Jane Erickson, manager of an electronics division, was not pleased with the results that had recently been reported concerning the division’s activity-based management implementation project. For one thing, the project had taken eight months longer than projected and had exceeded the budget by nearly 35 percent. But even more vexatious was the fact that after all was said and done, about three-fourths of the plants were reporting that the activity-based product costs were not much different for most of the products than those of the old costing system. Plant managers were indicating that they were continuing to use the old costs as they were easier to compute and understand. Yet, at the same time, they were complaining that they were having a hard time meeting the bids of competitors. Reliable sources were also revealing that the division’s product costs were higher than many competitors’. This outcome perplexed plant managers because their control system still continued to report favorable materials and labor efficiency variances. They complained that ABM had failed to produce any significant improvement in cost performance. Jane decided to tour several of the plants and talk with the plant managers. After the tour, she realized that her managers did not understand the concept of non-value-added costs nor did they have a good grasp of the concept of kaizen costing. No efforts were being made to carefully consider the activity information that had been produced. One typical plant manager threw up his hands and said: “This is too much data. Why should I care about all this detail? I do not see how this can help me improve my plant’s performance. They tell me that inspection is not a necessary activity and does not add value. I simply can’t believe that inspecting isn’t value-added and necessary. If we did not inspect, we would be making and sending more bad products to customers.” Required: Explain why Jane’s division is having problems with its ABM implementation.

Kelly Gray, production manager, was upset with the latest performance report, which indicated that she was 100,000 over budget. Given the efforts that she and her workers had made, she was confident that they had met or beat the budget. Now, she was not only upset but also genuinely puzzled over the results. Three itemsdirect labor, power, and setupswere over budget. The actual costs for these three items follow: Kelly knew that her operation had produced more units than originally had been budgeted, so more power and labor had naturally been used. She also knew that the uncertainty in scheduling had led to more setups than planned. When she pointed this out to John Huang, the controller, he assured her that the budgeted costs had been adjusted for the increase in productive activity. Curious, Kelly questioned John about the methods used to make the adjustment. JOHN: If the actual level of activity differs from the original planned level, we adjust the budget by using budget formulasformulas that allow us to predict what the costs will be for different levels of activity. KELLY: The approach sounds reasonable. However, Im sure something is wrong here. Tell me exactly how you adjusted the costs of labor, power, and setups. JOHN: First, we obtain formulas for the individual items in the budget by using the method of least squares. We assume that cost variations can be explained by variations in productive activity where activity is measured by direct labor hours. Here is a list of the cost formulas for the three items you mentioned. The variable X is the number of direct labor hours: Labor cost = 10X Power cost = 5,000 + 4X Setup cost = 100,000 KELLY: I think I see the problem. Power costs dont have a lot to do with direct labor hours. They have more to do with machine hours. As production increases, machine hours increase more rapidly than direct labor hours. Also, ... JOHN: You know, you have a point. The coefficient of determination for power cost is only about 50 percent. That leaves a lot of unexplained cost variation. The coefficient for labor, however, is much betterit explains about 96 percent of the cost variation. Setup costs, of course, are fixed. KELLY: Well, as I was about to say, setup costs also have very little to do with direct labor hours. And I might add that they certainly are not fixedat least not all of them. We had to do more setups than our original plan called for because of the scheduling changes. And we have to pay our people when they work extra hours. It seems as if we are always paying overtime. I wonder if we simply do not have enough people for the setup activity. Supplies are used for each setup, and these are not cheap. Did you build these extra costs of increased setup activity into your budget? JOHN: No, we assumed that setup costs were fixed. I see now that some of them could vary as the number of setups increases. Kelly, let me see if I can develop some cost formulas based on better explanatory variables. Ill get back with you in a few days. Assume that after a few days work, John developed the following cost formulas, all with a coefficient of determination greater than 90 percent: Labor cost = 10X; where X = Direct labor hours Power cost = 68,000 + 0.9Y; where Y = Machine hours Setup cost = 98,000 + 400Z; where Z = Number of setups The actual measures of each of the activity drivers are as follows: Required: 1. Prepare a performance report for direct labor, power, and setups using the direct-labor-based formulas. 2. Prepare a performance report for direct labor, power, and setups using the multiple cost driver formulas that John developed. 3. Of the two approaches, which provides the most accurate picture of Kellys performance? Why? 4. After reviewing the approach to performance measurement, a consultant remarked that non-value-added cost trend reports would be a much better performance measurement approach than comparing actual costs with budgeted costseven if activity flexible budgets were used. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

Recently, Ulrich Company received a report from an external consulting group on its quality costs. The consultants reported that the companys quality costs total about 21 percent of its sales revenues. Somewhat shocked by the magnitude of the costs, Rob Rustin, president of Ulrich Company, decided to launch a major quality improvement program. For the coming year, management decided to reduce quality costs to 17 percent of sales revenues. Although the amount of reduction was ambitious, most company officials believed that the goal could be realized. To improve the monitoring of the quality improvement program, Rob directed Pamela Golding, the controller, to prepare monthly performance reports comparing budgeted and actual quality costs. Budgeted costs and sales for the first two months of the year are as follows: The following actual sales and actual quality costs were reported for January: Required: 1. Reorganize the monthly budgets so that quality costs are grouped in one of four categories: appraisal, prevention, internal failure, or external failure. (Essentially, prepare a budgeted cost of quality report.) Also, identify each cost as variable (V) or fixed (F). (Assume that no costs are mixed.) 2. Prepare a performance report for January that compares actual costs with budgeted costs. Comment on the companys progress in improving quality and reducing its quality costs.

The controller for Muir Companys Salem plant is analyzing overhead in order to determine appropriate drivers for use in flexible budgeting. She decided to concentrate on the past 12 months since that time period was one in which there was little important change in technology, product lines, and so on. Data on overhead costs, number of machine hours, number of setups, and number of purchase orders are in the following table. Required: 1. Calculate an overhead rate based on machine hours using the total overhead cost and total machine hours. (Round the overhead rate to the nearest cent and predicted overhead to the nearest dollar.) Use this rate to predict overhead for each of the 12 months. 2. Run a regression equation using only machine hours as the independent variable. Prepare a flexible budget for overhead for the 12 months using the results of this regression equation. (Round the intercept and x-coefficient to the nearest cent and predicted overhead to the nearest dollar.) Is this flexible budget better than the budget in Requirement 1? Why or why not?

Bill Fremont, division controller and CMA, was upset by a recent memo he received from the divisional manager, Steve Preston. Bill was scheduled to present the divisions financial performance at headquarters in one week. In the memo, Steve had given Bill some instructions for this upcoming report. In particular, Bill had been told to emphasize the significant improvement in the divisions profits over last year. Bill, however, didnt believe that there was any real underlying improvement in the divisions performance and was reluctant to say otherwise. He knew that the increase in profits was because of Steves conscious decision to produce more inventory. In an earlier meeting, Steve had convinced his plant managers to produce more than they knew they could sell. He argued that by deferring some of this periods fixed costs, reported profits would jump. He pointed out two significant benefits. First, by increasing profits, the division could exceed the minimum level needed so that all the managers would qualify for the annual bonus. Second, by meeting the budgeted profit level, the division would be better able to compete for much-needed capital. Bill objected but had been overruled. The most persuasive counterargument was that the increase in inventory could be liquidated in the coming year as the economy improved. Bill, however, considered this event unlikely. From past experience, he knew that it would take at least two years of improved market demand before the productive capacity of the division was exceeded. Required: 1. Discuss the behavior of Steve Preston, the divisional manager. Was the decision to produce for inventory an ethical one? 2. What should Bill Fremont do? Should he comply with the directive to emphasize the increase in profits? If not, what options does he have? 3. Chapter 1 listed ethical standards for management accountants. Identify any standards that apply in this situation.

Cassara, Inc., had the following quality costs for the years ended December 31, 20X1 and 20X2: At the end of 20X1, management decided to increase its investment in control costs by 40% for each categorys items, with the expectation that failure costs would decrease by 25% for each item of the failure categories. Sales were 12,000,000 for both 20X1 and 20X2. Required: 1. Calculate the budgeted costs for 20X2, and prepare an interim quality performance report. 2. Comment on the significance of the report. How much progress has Cassara made?

Anderson Company has the following departmental manufacturing structure for one of its products: After some study, the production manager of Anderson recommended the following revised cellular manufacturing approach: Required: 1. Calculate the total time it takes to produce a batch of 20 units using Andersons traditional departmental structure. 2. Using cellular manufacturing, how much time is saved producing the same batch of 20 units? Assuming the cell operates continuously, what is the production rate? Which process controls this production rate? 3. What if the processing times of molding, welding, and assembly are all reduced to six minutes each? What is the production rate now, and how long will it take to produce a batch of 20 units?

In 20X1, Don Blackburn, president of Price Electronics, received a report indicating that quality costs were 31% of sales. Faced with increasing pressures from imported goods. Don resolved to take measures to improve the overall quality of the companys products. After hiring a consultant in 20X1, the company began an aggressive program of total quality control. At the end of 20X5, Don requested an analysis of the progress the company had made in reducing and controlling quality costs. The accounting department assembled the following data: Required: 1. Compute the quality costs as a percentage of sales by category and in total for each year. 2. Prepare a multiple-year trend graph for quality costs, both by total costs and by category. Using the graph, assess the progress made in reducing and controlling quality costs. Does the graph provide evidence that quality has improved? Explain. 3. Using the 20X1 quality cost relationships (assume all costs are variable), calculate the quality costs that would have prevailed in 20X4. By how much did profits increase in 20X4 because of the quality improvement program? Repeat for 20X5.

In 2011, Milton Thayne, president of Carbondale Electronics, received a report indicating that quality costs were 31 percent of sales. Faced with increasing pressures from imported goods, Milton resolved to take measures to improve the overall quality of the companys products. After hiring a consultant in 20x0, the company began an aggressive program of total quality control. At the end of 20x5, Milton requested an analysis of the progress the company had made in reducing and controlling quality costs. The Accounting Department assembled the following data: Required: 1. Compute the quality costs as a percentage of sales by category and in total for each year. 2. Prepare a multiple-year trend graph for quality costs, both by total costs and by category. Using the graph, assess the progress made in reducing and controlling quality costs. Does the graph provide evidence that quality has improved? Explain. 3. Using the 20x1 quality cost relationships (assume all costs are variable), calculate the quality costs that would have prevailed in 20x4. By how much did profits increase in 20x4 because of the quality improvement program? Repeat for 20x5.

Adam Corporation manufactures computer tables and has the following budgeted indirect manufacturing cost information for the next year: If Adam uses the step-down (sequential) method, beginning with the Maintenance Department, to allocate support department costs to production departments, the total overhead (rounded to the nearest dollar) for the Machining Department to allocate to its products would be: a. 407,500. b. 422,750. c. 442,053. d. 445,000.

Flaherty, Inc., has just completed its first year of operations. The unit costs on a normal costing basis are as follows: During the year, the company had the following activity: Actual fixed overhead was 12,000 less than budgeted fixed overhead. Budgeted variable overhead was 5,000 less than the actual variable overhead. The company used an expected actual activity level of 12,000 direct labor hours to compute the predetermined overhead rates. Any overhead variances are closed to Cost of Goods Sold. Required: 1. Compute the unit cost using (a) absorption costing and (b) variable costing. 2. Prepare an absorption-costing income statement. 3. Prepare a variable-costing income statement. 4. Reconcile the difference between the two income statements.

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…

Solution Summary: The author explains the problems occurring in the division of Ms. J with respect to their activity based management implementations, stating that significant effort has to be undertaken to train the managers and to better understand the use activity data.

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Chapter 12 Solutions