Feinan Sports, Inc., manufactures sporting equipment, including weight-lifting gloves. A national sporting goods chain recently submitted a special order for 4,000 pairs of weight-lifting gloves. Feinan Sports was not operating at capacity and could use the extra business. Unfortunately, the order's offering price of $12.70 per pair was below the cost to produce them. The controller was opposed to taking a loss on the deal. However, the personnel manager argued in favor of accepting the order even though a loss would be incurred; it would avoid the problem of layoffs and would help maintain the community image of the company. The full cost to produce a pair of weight-lifting gloves is presented below. Direct materials Direct labor $7.40 3.80 Variable overhead 1.60 Fixed overhead 3.10 $15.90 Total No variable selling or administrative expenses would be associated with the order. Non-unit- level activity costs are a small percentage of total costs and are therefore not considered. Required: 1. Assume that the company would accept the order only if it increased total profits. Should the company accept or reject the order? Provide supporting computations. 2. Suppose that Feinan Sports has negotiated with the potential customer, and has determined that it can substitute cheaper materials, reducing direct materials cost by $0.80 per unit. In addition, the company's engineers have found a way to reduce direct labor cost by S0.40 per unit. Should the company accept or reject the order? Provide supporting computations. 3. Consider the personnel manager's concerns. Discuss the merits of accepting the order even if it decreases total profits.

Jireh Limited also manufactures prefab components for the housing industry. They have just been offered a new four year contract to supply a component, subject to them meeting certain quality requirements set by GREDA Ghana. The production manager is concerned that the current machine, which has been fully depreciated, will not be able to meet the stringent quality controls that will be required because the technology is obsolete, and the machine is unreliable. The company currently spends £50,000 per year to maintain and operate this machine which has no secondhand market value. On the basis of the production managerʼs recommendation, management has decided to replace the current machine. It is estimated that the replacement machine will cost £1 million with a four-year useful life. The companyʼs depreciation policy is to use a 20% reducing balance method over the life of the asset. As part of the purchase agreement for the new machine, the suppliers are offering a special maintenance…

Safe Travel produces car seats for children from newborn to 2 years old. The company is worried because one of its competitors has recently come under public scrutiny because of product failure. Historically, Safe Travel's only problem with its car seats was stitching in the straps. The problem can usually be detected and repaired during an internal inspection. The cost of the inspection is $5.00 per car seat, and the repair cost is $1.00 per car seat. All 200,000 car seats were inspected last year, and 5% were found to have problems with the stitching in the straps during the internal inspection. Another 1% of the 200,000 car seats had problems with the stitching, but the internal inspection did not discover them. Defective units that were sold and shipped to customers needed to be shipped back to Safe Travel and repaired. Shipping costs are $8.00 per car seat, and repair costs are $1.00 per car seat. However, the out-of-pocket costs (shipping and repair) are not the only costs of…