David Catrow is the manufacturing production supervisor for Faraday Motor Works (FMW), a company that manufactures electrical motors for industrial applications. Trying to explain why he did not get the year-end bonus that he had expected, he told his wife, “This is the dumbest place I’ve ever worked. Last year the company set up this budget assuming it would sell 150,000 units. Well, it sold only 140,000. The company lost money and gave me a bonus for not using as much materials and labor as was called for in the budget. This year, the company has the same 150,000 units goal and it sells 160,000. The company’s making all kinds of money. You’d think I’d get this big fat bonus. Instead, management tells me I used more materials and labor than was budgeted. They said the company would have made a lot more money if I’d stayed within my budget. I guess I gotta wait for another bad year before I get a bonus. Like I said, this is the dumbest place I’ve ever worked.”
FMW’s
Required
- a. Did FMW increase unit sales by cutting prices or by using some other strategy?
- b. Is Mr. Catrow correct in his conclusion that something is wrong with the company’s performance evaluation process? If so, what do you suggest be done to improve the system?
- c. Prepare a flexible budget and recompute the budget variances.
- d. Explain what might have caused the fixed costs to be different from the amount budgeted.
- e. Assume that the company’s materials price variance was favorable and its materials usage variance was unfavorable. Explain why Mr. Catrow may not be responsible for these variances. Now, explain why he may have been responsible for the materials usage variance.
- f. Assume the labor price variance is unfavorable. Was the labor usage variance favorable or unfavorable?
- g. Is the fixed cost volume variance favorable or unfavorable? Explain the effect of this variance on the cost of each unit produced.
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- Variance interpretation You have been asked to investigate some cost problems in the Assembly Department of Ruthenium Electronics Co., a consumer electronics company. To begin your investigation, you have obtained the following budget performance report for the department for the last quarter. Ruthenium Electronics Co.Assembly Department Quarterly Budget Performance Report Standard Quantity at Standard Rates Actual Quantity at Standard Rates Quantity Variances Direct labor 157,500 227,500 70,000 U Direct materials 297,500 385,000 87,500 U Total 455,000 612,500 157,500 U You also obtained the following reports: Ruthenium Electronics Co.Purchasing Department Quarterly Budget Performance Report Actual Quantity at Standard Rates Actual Quantity at Actual Rates Price Variance Direct materials 437,500 385,000 (52,500) F Ruthenium Electronics Co.Fabrication Department Quarterly Budget Performance Report Standard Quantity at Standard Rates Actual Quantity at Standard Rates Quantity Variances Direct labor 245,000 203,000 (42,000) F Direct materials 140,000 140,000 0 Total 385,000 343,000 (42,000) F You also interviewed the Assembly Department supervisor. Excerpts from the interview follow: Q: What explains the poor performance in your department? A: Listen, youve got to understand what its been like in this department recently. Lately, it seems no matter how hard we try, we cant seem to make the standards. Im not sure what is going on, but weve been having a lot of problems lately. Q: What kind of problems? A: Well, for instance, all this Quarter weve been requisitioning purchased parts from the material storeroom, and the parts just didnt fit together very well. Im not sure what is going on, but during most of this quarter, weve had to scrap and sort purchased partsjust to get our assemblies put together. Naturally, all this takes time and material. And thats not all. Q: Go on. A: All this Quarter the work we've been receiving from the Fabrication Department has been shoddy. I mean, maybe around 20% of the stuff that comes in from Fabrication just cant be assembled. The fabrication is all wrong. As a result we've had to scrap and rework a lot of the stuff. Naturally, this has just shot our quantity variances. Interpret the variance reports in light of the comments by the Assembly Department supervisor.arrow_forwardCalculating factory overhead: two variances Monrovia Manufacturing Inc. normally produces 10,000 units of product A each month. Each unit requires 4 hours of direct labor, and factory overhead is applied on a direct labor hour basis. Fixed costs and variable costs in factory overhead at the normal capacity are 10 and 5 per unit, respectively. Cost and production data for June follow: a. Calculate the flexible-budget variance. b. Calculate the production-volume variance. c. Was the total factory overhead under- or overapplied? By what amount?arrow_forwardVariance interpretation You have been asked to investigate some cost problems in the Assembly Department of Ruthenium Electronics Co., a consumer electronics company. To begin your investigation, you have obtained the following budget performance report for the department for the last quarter. Ruthenium Electronics Co.Assembly Department Quarterly Budget Performance Report Standard Quantity at Standard Rates Actual Quantity at Standard Rates Quantity Variances Direct labor 157,500 227,500 70,000 U Direct materials 297,500 385,000 87,500 U Total 455,000 612,500 157,500 U You also obtained the following reports: Ruthenium Electronics Co.Purchasing Department Quarterly Budget Performance Report Actual Quantity at Standard Rates Actual Quantity at Actual Rates Price Variance Direct materials 437,500 385,000 (52,500) F Ruthenium Electronics Co.Fabrication Department Quarterly Budget Performance Report Standard Quantity at Standard Rates Actual Quantity at Standard Rates Quantity Variances Direct labor 245,000 203,000 (42,000) F Direct materials 140,000 140,000 0 Total 385,000 343,000 (42,000) F You also interviewed the Assembly Department supervisor. Excerpts from the interview follow: Q: What explains the poor performance in your department? A: Listen, youve got to understand what its been like in this department recently. Lately, it seems no matter how hard we try, we cant seem to make the standards. Im not sure what is going on, but weve been having a lot of problems lately. Q: What kind of problems? A: Well, for instance, all this Quarter weve been requisitioning purchased parts from the material storeroom, and the parts just didnt fit together very well. Im not sure what is going on, but during most of this quarter, weve had to scrap and sort purchased partsjust to get our assemblies put together. Naturally, all this takes time and material. And thats not all. Q: Go on. A: All this Quarter the work we've been receiving from the Fabrication Department has been shoddy. I mean, maybe around 20% of the stuff that comes in from Fabrication just cant be assembled. The fabrication is all wrong. As a result we've had to scrap and rework a lot of the stuff. Naturally, this has just shot our quantity variances. Interpret the variance reports in light of the comments by the Assembly Department supervisor.arrow_forward
- Static budget versus flexible budget The production supervisor of the Machining Department for Hagerstown Company agreed to the following monthly static budget for the upcoming year: The actual amount spent and the actual units produced in the first three months in the Machining Department were as follows: The Machining Department supervisor has been very pleased with this performance because actual expenditures for May-July have been significantly less than the monthly static budget of2,358,000. However, the plant manager believes that the budget should not remain fixed for every month but should flex or adjust to the volume of work that is produced in the Machining Department. Additional budget information for the Machining Department is as follows: a. Prepare a flexible budget for the actual units produced for May, June, and July in the MachiningDepartment. Assume depreciation is a fixed cost. b. Compare the flexible budget with the actual expenditures for the first three months.What does this comparison suggest?arrow_forwardCalculating factory overhead: two variances Munoz Manufacturing Co. normally produces 10,000 units of product X each month. Each unit requires 2 hours of direct labor, and factory overhead is applied on a direct labor hour basis. Fixed costs and variable costs in factory overhead at the normal capacity are 2.50 and 1.50 per direct labor hour, respectively. Cost and production data for May follow: a. Calculate the flexible-budget variance. b. Calculate the production-volume variance. c. Was the total factory overhead under- or overapplied? By what amount?arrow_forward(Appendix) Calculating factory overhead: four variances Atlanta Adhesives Inc. budgets 15,000 direct labor hours for the year. The total overhead budget is expected to amount to 42,000. The standard cost for a unit of the companys product estimates the variable overhead as follows: The actual data for the period follow: Using the four-variance method, calculate the overhead variances. (Hint: First compute the budgeted fixed overhead rate.)arrow_forward
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