying a commission to its sales force. The controller, Matthew Barnhill, asks you to compute: (1) the new breakeven sales figure, and (2) the operating profit if sales increase 15% under the new sales commission plan. He thinks you can handle this task because you learned CVP analysis in your accounting class. You spend the next day collecting information from the accounting records, performing the analysis, and writing a memo to explain the results. The company president is pleased with your memo. You report that the new sales commission plan will lead to a significant increase in operating income and only a small increase in breakeven sales. The following week, you realize that you made an error in the CVP analysis. You overlooked the sales personnel’s $2,800 monthly salaries, and you did not include this fixed…arrow_forwardAllright Test Design Company creates, produces, and sells Internet-based CPA and CMA review courses for individual use. Davis Webber, head of human resources, is convinced that question development employees must have strong analytical and problem-solving skills. He asked Andrea Benson, controller for Allright Test Design, to help develop problems for use in screening applicants before they are interviewed. One of the problems Andrea developed is based on the following data for a mythical company (Mythic, Inc.) for the previous year: Conversion cost was $139,000 and was four times the prime cost. Direct materials used in production equaled $5,200. Cost of goods manufactured was $153,200. Ending work in process is 50 percent of the cost of beginning work in process. There are no beginning or ending inventories for direct materials. Cost of goods sold was 110 percent of cost of goods manufactured. Beginning finished goods inventory was $22,190. Required: Question Content Area 1.…arrow_forwardEthics in Action In August, Lannister Company introduced a new performance measurement system in manufacturing operations. One of the new performance measures is lead time, which is determined by tagging a random sample of items with a log sheet throughout the month. The log sheets recorded the time that the sample items started production and the time that they ended production, as well as all steps in between. At the end of the month, the controller collected the log sheets and computed the average lead time of the tagged products. This number was reported to central management and was used to evaluate the performance of the plant manager. Because of the poor lead time results reported for August, the plant was under extreme pressure to reduce lead time in September. The following memo was intercepted by the controller. Date: September 3 To: Hourly Employees From: Plant Manager During last month, you may have noticed that some of the products were tagged with a log sheet. This sheet records the time that a product enters production and the time that it leaves production. The difference between these two times is termed the lead time. Our plant is evaluated on improving lead time. From now on, I ask all of you to keep an eye out for the tagged items. When you see a tagged item, it is to receive special attention. Work on that item first, and then immediately move it to the next operation. Under no circumstances should tagged items wait on any other work that you have. Naturally, report accurate information. I insist that you record the correct times on the log sheet as the product goes through your operations. How should the controller respond to this discovery?arrow_forward
- Assume that at the beginning of 20x2, Cicleta trained the 2 assembly workers in a new approach that had the objective of increasing the efficiency of the assembly process. Cicleta also began moving toward a JIT purchasing and manufacturing system. When JIT is fully implemented, the demand for expediting is expected to be virtually eliminated. It is expected to take two to three years for full implementation. Assume that receiving cost is a step-fixed cost with steps of 1,500 orders. The other three activities employ resources that are acquired as used and needed. At the end of 20x2, the following results were reported for the four activities: Required: 1. Prepare a trend report that shows the non-value-added costs for each activity for 20x1 and 20x2 and the change in costs for the two periods. Discuss the reports implications. 2. Explain the role of activity reduction for receiving and for expediting. What is the expected value of SQ for each activity after JIT is fully implemented? 3. What if at the end of 20x2, the selling price of a competing product is reduced by 27 per unit? Assume that the firm produces and sells 20,000 units of its product and that its product is associated only with the four activities being considered. By virtue of the waste-reduction savings, can the competitors price reduction be matched without reducing the unit profit margin of the product that prevailed at the beginning of the year? If not, how much more waste reduction is needed to achieve this outcome? In this case, what price decision would you recommend?arrow_forwardEmery Manufacturing Company produces component parts for the farm equipment industry and has recently undergone a major computer system conversion. Jake Murray, the controller, has established a troubleshooting team to alleviate accounting problems that have occurred since the conversion. Jake has chosen Gus Swanson, assistant controller, to head the team that will include Linda Wheeler, cost accountant; Cindy Madsen, financial analyst; Randy Lewis, general accounting supervisor; and Max Crandall, financial accountant. The team has been meeting weekly for the last month. Gus insists on being part of all the team conversations in order to gather information, to make the final decision on any ideas or actions that the team develops, and to prepare a weekly report for Jake. He has also used this team as a forum to discuss issues and disputes about him and other members of Emerys top management team. At last weeks meeting, Gus told the team that he thought a competitor might purchase the common stock of Emery, because he had overheard Jake talking about this on the telephone. As a result, most of Emerys employees now informally discuss the sale of Emerys common stock and how it will affect their jobs. Required: Is Gus Swansons discussion with the team about the prospective sale of Emery unethical? Discuss, citing specific standards from the code of ethical conduct to support your position. (CMA adapted)arrow_forwardCommunications Jamarcus Bradshaw, plant manager of Georgia Paper Companys papermaking mill, was looking over the cost of production reports for July and August for the Papermaking Department. The reports revealed the following: Jamarcus was concerned about the increased cost per ton from the output of the department. As a result, he asked the plant controller to perform a study to help explain these results. The controller, Leann Brunswick, began the analysis by performing some interviews of key plant personnel in order to understand what the problem might be. Excerpts from an interview with Len Tyson, a paper machine operator, follow: Len: We have two papermaking machines in the department. I have no data, but I think paper machine No. 1 is applying too much pulp and, thus, is wasting both conversion and materials resources. We haven't had repairs on paper machine No. 1 in a while. Maybe this is the problem. Leann: How does too much pulp result in wasted resources? Len: Well, you see, if too much pulp is applied, then we will waste pulp material. The customer will not pay for the extra product; we just use more material to make the product. Also, when there is too much pulp, the machine must be slowed down in order to complete the drying process. This results in additional conversion costs. Leann: Do you have any other suspicions? Len: Well, as you know, we have two productsgreen paper and yellow paper. They are identical except for the color. The color is added to the papermaking process in the paper machine. I think that during August these two color papers have been behaving very differently. I don't have any data, but it just seems as though the amount of waste associated with the green paper has increased. Leann: Why is this? Len: I understand that there has been a change in specifications for the green paper, starting near the beginning of August. This change could be causing the machines to run poorly when making green paper. If this is the case, the cost per ton would increase for green paper. Leann also asked for a database printout providing greater detail on Augusts operating results. September 9 Requested by: Leann Brunswick Papermaking DepartmentAugust detail Prior to preparing a report, Leann resigned from Georgia Paper Company to start her own business. You have been asked to take the data that Leann collected, and write a memo to Jamarcus Bradshaw with a recommendation to management. Your memo should include analysis of the August data to determine whether the paper machine or the paper color explains the increase in the unit cost from July. Include any supporting schedules that are appropriate. Round any calculations to the nearest cent.arrow_forward
- Heavenly Chocolates manufactures and sells quality chocolate products at its plant and retail store located in Saratoga Springs, New York. Two years ago, the company developed a web site and began selling its products over the Internet. Web-site sales have exceeded the company’s expectations, and management is now considering strategies to increase sales even further. To learn more about the web-site customers, a sample of 50 Heavenly Chocolate transactions was selected from the previous month’s sales. Data showing the day of the week each transaction was made, the type of browser the customer used, the time spent on the web site, the number of web pages viewed, and the amount spent by each of the 50 customers are contained in the file named Heavenly Chocolates. A portion of the data is shown in the table that follows: Heavenly Chocolates would like to use the sample data to determine whether online shoppers who spend more time and view more pages also spend more money during their visit to the web site. The company would also like to investigate the effect that the day of the week and the type of browser have on sales. Managerial Report Use the methods of descriptive statistics to learn about the customers who visit the Heavenly Chocolates web site. Include the following in your report. Graphical and numerical summaries for the length of time the shopper spends on the web site, the number of pages viewed, and the mean amount spent per transaction. Discuss what you learn about Heavenly Chocolates’ online shoppers from these numerical summaries. Summarize the frequency, the total dollars spent, and the mean amount spent per transaction for each day of week. Discuss the observations you can make about Heavenly Chocolates’ business based on the day of the week? Summarize the frequency, the total dollars spent, and the mean amount spent per transaction for each type of browser. Discuss the observations you can make about Heavenly Chocolates’ business based on the type of browser? Develop a scatter diagram, and compute the sample correlation coefficient to explore the relationship between the time spent on the web site and the dollar amount spent. Use the horizontal axis for the time spent on the web site. Discuss your findings. Develop a scatter diagram, and compute the sample correlation coefficient to explore the relationship between the number of web pages viewed and the amount spent. Use the horizontal axis for the number of web pages viewed. Discuss your findings. Develop a scatter diagram, and compute the sample correlation coefficient to explore the relationship between the time spent on the web site and the number of pages viewed. Use the horizontal axis to represent the number of pages viewed. Discuss your findings.arrow_forwardThe Expenditure Approval Process Roberto is the plant superintendent of a small manufacturing company that is owned by a large corporation. The corporation has a policy that any expenditure over $1,000 must be approved by the chief financial officer in the corporate headquarters. The approval process takes a minimum of three weeks. Roberto would like to order a new labeling machine that is expected to reduce costs and pay for itself in six months. The machine costs $2,200, but Roberto can buy the sales reps demo for $1,800. Roberto has asked the sales rep to send two separate bills for $900 each. What would you do if you were the sales rep? Do you agree or disagree with Robertos actions? What do you think about the corporate policy?arrow_forwardDeMarco Company is developing a cost formula for its packing activity. Discussion with the workers in the Packing Department has revealed that packing costs are associated with the number of customer orders, the size of the orders, and the relative fragility of the items (more fragile items must be specially wrapped in bubble wrap and Styrofoam). Data for the past 20 months have been gathered: Required: 1. Using the method of least squares, run a regression using the number of orders as the independent variable. 2. Run a multiple regression using three independent variables: the number of orders, the weight of orders, and the number of fragile items. Which regression equation is better? Why? 3. Predict the total packing cost for 25,000 orders, weighing 40,000 pounds, with 4,000 fragile items.arrow_forward
- Baker, Inc., supplies wheels for a large bicycle manufacturing company. The bicycle company has recently requested that Baker decrease its delivery time. Baker made a commitment to reduce the lead time for delivery from seven days to one day. To help achieve this goal, engineering and production workers had made the commitment to reduce time for the setup activity (other activities such as moving materials and rework were also being examined simultaneously). Current setup times were 12 hours. Setup cost was 600 per setup hour. For the first quarter, engineering developed a new process design that it believed would reduce the setup time from 12 hours to nine hours. After implementing the design, the actual setup time dropped from 12 hours to seven hours. Engineering believed the actual reduction was sustainable. In the second quarter, production workers suggested a new setup procedure. Engineering gave the suggestion a positive evaluation, and they projected that the new approach would save an additional six hours of setup time. Setup labor was trained to perform the new setup procedures. The actual reduction in setup time based on the suggested changes was four hours. Required: 1. What kaizen setup standard would be used at the beginning of each quarter? 2. Describe the kaizen subcycle using the two quarters of data provided by Baker. 3. Describe the maintenance subcycle for setups using the two quarters of data provided by Baker. 4. How much non-value-added cost was eliminated by the end of two quarters? Discuss the role of kaizen costing in activity-based management. 5. Explain why kaizen costing is compatible with activity-based responsibility accounting while standard costing is compatible with financial-based responsibility accounting.arrow_forwardShorts Manufacturing, Inc., has implemented lean manufacturing in its Kansas City plant as a pilot program. One of its value streams produces a family of small electric tools. The value-stream team managers were quite excited about the results, as some of their efforts to eliminate waste were proving to be effective. During the most recent three weeks, the following data pertaining to the electric tool value stream were collected: Week 1: Demand = 90 units @ 40 Beginning inventory = 10 units @ 20 (5 materials and 15 conversion) Production = 90 units using 450 of material and 1,350 of conversion cost Week 2: Demand = 100 units @ 40 Beginning inventory = 10 units @ 20 (5 materials and 15 conversion) Production = 90 units using 450 of material and 1,350 of conversion cost Week 3: Demand = 90 units @ 40 Beginning inventory = 0 Production = 100 units using 500 of material and 1,500 of conversion cost Required: 1. Prepare a traditional income statement for each week. 2. Calculate the average value-stream product cost for each week. What does this cost signal, if anything? 3. Prepare a value-stream income statement for each week. Assume that any increase in inventory is valued at average cost. Comment on the financial performance of the value stream and its relationship to traditional income measurement.arrow_forwardEthics and professional conduct in business Erin Haywood was recently hired as a cost analyst by Wind River Medical Supplies Inc. Oneof Erin’s first assignments was to perform a net present value analysis for a new warehouse.Et-in performed the analysis and calculated a present value index of 0.8. The plant manager.ZuhairBarbat, is very intent on purchasing the warehouse because he believes that more storage space is needed. Zuhair asks Erín into his office and the following conversation takes place: ZubairErín, you’re new here, aren’t you? EHii: Yes, sir. Zubair: V.dl, Erin, let me tell you something. ¡m not at all pleased with the capital investment analysis that you performed on this new warehouse. T need that warehouse for my production. If I dont get it, where am I going to place our output? Erín: Hopefully with the customer, sir. Zithair: Now don’t get smart with me. Erín: No, really. I was being serious. My analysis does not support constructing a new ware- house. The numbers don’t lie: the warehouse does not meet our investment return targets. In fact, it seems to me that purchasing a warehouse dots not add much value to the business. We need to be producing product to satisfy customer orders, not to fill a warehouse. Zubair Listen, you need to understand sonwthing. The headquarters people will not allow mv to build the warehouse if the numbers dont add up. You know as well as I that many assump tions go into your net present value analysis. Why don’t you relax some of your assumptions so that the f́nancial savings will offset the cost? Erín: I’m willing to discuss my assumptions with you. Maybe I overlooked something. Zubafr Good. Here’s what I want you to do. 1 see in your analysis tha you don’t project greater sales as a result of the warehouse. It seems to me, if we can store more goxLs, then will have more to sell. Thus, logically, a larger warehouse translates into more sales. If you incorporate this into your analysis, I think you’ll see that the numbers will work out. Why don’t you work it through and come back with a new analysis? I’m really counting on you on this one. Let’s get off to a good start together and see if we can get this project accepted. What is your advice to Erin?arrow_forward
- Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337912020Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. TaylerPublisher:South-Western College PubFinancial And Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337902663Author:WARREN, Carl S.Publisher:Cengage Learning,Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning
- Financial Accounting: The Impact on Decision Make...AccountingISBN:9781305654174Author:Gary A. Porter, Curtis L. NortonPublisher:Cengage LearningExcel Applications for Accounting PrinciplesAccountingISBN:9781111581565Author:Gaylord N. SmithPublisher:Cengage LearningManagerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Busines...AccountingISBN:9781337115773Author:Maryanne M. Mowen, Don R. Hansen, Dan L. HeitgerPublisher:Cengage Learning