Sunday, 3 November 2019
Fairbanks Corporation produces two types of cell phone electronic chargers: wall chargers and car chargers
Fairbanks Corporation produces two types of cell phone
electronic chargers: wall chargers and car chargers. The current
traditional costing system allocates overhead costs using a
plant-wide overhead rate based on direct labor hours. Since the two
products are similar but require different parts and processes, the
company controller believes that it might make sense to employ
activity-based costing in order to get a better application of
overhead expenses to the products produced. Production expectations
for 2017 are 17,000 wall chargers and 15,200 car chargers. The wall
chargers take .5 hours to produce. The car chargers take .75 hours
to produce. The direct material and direct labor costs included in
the two products are as follows: Wall chargers use $3.75 of direct
material per unit and $9.50 per hour of direct labor. Car chargers
use $4.15 of direct material per unit and $9.50 per hour of direct
labor. Each charger sells for $23.00. Budgeted Total Factory
Overhead for 2017: Activity Est. OH Cost Est. Volume Levels
Production setup $8,500 20 setups Materials handling $62,000 4,500
lbs. Packaging and shipping $120,000 6,400 boxes Total factory
overhead $190,500 Fairbanks’ controller worked with the operations
group to analyze the three overhead activities in order to
effectuate activity-based costing. The estimates related to the two
products’ requirements were: Activity Wall Charger Car Charger
Production setup 35% 65% Materials handling 60% 40% Packaging and
shipping 55% 45% From the cost information provided, provide
responses in Microsoft Excel to the following questions. Reference
Lynda.com in the CSU-Global Library (Links to an external site.)
for Microsoft Excel tutorials or use the Excel Tutorials link found
in the classroom if assistance is needed. Compute the cost of each
product under the simple/traditional costing method. For period
costs, use direct labor hours. Compute the net operating profit
margin of each product using the simple/traditional costing method.
Compute the total overhead and period cost allocation under ABC
assumptions for each product. Compute the per unit ABC cost of each
product. Compute the net profit margin of each product using the
ABC costing method. Compare the net profit margin of the products
under the simple/traditional cost assignment and the ABC assignment
for each product. Evaluate the difference. On a separate Excel
workbook tab, write a brief explanation (approximately 2
paragraphs) that the controller might deliver to management to
justify the use of ABC for these two products.