Concept explainers
Target costs, effect of process-design changes on service costs. Solar Energy Systems (SES) sells solar heating systems in residential areas of eastern Pennsylvania. A successful sale results in the homeowner purchasing a solar heating system and obtaining rebates, tax credits, and financing for which SES completes all the paperwork. The company has identified three major activities that drive the cost of selling heating systems: identifying new contacts (varies with the number of new contacts); traveling to and between appointments (varies with the number of miles driven); and preparing and filing rebates and tax forms (varies with the number of solar systems sold). Actual costs for each of these activities in 2016 and 2017 are:
2016 | 2017 | |
Average cost per new contact | $ 8.00 | $ 7.00 |
Travel cost per mile | 0.55 | 0.65 |
Preparing and filing cost per new system | 275.00 | 250.00 |
After experiencing high costs in 2016. SES used value engineering to reduce the cost of selling solar heating systems. Managers at SES want to evaluate whether value engineering has succeeded in reducing the selling cost per sale by the targeted 8% in 2017.
Actual results for 2016 and 2017 for SES are:
Actual Results for 2016 | Actual Results for 2017 | |
Sales of heating systems | 175 | 188 |
Number of new contacts | 225 | 240 |
Miles driven | 1,900 | 1,750 |
- 1. Calculate the cost per sale in 2016.
Required
- 2. Calculate the cost per sale in 2017.
- 3. Did SES achieve the target cost per sale in 2017? Explain.
- 4. What challenges might managers at SES encounter in achieving the target cost and how might they overcome these challenges?
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HORNGRENS COST ACCOUNTING CUSTOM FOR UC
- Classify the following environmental activities as prevention costs, detection costs, internal failure costs, or external failure costs. For external failure costs, classify the costs as societal or private. Also, label those activities that are compatible with sustainable development (SD). 1. A company takes actions to reduce the amount of material in its packages. 2. After the activated carbons useful life, a soft-drink producer returns this material used for purifying water for its beverages to the supplier. The supplier reactivates the carbon for a second use in nonfood applications. As a consequence, many tons of material are prevented from entering landfills. 3. An evaporator system is installed to treat wastewater and collect usable solids for other uses. 4. The inks used to print snack packages (for chips) contain heavy metals. 5. Processes are inspected to ensure compliance with environmental standards. 6. Delivery boxes are used five times and then recycled. This prevents 112 million pounds of cardboard from entering landfills and saves 2 million trees per year. 7. Scrubber equipment is installed to ensure that air emissions are less than the level permitted by law. 8. Local residents are incurring medical costs from illnesses caused by air pollution from automobile exhaust pollution. 9. As part of implementing an environmental perspective for the Balanced Scorecard, environmental performance measures are developed. 10. Because of liquid and solid residues being discharged into a local lake, the lake is no longer fit for swimming, fishing, and other recreational activities. 11. To reduce energy consumption, magnetic ballasts are replaced with electronic ballasts, and more efficient light bulbs and lighting sensors are installed. As a result, 2.3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity are saved per year. 12. Due to a legal settlement, a chemicals company must spend 20,000,000 to clean up contaminated soil. 13. A soft-drink company uses the following practice: In all bottling plants, packages damaged during filling are collected and recycled (glass, plastic, and aluminum). 14. Products are inspected to ensure that the gaseous emissions produced during operation follow legal and company guidelines. 15. Operating pollution control equipment incurs costs. 16. An internal audit is conducted to verify that environmental policies are being followed.arrow_forwardNizam Company produces speaker cabinets. Recently, Nizam switched from a traditional departmental assembly line system to a manufacturing cell in order to produce the cabinets. Suppose that the cabinet manufacturing cell is the cost object. Assume that all or a portion of the following costs must be assigned to the cell: a. Depreciation on electric saws, sanders, and drills used to produce the cabinets b. Power to heat and cool the plant in which the cell is located c. Salary of cell supervisor d. Wood used to produce the cabinet housings e. Maintenance for the cells equipment (provided by the maintenance department) f. Labor used to cut the wood and to assemble the cabinets g. Replacement sanding belts h. Cost of janitorial services for the plant i. Ordering costs for materials used in production j. The salary of the industrial engineer (she spends about 20 percent of her time on work for the cell) k. Cost of maintaining plant and grounds l. Cost of plants personnel office m. Depreciation on the plant n. Plant receptionists salary and benefits Required: Identify which cost assignment method would likely be used to assign the costs of each of the preceding activities to the cabinet manufacturing cell: direct tracing, driver tracing, or allocation. When driver tracing is selected, identify a potential activity driver that could be used for the tracing.arrow_forwardRelevance of equipment costs. Janet’s Bakery is thinking about replacing the convection oven with a new, more energy-efficient model. Information related to the old and new ovens follows:arrow_forward
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- Alter's Home Center (AHC) sells renovation and remodeling products to both contractors and individual home owners. One of the services AHC offers is delivery of the purchased products to the customer's work site. Because not all customers take advantage of the delivery service option, ACH adds 10 percent to the cost of the products purchased to cover the delivery cost. A business intern spent the summer at ACH. The intern's assignment was to analyze the delivery service and recommend a better way to charge customers for using it. The intern, who had studied activity-based costing, identified the following activities and the data related to them: Activity Cost Driver Annual Cost Annual Driver Volume Picking order Number of items $ 330,750 367,500 items Delivering order Number of orders 942,500 32,500 orders Handling complaints Number of complaints 32,500 125 complaints Total delivery cost $ 1,305,750 The intern selected two customers, who were frequent customers,…arrow_forwardUsing variable costing, service company Henry’s Helpers provides locksmith services. One type of service call is to evaluate private residences for security concerns and make recommendations for Safety plan. Use the data below to determine the company’s total contribution margin, contribution margin per service call, and contribution margin ratio when 220 service calls are made in the month of June.arrow_forwardCost Estimation; Machine Replacement; Ethics Hardison Inc. manufactures glass for officebuildings in Florida. As a result of age and wear, a critical machine in the production process hasbegun to produce quality defects. Hardison is considering replacing the old machine with a newmachine, either brand A or brand B. The manufacturer has provided Hardison with the following dataon the costs of operation of each machine brand at various levels of output:Output(square yards)Brand AEstimated Total CostsBrand BEstimated Total Costs2,000 $ 97,000 $ 120,0004,000 125,000 160,0008,000 180,000 200,00016,000 225,000 260,00032,000 280,000 300,00064,000 438,000 368,000Required1. Graph the data for the two brands of machines.2. Use the high-low method to determine the cost equation for each brand of machine and use the results tocalculate the costs of operating each machine if Hardison’s output is expected to be 25,000 square yardsarrow_forward
- Alameda Tile sells products to many people remodeling their homes and thinks that it could profitably offer courses on tile installation, which might also increase the demand for its products. The basic installation course has the following (tentative) price and cost characteristics. Need Assistance with Req C2, Req C3, Req C4arrow_forwardThe jarvis corporation produces bucket loader assemblies for the tractor industry. The product has a long term life expectancy. Jarvis has a traditional manufacturing and inventory system. Jarvis is considering the installation of a just-in-time inventory system to improve its cost structure. In doing a full study using its manufacturing engineering team as well as consulting with industry JIT experts and the main vendors and suppliers of the components Jarvis uses to manufacture the bucket loader assemblies, the following incremental cost-benefit relevant information is available for analysis: The Jarvis cost of investment capital hurdle rate is 15%. One time cost to rearrange the shop floor to create the manufacturing cell workstations is $275,000. One time cost to retrain the existing workforce for the JIT required skills is $60,000. Anticipated defect reduction is 40%. Currently there is a cost of quality defect assessment listed as $150,000 per year. The setup time for…arrow_forwardAn assisted-living facility provides services in the form of residential space, meals, and other occupant assistance (OOA) to its occupants. The facility currently uses a traditional cost accounting system that charges each occupant a daily rate equal to the facility’s annual cost of providing residential space, meals, and OOA divided by total occupant days. However, an activity-based costing (ABC) analysis has revealed that occupants’ use of OOA varies substantially. This analysis determined that occupants could be grouped into three categories (low, moderate, and high usage of OOA) and that the activity driver of OOA should be nursing hours. The driver of the residential space and meals is occupant days. The following quantitative information was also provided: OccupantCategory AnnualOccupantDays AnnualNursingHours Low usage 36,000 90,000 Medium usage 18,000 90,000 High usage 6,000 120,000…arrow_forward
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