Chapter MB, Problem 20M

Brahma Industries sells vinyl replacement windows to home improvement retailers nationwide. The national sales manager believes that if they invest an additional $25,000 in advertising, they would increase sales volume by 10,000 units. Prepare a forecasted contribution margin income statement for Brahma if they incur the additional advertising costs, using this information:

Shelby Industries has a capacity to produce 45.000 oak shelves per year and is currently selling 40,000 shelves for $32 each. Martin Hardwoods has approached Shelby about buying 1,200 shelves for a new project and is willing to pay $26 each. The shelves can be packaged in bulk; this saves Shelby $1.50 per shelf compared to the normal packaging cost. Shelves have a unit variable cost of $27 with fixed costs of $350,000. Because the shelves dont require packaging, the unit variable costs for the special order will drop from $27 per shelf to $25.50 per shelf. Shelby has enough idle capacity to accept the contract. What is the minimum price per shelf that Shelby should accept for this special order?

Dimitri Designs has capacity to produce 30,000 desk chairs per year and is currently selling all 30,000 for $240 each. Country Enterprises has approached Dimitri to buy 800 chairs for $210 each. Dimitris normal variable cost is $165 per chair, including $50 per unit in direct labor per chair. Dimitri can produce the special order on an overtime shift, which means that direct labor would be paid overtime at 150% of the normal pay rate. The annual fixed costs will be unaffected by the special order and the contract will not disrupt any of Dimitris other operations. What will be the impact on profits of accepting the order?

Bienestar, Inc., has two plants that manufacture a line of wheelchairs. One is located in Kansas City, and the other in Tulsa. Each plant is set up as a profit center. During the past year, both plants sold their tilt wheelchair model for 1,620. Sales volume averages 20,000 units per year in each plant. Recently, the Kansas City plant reduced the price of the tilt model to 1,440. Discussion with the Kansas City manager revealed that the price reduction was possible because the plant had reduced its manufacturing and selling costs by reducing what was called non-value-added costs. The Kansas City manufacturing and selling costs for the tilt model were 1,260 per unit. The Kansas City manager offered to loan the Tulsa plant his cost accounting manager to help it achieve similar results. The Tulsa plant manager readily agreed, knowing that his plant must keep pacenot only with the Kansas City plant but also with competitors. A local competitor had also reduced its price on a similar model, and Tulsas marketing manager had indicated that the price must be matched or sales would drop dramatically. In fact, the marketing manager suggested that if the price were dropped to 1,404 by the end of the year, the plant could expand its share of the market by 20 percent. The plant manager agreed but insisted that the current profit per unit must be maintained. He also wants to know if the plant can at least match the 1,260 per-unit cost of the Kansas City plant and if the plant can achieve the cost reduction using the approach of the Kansas City plant. The plant controller and the Kansas City cost accounting manager have assembled the following data for the most recent year. The actual cost of inputs, their value-added (ideal) quantity levels, and the actual quantity levels are provided (for production of 20,000 units). Assume there is no difference between actual prices of activity units and standard prices. Required: 1. Calculate the target cost for expanding the Tulsa plants market share by 20 percent, assuming that the per-unit profitability is maintained as requested by the plant manager. 2. Calculate the non-value-added cost per unit. Assuming that non-value-added costs can be reduced to zero, can the Tulsa plant match the Kansas City per-unit cost? Can the target cost for expanding market share be achieved? What actions would you take if you were the plant manager? 3. Describe the role that benchmarking played in the effort of the Tulsa plant to protect and improve its competitive position.

Hudson Corporation is considering three options for managing its data warehouse: continuing with its own staff, hiring an outside vendor to do the managing, or using a combination of its own staff and an outside vendor. The cost of the operation depends on future demand. The annual cost of each option (in thousands of dollars) depends on demand as follows: If the demand probabilities are 0.2, 0.5, and 0.3, which decision alternative will minimize the expected cost of the data warehouse? What is the expected annual cost associated with that recommendation? Construct a risk profile for the optimal decision in part (a). What is the probability of the cost exceeding $700,000?

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?

Jansen Crafters has the capacity to produce 50,000 oak shelves per year and is currently selling 44,000 shelves for $32 each. Cutrate Furniture approached Jansen about buying 1,200 shelves for bookcases it is building and is willing to pay $26 for each shelf. No packaging will be required for the bulk order. Jansen usually packages shelves for Home Depot at a price of $1.50 per shell. The $1.50 per-shelf cost is included in the unit variable cost of $27, with annual fixed costs of $320.000. However, the $130 packaging cost will not apply in this case. The fixed costs will be unaffected by the special order and the company has the capacity to accept the order. Based on this information, what would be the profit if Jansen accepts the special order? A. Profits will decrease by $1,200. B. Profits will increase by $31,200. C. Profits will increase by $600. D. Profits will increase by $7,200.

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.

Jonfran Company manufactures three different models of paper shredders including the waste container, which serves as the base. While the shredder heads are different for all three models, the waste container is the same. The number of waste containers that Jonfran will need during the following years is estimated as follows: The equipment used to manufacture the waste container must be replaced because it is broken and cannot be repaired. The new equipment would have a purchase price of 945,000 with terms of 2/10, n/30; the companys policy is to take all purchase discounts. The freight on the equipment would be 11,000, and installation costs would total 22,900. The equipment would be purchased in December 20x4 and placed into service on January 1, 20x5. It would have a five-year economic life and would be treated as three-year property under MACRS. This equipment is expected to have a salvage value of 12,000 at the end of its economic life in 20x9. The new equipment would be more efficient than the old equipment, resulting in a 25 percent reduction in both direct materials and variable overhead. The savings in direct materials would result in an additional one-time decrease in working capital requirements of 2,500, resulting from a reduction in direct material inventories. This working capital reduction would be recognized at the time of equipment acquisition. The old equipment is fully depreciated and is not included in the fixed overhead. The old equipment from the plant can be sold for a salvage amount of 1,500. Rather than replace the equipment, one of Jonfrans production managers has suggested that the waste containers be purchased. One supplier has quoted a price of 27 per container. This price is 8 less than Jonfrans current manufacturing cost, which is as follows: Jonfran uses a plantwide fixed overhead rate in its operations. If the waste containers are purchased outside, the salary and benefits of one supervisor, included in fixed overhead at 45,000, would be eliminated. There would be no other changes in the other cash and noncash items included in fixed overhead except depreciation on the new equipment. Jonfran is subject to a 40 percent tax rate. Management assumes that all cash flows occur at the end of the year and uses a 12 percent after-tax discount rate. Required: 1. Prepare a schedule of cash flows for the make alternative. Calculate the NPV of the make alternative. 2. Prepare a schedule of cash flows for the buy alternative. Calculate the NPV of the buy alternative. 3. Which should Jonfran domake or buy the containers? What qualitative factors should be considered? (CMA adapted)