Question

Exercise 11-6 Managing a Constrained Resource (LO11-6] Portsmouth Company makes upholstered furniture. Its only variable cost is direct materials. The demand for the company's products far exceeds its manufacturing capacity. The bottleneck (or constraint) in the production process is upholstery labor-hours. Information concerning three of Portsmouth's upholstered chairs appears below: Selling price per unit Variable cost per unit Upholstery labor-hours per unit $ $ Recliner 1,264 $ 800 $ 8 hours Sofa Love Seat 2,000 $ 1,650 1,300 $ 1,200 14 hours 5 hours Required: 1. Portsmouth is considering paying its upholstery laborers hourly compensation, in addition to their usual salaries, to work overtime. Assuming that this extra time would be used to produce sofas, up to how much of an overtime premium per hour should the company be willing to pay to keep the upholstery shop open after normal working hours? 2. A small nearby upholstering company has offered to upholster furniture for Portsmouth at a price of $47 per hour. The management of Portsmouth is confident that this upholstering company's work is high quality and their craftsmen can work as quickly as Portsmouth's own craftsmen on the simpler upholstering jobs such as the Love Seat. How much additional contribution margin per hour can Portsmouth earn if it hires the nearby upholstering company to make Love Seats? 3. Should Portsmouth hire the nearby upholstering company? Complete this question by entering your answers in the tabs below. Required 1 Required 2 Required 3 Portsmouth is considering paying its upholstery laborers hourly compensation, in addition to their usual salaries, to work overtime. Assuming that this extra time would be used to produce sofas, up to how much of an overtime premium per hour should the company be willing to pay to keep the upholstery shop open after normal working hours? Maximum overtime premium per hour < Required 1 Required 2 >

Answer 1

Answer 1.

Particulars	Sofa ($)
Selling price per unit	2,000
Variable cost per unit	1,300
Contribution margin per unit (a)	700
Upholstery shop time required to produce one unit (b)	14 hours
Maximum overtime premium per hour (a) / (b) [700/12]	50

Answer 2.

Particulars	Love Seat ($)
Selling price per unit	1,650
Variable cost per unit	1,200
Contribution margin per unit (a)	450
Upholstery shop time required to produce one unit (b)	5 hours
Contribution margin per unit of the constrained resource (a) / (b) [ 450/5]	90
price charged to upholster by another firm	47
Additional contribution margin [90-47 ]	43

Answer 3.

Yes it should be hired as there is additional margin