Concept explainers
ZERO DEFECTS PROCESS
Northern Tractor is a manufacturer of commercial and consumer garden tractors. In its 30 years of operation, Northern has followed a traditional manufacturing process that included maintaining a significant raw material inventory. In an effort to streamline the manufacturing process and reduce inventory carrying costs, Northern’s CEO wants to switch to a JIT manufacturing process. Production consultants have informed the CEO that moving to JIT will require a new philosophy; one aspect of this is moving toward zero-defect manufacturing. Under this philosophy, if a defective part from an out-of-control process is detected, no more units should be produced until the process is corrected. The consultants estimate that the production process may occasionally be shut down anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this new approach.
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Chapter 7 Solutions
Accounting Information Systems
- Quincy Farms is a producer of items made from farm products that are distributed to supermarkets. For many years, Quincys products have had strong regional sales on the basis of brand recognition. However, other companies have been marketing similar products in the area, and price competition has become increasingly important. Doug Gilbert, the companys controller, is planning to implement a standard costing system for Quincy and has gathered considerable information from his coworkers on production and direct materials requirements for Quincys products. Doug believes that the use of standard costing will allow Quincy to improve cost control and make better operating decisions. Quincys most popular product is strawberry jam. The jam is produced in 10-gallon batches, and each batch requires six quarts of good strawberries. The fresh strawberries are sorted by hand before entering the production process. Because of imperfections in the strawberries and spoilage, one quart of strawberries is discarded for every four quarts of acceptable berries. Three minutes is the standard direct labor time required for sorting strawberries in order to obtain one quart of strawberries. The acceptable strawberries are then processed with the other ingredients: processing requires 12 minutes of direct labor time per batch. After processing, the jam is packaged in quart containers. Doug has gathered the following information from Joe Adams, Quincys cost accountant, relative to processing the strawberry jam. a. Quincy purchases strawberries at a cost of 0.80 per quart. All other ingredients cost a total of 0.45 per gallon. b. Direct labor is paid at the rate of 9.00 per hour. c. The total cost of direct material and direct labor required to package the jam is 0.38 per quart. Joe has a friend who owns a strawberry farm that has been losing money in recent years. Because of good crops, there has been an oversupply of strawberries, and prices have dropped to 0.50 per quart. Joe has arranged for Quincy to purchase strawberries from his friends farm in hopes that the 0.80 per quart will put his friends farm in the black. Required: 1. Discuss which coworkers Doug probably consulted to set standards. What factors should Doug consider in establishing the standards for direct materials and direct labor? 2. Develop the standard cost sheet for the prime costs of a 10-gallon batch of strawberry jam. 3. Citing the specific standards of the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice described in Chapter 1, explain why Joes behavior regarding the cost information provided to Doug is unethical. (CMA adapted)arrow_forwardSoft Cushion Company is highly decentralized. Each division is empowered to make its own sales decisions. The Assembly Division can purchase stuffing, a key component, from the Production Division or from external suppliers. The Production Division has been the major supplier of stuffing in recent years. The Assembly Division has announced that two external suppliers will be used to purchase the stuffing at $26per pound for the next year. The Production Division recently increased its unit price to $54.The manager of the Production Division presented the following information — variable cost $38 and fixed cost $14 — to top management in order to attempt to force the Assembly Division to purchase the stuffing internally. The Assembly Division purchases 21,000 pounds of stuffing per month. What would be the monthly operating advantage (disadvantage) of purchasing the goods internally, assuming the external supplier increased its price to $88 per pound and the Production Division…arrow_forwardZodiac Sound Company manufactures audio systems, both made-to-order and mass-produced systems that are typically sold to large- scale manufacturers of electronics equipment. For competitive reasons, the company is trying to increase its manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) measure. As a strategy for improving its MCE performance, the company is considering a switch to JIT manufacturing. While the company managers have a fairly good feel for the costs of implementing JIT, they are unsure about the benefits of such a move, both in financial and nonfinancial terms. To help inform the ultimate decision regarding a move to a JIT system, you've been asked to provide some input. Fortunately, you've recently attended a continuing professional education (CPE) workshop on the costs and benefits of moving to JIT and therefore feel comfortable responding to management's request. Required: 3. Given the estimated data below, calculate the MCE for both the current manufacturing process and the…arrow_forward
- Zodiac Sound Company manufactures audio systems, both made-to-order and mass-produced systems that are typically sold to large- scale manufacturers of electronics equipment. For competitive reasons, the company is trying to increase its manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) measure. As a strategy for improving its MCE performance, the company is considering a switch to JIT manufacturing. While the company managers have a fairly good feel for the costs of implementing JIT, they are unsure about the benefits of such a move, both in financial and nonfinancial terms. To help inform the ultimate decision regarding a move to a JIT system, you've been asked to provide some input. Fortunately, you've recently attended a continuing professional education (CPE) workshop on the costs and benefits of moving to JIT and therefore feel comfortable responding to management's request. Required: 3. Given the estimated data below, calculate the MCE for both the current manufacturing process and the…arrow_forwardSylar Company manufactures a product that is available in both a Deluxe model and a Regular model. The company has manufactured the Regular model for years. The Deluxe model was introduced several years ago to tap a new segment of the market. Since introduction of the Deluxe model, the company's profits have steadily declined and management has become increasingly concerned about the accuracy of its product costing system. Sales of the Deluxe model have been increasing rapidly. Manufacturing overhead is allocated to products on the basis of direct labor hours. For the upcoming year, the company has estimated that it will incur $900,000 in manufacturing overhead cost and produce 5,000 units of the Deluxe model and 40,000 units of the Regular model. The Deluxe model requires two hours of direct labor time per unit, and the Regular requires one hour. Material and labor costs per unit are as follows: MODEL Deluxe Direct Materials Direct Labor $40 $14 Regular $25 $7 Required: 1. Using…arrow_forwardBrasher Company is transitioning to a lean manufacturing system and has just finalized two order fulfillment value streams. One of the value streams has two products, and the other has four products. The two-product value stream produces precision machine parts and the four-product value stream produces machine tools. Before moving to the value-stream structure, Brasher had a well-developed ABC system ( one that used all duration drivers) and had experienced good success with the more accurate product costs. Management wanted to be sure that the average costing approach of value-stream costing did not produce distorted product costs. Accordingly, expected weekly activity data were provided for the two-product value-streams to see how well average costing worked; however, management did not want to continue using ABC because if its intense data demands and the cost of updating as changes unfolded due to lean practices. In the table below, the driver for each activity is a…arrow_forward
- The following are some quotes provided by a number of managers at Hawkeye Machining Company regarding the company’s planned move toward a lean manufacturing system: Director of Sales: I’m afraid we’ll miss some sales if we don’t keep a large stock of items on hand just in case demand increases. It only makes sense to me to keep large inventories in order to ensure product availability for our customers.Director of Purchasing: I’m very concerned about moving to a lean system for materials. What would happen if one of our suppliers were unable to make a shipment? A supplier could fall behind in production or have a quality problem. Without some safety stock in our materials, our whole plant would shut down.Director of Manufacturing: If we go to lean manufacturing, I think our factory output will drop. We need in-process inventory in order to “smooth out” the inevitable problems that occur during manufacturing. For example, if a machine that is used to process a product breaks down, it…arrow_forwardKey success factors. Dominic Consulting has issued a report recommending changes for its newest manufacturing client, Casper Engines. Casper Engines currently manufactures a single product, which is sold and distributed nationally. The report contains the following suggestions for enhancing business performance: Develop a hybrid engine to stay ahead of competitors Increase training hours of assembly-line personnel to decrease the currently high volumes of scrap and waste. Reduce lead times (time from customer order of product to customer receipt of product) by 20% in order to increase customer retention. Negotiate faster response times with direct material suppliers to allow for lower material inventory levels Benchmark the company’s gross margin percentages against its major competitors. Link each of these changes to the key success factors that are important to managers.arrow_forwardMaglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing. Management has asked you to investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing overhead is currently assigned to products based on their direct labor costs. For your investigation, you have data from last year. Manufacturing overhead was $1,262,000 based on production of 320,000 handheld consoles and 114,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home Total Direct labor $1,192,500 $385,000 $1,577,500 Materials 780,000 711,000 1,491,000 Management has determined that…arrow_forward
- Maglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing. Management has asked you to investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing overhead is currently assigned to products based on their direct labor costs. For your investigation, you have data form last year. Manufacturing overhead was $1,432,000 based on production of 290,000 handheld consoles and 108,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home Total Direct labor…arrow_forwardLean Principles The chief executive officer (CEO) of Cobalt Inc. just read an article written by a business professor at Harvard University describing the benefits of the lean philosophy. The CEO issued the following statement after reading the article: This company will become a lean manufacturing company. Presently, we have too much inventory. To become lean, we need to eliminate the excess inventory. Therefore, I want all employees to begin reducing inventories until we make products “just-in-time. ” Thank you for your cooperation. a. Lean manufacturing is ____. Identify the statement that suits the above situation. A philosophy that focuses on reducing time, cost, poor quality and uncertainty from a process. An inventory reduction method. Producing based on the sales. Improving productivity ignoring the quality and other aspects. b. A CEO of a company suddenly commands that the company will become lean manufacturing company due to increased inventory. Identify the statement…arrow_forwardMaglie Company manufactures two video game consoles: handheld and home. The handheld consoles are smaller and less expensive than the home consoles. The company only recently began producing the home model. Since the introduction of the new product, profits have been steadily declining. Management believes that the accounting system is not accurately allocating costs to products, particularly because sales of the new product have been increasing. Management has asked you to investigate the cost allocation problem. You find that manufacturing overhead is currently assigned to products based on their direct labor costs. For your investigation, you have data from last year. Manufacturing overhead was $1,320,000 based on production of 300,000 handheld consoles and 105,000 home consoles. Direct labor and direct materials costs were as follows. Handheld Home Total Direct labor $ 1,250,000 $ 400,000 $ 1,650,000 Materials $ 720,000 $ 657,000 $…arrow_forward
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