Chapter MB, Problem 18M

The normal capacity of a manufacturing plant is 30,000 direct labor hours or 20,000 units per month. Standard fixed costs are 6,000, and variable costs are 12,000. Data for two months follow: For each month, make a single journal entry to charge overhead to Work in Process, to close Factory Overhead, and to record variances. Indicate the types of variances and state whether each is favorable or unfavorable. (Hint: You must first compute the flexible-budget and production-volume variances.)

If a factory operates at 100% of capacity one month, 90% of capacity the next month, and 105% of capacity the next month, will a different cost per unit be charged to the work-in-process account each month for factory overhead assuming that a predetermined annual overhead rate is used?

Wellington, Inc., reports the following contribution margin income statement for the month of May. The company has the opportunity to purchase new machinery that will reduce its variable cost per unit by $10 but will increase fixed costs by 20%. Prepare a projected contribution margin income statement for Wellington, Inc., assuming it purchases the new equipment. Assume sales level remains unchanged.

Nico Parts, Inc., produces electronic products with short life cycles (of less than two years). Development has to be rapid, and the profitability of the products is tied strongly to the ability to find designs that will keep production and logistics costs low. Recently, management has also decided that post-purchase costs are important in design decisions. Last month, a proposal for a new product was presented to management. The total market was projected at 200,000 units (for the two-year period). The proposed selling price was 130 per unit. At this price, market share was expected to be 25 percent. The manufacturing and logistics costs were estimated to be 120 per unit. Upon reviewing the projected figures, Brian Metcalf, president of Nico, called in his chief design engineer, Mark Williams, and his marketing manager, Cathy McCourt. The following conversation was recorded: BRIAN: Mark, as you know, we agreed that a profit of 15 per unit is needed for this new product. Also, as I look at the projected market share, 25 percent isnt acceptable. Total profits need to be increased. Cathy, what suggestions do you have? CATHY: Simple. Decrease the selling price to 125 and we expand our market share to 35 percent. To increase total profits, however, we need some cost reductions as well. BRIAN: Youre right. However, keep in mind that I do not want to earn a profit that is less than 15 per unit. MARK: Does that 15 per unit factor in preproduction costs? You know we have already spent 100,000 on developing this product. To lower costs will require more expenditure on development. BRIAN: Good point. No, the projected cost of 120 does not include the 100,000 we have already spent. I do want a design that will provide a 15-per-unit profit, including consideration of preproduction costs. CATHY: I might mention that post-purchase costs are important as well. The current design will impose about 10 per unit for using, maintaining, and disposing our product. Thats about the same as our competitors. If we can reduce that cost to about 5 per unit by designing a better product, we could probably capture about 50 percent of the market. I have just completed a marketing survey at Marks request and have found out that the current design has two features not valued by potential customers. These two features have a projected cost of 6 per unit. However, the price consumers are willing to pay for the product is the same with or without the features. Required: 1. Calculate the target cost associated with the initial 25 percent market share. Does the initial design meet this target? Now calculate the total life-cycle profit that the current (initial) design offers (including preproduction costs). 2. Assume that the two features that are apparently not valued by consumers will be eliminated. Also assume that the selling price is lowered to 125. a. Calculate the target cost for the 125 price and 35 percent market share. b. How much more cost reduction is needed? c. What are the total life-cycle profits now projected for the new product? d. Describe the three general approaches that Nico can take to reduce the projected cost to this new target. Of the three approaches, which is likely to produce the most reduction? 3. Suppose that the Engineering Department has two new designs: Design A and Design B. Both designs eliminate the two nonvalued features. Both designs also reduce production and logistics costs by an additional 8 per unit. Design A, however, leaves post-purchase costs at 10 per unit, while Design B reduces post-purchase costs to 4 per unit. Developing and testing Design A costs an additional 150,000, while Design B costs an additional 300,000. Assuming a price of 125, calculate the total life-cycle profits under each design. Which would you choose? Explain. What if the design you chose cost an additional 500,000 instead of 150,000 or 300,000? Would this have changed your decision? 4. Refer to Requirement 3. For every extra dollar spent on preproduction activities, how much benefit was generated? What does this say about the importance of knowing the linkages between preproduction activities and later activities?

Using High-Low to Calculate Predicted Total Variable Cost and Total Cost for Budgeted Output Refer to the information for Speedy Petes above. Assume that this information was used to construct the following formula for monthly delivery cost. TotalDeliveryCost=41,850+(12.00NumberofDeliveries) Required: Assume that 3,000 deliveries are budgeted for the following month of January. Use the total delivery cost formula for the following calculations: 1. Calculate total variable delivery cost for January. 2. Calculate total delivery cost for January.

Keleher Industries manufactures pet doors and sells them directly to the consumer via their web site. The marketing manager believes that if the company invests in new software, they will increase their sales by 10%. The new software will increase fixed costs by $400 per month. Prepare a forecasted contribution margin income statement for Keleher Industries reflecting the new software cost and associated increase in sales. The previous annual statement is as follows:

The cost data for BC Billing Solutions for the year 2020 is as follows: Using the high-low method, express the companys overtime wages as an equation where x represents number of invoices processed. Assume BC has monthly fixed costs of $3,800. Predict the overtime wages if 9,000 invoices are processed. Predict the overtime wages if 6,500 invoices are processed. Using Excel, create a scatter graph of the cost data and explain the relationship between the number of invoices processed and overtime wage expense.

Markham Farms reports the following contribution margin income statement for the month of August. The company has the opportunity to purchase new machinery that will reduce its variable cost per unit by $2 but will increase fixed costs by 15%. Prepare a projected contribution margin income statement for Markham Farm assuming it purchases the new equipment. Assume sales level remains unchanged.

Uchdorf Manufacturing just completed a study of its purchasing activity with the objective of improving its efficiency. The driver for the activity is number of purchase orders. The following data pertain to the activity for the most recent year: Activity supply: five purchasing agents capable of processing 2,400 orders per year (12,000 orders) Purchasing agent cost (salary): 45,600 per year Actual usage: 10,600 orders per year Value-added quantity: 7,000 orders per year Required: 1. Calculate the volume variance and explain its significance. 2. Calculate the unused capacity variance and explain its use. 3. What if the actual usage drops to 9,000 orders? What effect will this have on capacity management? What will be the level of spending reduction if the value-added standard is met?