Problem

Volume-Based Costing Versus ABC West Chemical Company produces three products. The operati...

Volume-Based Costing Versus ABC West Chemical Company produces three products. The operating results of 2010 are:

Product

Sales Quantity

Target Price

Actual Price

Difference

A

1,000

$279.00

$280.00

$ 1.00

B

5,000

$294.00

$250.00

<$ 44.00>

C

500

$199.50

$300.00

$100.50

The firm sets the target price of each product at 150 percent of the product’s total manufacturing cost. Recognizing that the firm was able to sell Product C at a much higher price than the target price of the product and lost money on Product B, Tom Watson, CEO, wants to promote Product C much more aggressively and phase out Product B. He believes that the information suggests that Product C has the greatest potential among the firm’s three products since the actual selling price of Product C was almost 50 percent higher than the target price while the firm was forced to sell Product B at a price below the target price.

Both the budgeted and actual factory overheads for 2010 are $493,000. The actual units sold for each product also are the same as the budgeted units. The firm uses direct labor dollars to assign manufacturing overhead costs. The direct materials and direct labor costs per unit for each product are:

 

Product A

Product B

Product C

Direct materials

$50.00

$114.40

$65.00

Direct labor

20.00

12.00

10.00

Total prime cost

$70.00

$126.40

$75.00

The controller noticed that not all products consumed factory overhead similarly. Upon further investigations, she identified the following usage of factory overhead during 2010:

 

Product A

Product B

Product C

Total Overhead

Number of setups

2

5

3

$ 8,000

Weight of direct materials (pounds)

400

250

350

100,000

Waste and hazardous disposals

25

45

30

250,000

Quality inspections

30

35

35

75,000

Utilities (machine-hours)

2,000

7,000

1,000

60,000

Total

 

 

 

$493,000

Required

1. Determine the manufacturing cost per unit for each of the products using the volume-based method.

2. What is the least profitable and the most profitable product under both the current and the ABC costing systems?

3. What is the new target price for each product based on 150 percent of the new costs under the ABC system? Compare this price with the actual selling price.

4. Comment on the result from a competitive and strategic perspective. As a manager of West Chemical, describe what actions you would take based on the information provided by the activity-based unit costs.

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Solutions For Problems in Chapter 5