Concept explainers
Interpreting regression results. Spirit Freightways is a leader in transporting agricultural products in the western provinces of Canada. Reese Brown, a financial analyst at Spirit Freightways, is studying the behavior of transportation costs for budgeting purposes. Transportation costs at Spirit are of two types: (a) operating costs (such as labor and fuel) and (b) maintenance costs (primarily overhaul of vehicles). Brown gathers monthly data on each type of cost, as well as the total freight miles traveled by Spirit vehicles in each month. The data collected are shown below (all in thousands):
- 1. Conduct a regression using the monthly data of operating costs on freight miles. You should obtain the following result:
Regression: Operating costs = a + (b × Number of freight miles)
- 2. Plot the data and regression line for the above estimation. Evaluate the regression using the criteria of economic plausibility, goodness of fit, and slope of the regression line.
- 3. Brown expects Spirit to generate, on average, 3,600 freight miles each month next year. How much in operating costs should Brown budget for next year?
- 4. Name three variables, other than freight miles, that Brown might expect to be important cost drivers for Spirit’s operating costs.
- 5. Brown next conducts a regression using the monthly data of maintenance costs on freight miles. Verify that she obtained the following result:
Regression: Maintenance costs = a + (b × Number of freight miles)
- 6. Provide a reasoned explanation for the observed sign on the cost driver variable in the maintenance cost regression. What alternative data or alternative regression specifications would you like to use to better capture the above relationship?
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- Nation's Capital Fitness, Incorporated, operates a chain of fitness centers in the Washington, D.C., area. The firm's controller is accumulating data to be used in preparing its annual profit plan for the coming year. The cost behavior pattern of the firm's equipment maintenance costs must be determined. The accounting staff has suggested the use of an equation, in the form of Y= a + bX, for maintenance costs. Data regarding the maintenance hours and costs for last year are as follows: Month January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Average Hours of Maintenance Service 560 480 280 470 350 Monthly maintenance cost = 460 320 430 490 380 350 340 4,910 409 Maintenance Costs $ 5,110 4,240 2,730 4,300 3,030 4,120 3,000 3,590 4,000 3,220 3,170 3,070 $ 43,580 $ 3,632 PR 6-38 (Algo) Part 1 Estimate the behavior of the maintenance costs incurred... Required: 1. Using the high-low method of cost estimation, estimate the behavior of the maintenance…arrow_forwardNation's Capital Fitness, Incorporated, operates a chain of fitness centers in the Washington, D.C., area. The firm's controller is accumulating data to be used in preparing its annual profit plan for the coming year. The cost behavior pattern of the firm's equipment maintenance costs must be determined. The accounting staff has suggested the use of an equation, in the form of Y = a + bX, for maintenance costs. Data regarding the maintenance hours and costs for last year are as follows: Month January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Average Hours of Maintenance Service Variable maintenance cost 520 470 250 490 340 470 330 410 480 380 390 340 4,870 406 Maintenance Costs $ 5,305 4,170 2,740 4,280 3,050 4,160 3,040 3,570 3,990 3,230 3,170 3,120 $ 43,825 $ 3,652 2. Using your answer to requirement 1, what is the variable component of the maintenance cost? Note: Round your answer to 2 decimal places. ********* per hourarrow_forwardNation's Capital Fitness, Incorporated, operates a chain of fitness centers in the Washington, D.C., area. The firm's controller is accumulating data to be used in preparing its annual profit plan for the coming year. The cost behavior pattern of the firm's equipment maintenance costs must be determined. The accounting staff has suggested the use of an equation, in the form of Y= a + bx, for maintenance costs. Data regarding the maintenance hours and costs for last year are as follows: Month January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Average Hours of Maintenance Service 560 480 280 470 350 460 320 430 490 380 350 340 4,910 409 Maintenance cost Maintenance Costs $ 5,110 4,240 2,730 4,300 3,030 4, 120 3,000 3,590 4,000 3,220 3,170 3,070 $ 43,580 $ 3,632 PR 6-38 (Algo) Part 3 Compute the predicted maintenance cost... 3. Compute the predicted maintenance cost at 670 hours of activity. Answer is complete but not entirely correct. $ 49,192 Xarrow_forward
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- The Lockit Company manufactures door knobs for residential homes and apartments. Lockit is considering the use of simple (single-driver) and multiple regression analyses to forecast annual sales because previous forecasts have been inaccurate. The new sales forecast will be used to initiate the budgeting process and to identify more completely the underlying process that generates sales. Larry Husky, the controller of Lockit, has considered many possible independent variables and equations to predict sales and has narrowed his choices to four equations. Husky used annual observations from 20 prior years to estimate each of the four equations. Following are definitions of the variables used in the four equations and a statistical summary of these equations: St=ForecastedsalesindollarsforLockitinperiodtSt1=ActualsalesindollarsforLockitinperiodt1Gt=ForecastedU.S.grossdomesticproductinperiodtGt1=ActualU.S.grossdomesticproductinperiodt1Nt1=Lockitsnetincomeinperiodt1 Required: 1. Write Equations 2 and 4 in the form Y = a + bx. 2. If actual sales are 1,500,000 in the current year, what would be the forecasted sales for Lockit in the coming year? 3. Explain why Larry Husky might prefer Equation 3 to Equation 2. 4. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using Equation 4 to forecast sales.arrow_forwardArmer Company is accumulating data to use in preparing its annual profit plan for the coming year. The cost behavior pattern of the maintenance costs must be determined. The accounting staff has suggested the use of linear regression to derive an equation for maintenance hours and costs. Data regarding the maintenance hours and costs for the last year and the results of the regression analysis follow: Maintenance Machine Month Cost Hours $ 4,200 Jan. 480 Feb. 3,000 320 Mar. 3,600 400 Apr. 2,820 300 May 4,350 500 June 2,960 310 July 3,030 320 Aug. 4,470 520 Sept. 4,260 490 Oct. 4,050 470 Nov. 3,300 350 Dec. 3,160 340 Sum $43, 200 4,800 $ 3,600 $ $ $ 684.65 Average 400 Average cost per hour a (intercept) b (coefficient) 9.00 7.2884 Standard error of the estimate 34.469 R-squared 0.99724 t-value for b 60.105 At 400 hours of activity, Armer management can be approximately two-thirds confident that the maintenance costs will be in the range ofarrow_forwarda) Calculate the contribution margin per unit.b) Calculate the number of units Beauty Supplies Company must sell each year to break even.c) Calculate the number of units Beauty Supplies Company must sell to yield a profit of $160,000.d) Managers may use Sensitivity analysis in their accounting system.i) What is sensitivity analysis? ii) How is Sensitivity analysis useful to managers?arrow_forward
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