Concept explainers
Factory
Salvo Inc., a specialized equipment manufacturer, uses a
Our accounting system doesn’t make any sense to me. It tells me that every labor hour carries an additional burden of$ 1,500. This means that direct labor makes up only 6% of our total product cost, yet it drives all our costs.
In addition, these rates give my design engineers incentives to “design out” direct labor by using machine technology. Yet, over the past years as we have had less and less direct labor, the overhead rate keeps going up and up. I won’t be surprised if next year the rate is $2,000 per direct labor hour. I’m also concerned because small errors in our estimates of the direct labor content can have a large impact on our estimated costs. Just a 30-minute error in our estimate of assembly time is worth $750. Small mistakes in our direct labor time estimates really swing our bids around. I think this puts us at a disadvantage when we are going after business.
1. What is the engineer's concern about the overhead rate going “up and up”?
2. What did the engineer mean about the large overhead rate being a disadvantage when placing bids and seeking new business?
3. What do you think is a possible solution?
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Chapter 19 Solutions
Working Papers, Chapters 1-17 for Warren/Reeve/Duchac's Accounting, 26th and Financial Accounting, 14th
- how I can calculate and resolve this problem? Comans Corporation has two production departments, Milling and Customizing. The company uses a job-order costing system and computes a predetermined overhead rate in each production department. The Milling Department’s predetermined overhead rate is based on machine-hours and the Customizing Department’s predetermined overhead rate is based on direct labor-hours. At the beginning of the current year, the company had made the following estimates: Milling Customizing Machine-hours 25,000 10,000 Direct labor-hours 15,000 4,000 Total fixed manufacturing overhead cost $132,500 $22,000 Variable manufacturing overhead per machine-hour $ 1.80 Variable manufacturing overhead per direct labor-hour $ 3.90 During the current month the company started and finished Job A319. The following data were recorded for this job: Job A319: Milling Customizing Machine-hours 70 20 Direct labor-hours 30 40 Direct materials…arrow_forwardThe cost accountant for M. Company wants to determine the cost of factory overhead. Based on observation and discussions with plant workers, you feel that five accounts are most relevant. Two are fixed- supervisory salaries and depreciation- and the remaining three are variable. Indirect labor is primarily used to move materials and varies with a number of moves. The largest component of utilities is electricity to run production machinery; which is driven by machine hours. Purchasing seems to be driven by the number of purchase orders. The accounts and their balances for the past six months are shown below: Indirect Plant and Labor Supervisory Equipment Cost Utilities Purchasing Salaries Depreciation July $14,250 $12,000 $38,200 $20,000 $6,500 Aug 15,800 10,600 35,400 23,000…arrow_forwardAmberjack Company is trying to decide on an allocation base to use to assign manufacturing overhead to jobs. The company has always used direct labor hours to assign manufacturing overhead to products, but it is trying to decide whether it should use a different allocation base such as direct labor dollars or machine hours. Actual and estimated data for manufacturing overhead, direct labor cost, direct labor hours, and machine hours for the most recent fiscal year are summarized here: Estimated Value Actual Value Manufacturing overhead cost $ 597,000 $ 658,000 Direct labor cost $ 399,000 $ 453,000 Direct labor hours 16,800 hours 18,300 hours Machine hours 7,800 hours 8,800 hours Required: Based on the company’s current allocation base (direct labor hours), compute the following:Predetermined overhead rate. Note: Round your answer to 2 decimal places. Applied manufacturing overhead. Note: Round your intermediate calculations to 2 decimal places and final answer…arrow_forward
- O’Leary Corporation manufactures special purpose portable structures (huts, mobile offices, and so on) for use at construction sites. It only builds to order (each unit is built to customer specifications). O’Leary uses a normal job costing system. Direct labor at O’Leary is paid $20 per hour, but the employees are not paid if they are not working on jobs. Manufacturing overhead is assigned to jobs by a predetermined rate on the basis of direct labor-hours. The company incurred manufacturing overhead costs during two recent years (adjusted for price-level changes using current prices and wage rates) as follows. Year 1 Year 2 Direct labor-hours worked 67,600 54,600 Manufacturing overhead costs incurred Indirect labor $ 2,784,000 $ 2,184,000 Employee benefits 1,014,000 819,000 Supplies 676,000 546,000 Power 633,000 528,000 Heat and light 139,200 139,200 Supervision 777,990 658,050 Depreciation 2,000,500…arrow_forwardA company uses job-order costing with manufacturing overhead (MOH) applied on the basis of machine hours (MHs). In the past, the company's pre-determined overhead rate (POHR) has fluctuated from period to period due primarily to differences in the expected usage of their machine. For this period, the machine has a capacity of 450 MHs, but based on anticipated production, only 375 MHs are expected to be required. The company's MOH is relatively fixed, estimated at $11,250 for both levels of MHs. At the end of the period, actual production used 413 MHs and total actual MOH amounted to $10.500. 1. How much less MOH would be applied during the month using capacity MHs rather than the traditional method?arrow_forwardA company uses job-order costing with manufacturing overhead (MOH) applied on the basis of machine hours (MHS). In the past, the company's pre- determined overhead rate (POHR) has fluctuated from period to period due primarily to differences in the expected usage of their machine. For this period, the machine has a capacity of 450 MHs, but based on anticipated production, only 375 MHs are expected to be required. The company's MOH is relatively fixed, estimated at $11,250 for both levels of MHs. At the end of the period, actual production used 386 MHs and total actual MOH amounted to $10,500. How much less MOH would be applied during the month using capacity MHs rather than the traditional method? Multiple Choice $772 less applied to MOH using capacity. None of the answers are correct $1358 less applied to MOH using capacity. $1,930 less applied to MOH using capacity $1,544 less applied to MOH using capacityarrow_forward
- Darnell Poston, owner of Poston Manufacturing, Inc., wants to determine the cost behavior oflabor and overhead. Darnell pays his workers a salary; during busy times, everyone works to getthe orders out. Temps (temporary workers hired through an agency) may be hired to pack and prepare completed orders for shipment. During slower times, Darnell catches up on bookkeep-ing and administrative tasks while the salaried workers do preventive maintenance, clean the lines and building, etc. Temps are not hired during slow times. Darnell found that workers’ sal-aries, temp agency payments, rentals, utilities, and plant and equipment depreciation are the largest dollar accounts. He believes that workers’ salaries and plant and equipment depreciationare fixed, temp agency payments are associated with the number of orders (since temp workers are used to pack and prepare completed orders for shipment), and electricity is associated with the number of machine hours. When the number of different parts…arrow_forwardBaja Industries has recently switched its method of applying manufacturing overhead from a single predetermined overhead rate based on direct labor hours to activity-based costing (ABC). Assume that the direct labor rate is $18.00 per hour and that there were no beginning inventories. The following cost drivers and rates have been developed for allocating manufacturing overhead costs: Activity Cost Driver Rate Material handling Number of parts used $ 2.00 per part Assembly and inspection Number of direct labor hours $25.00 per DLH Testing Number of units tested $ 5.00 per unitThe following production, costs, and activities occurred during the month of August: Direct…arrow_forwardBaja Industries has recently switched its method of applying manufacturing overhead from a single predetermined overhead rate based on direct labor hours to activity-based costing (ABC). Assume that the direct labor rate is $18.00 per hour and that there were no beginning inventories. The following cost drivers and rates have been developed for allocating manufacturing overhead costs: Activity Cost Driver Rate Material handling Number of parts used $2.00 per part Assembly and inspection Number of Direct labor hours $25.00 per DHL Testing Number of units tested $5.00 per unit The following production, costs, and activities occurred during the month of August: Units Produced: 6,400 Direct Material: $208,600 Cost Number of parts used: 142,000 Direct Labor Hours: 26,480 Assume instead that Baja Industries applies manufacturing…arrow_forward
- As an assistant cost accountant for Mississippi Industries, you have been assigned to re- view the activity base for the predetermined factory overhead rate. The president, Tony Favre, has expressed concern that the over- or underapplied overhead has fluctuated excessively over the years. An analysis of the company's operations and use of the current overhead rate (direct labor cost) has narrowed the possible alternative overhead bases to direct labor cost and machine hours. For the past five years, the following data have been gathered: 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 $ 790,000 777,000 $ 13,000 $ 870,000 $ 935,000 $ 760,000 777,000 $ (17,000) Actual overhead $ 845,000 Applied overhead (Over-) underapplied overhead 882,000 924,000 840,000 $ (12,000) $ 11,000 24 5,000 Direct labor cost $3,885,000 $4,410,000 $4,620,000 $4,200,000 $3,885,000 Machine hours 93,000 104,000 111,000 100,400 91,600arrow_forwardHow can I resolve this problem? White Company has two departments, Cutting and Finishing. The company uses a job-order costing system and computes a predetermined overhead rate in each department. The Cutting Department bases its rate on machine-hours, and the Finishing Department bases its rate on direct labor-hours. At the beginning of the year, the company made the following estimates: Department Cutting Finishing Direct labor-hours 8,800 62,000 Machine-hours 65,700 1,500 Total fixed manufacturing overhead cost $ 380,000 $ 489,000 Variable manufacturing overhead per machine-hour $ 2.00 — Variable manufacturing overhead per direct labor-hour — $ 4.75 Required: 1. Compute the predetermined overhead rate for each department. 2. The job cost sheet for Job 203, which was started and completed during the year, showed the following: Department Cutting Finishing Direct labor-hours 4 12 Machine-hours 90 4…arrow_forwardHermann is not satisfied with the traditional method of allocating overhead because he believes that most of the overhead costs relate to the truck wheels product line because of its complexity. He therefore develops the following three activity cost pools and related cost drivers to better understand these costs. Activity Cost Pools Setting up machines Assembling Inspection Setting up machines Assembling Inspection $228,000 380,000 273,600 Compute the activity-based overhead rates for these three cost pools. Estimated Overhead Costs A tA Estimated Use of Cost Drivers 1,000 setups 76,000 labor hours 1,200 inspections Overhead Rates /setup /DLH /inspectionarrow_forward
- Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning