Concept explainers
Jackie Iverson was furious. She was about ready to fire Tom Rich, her purchasing agent. Just a month ago, she had given him a salary increase and a bonus for his performance. She had been especially pleased with his ability to meet or beat the price standards. But now, she found out that it was because of a huge purchase of raw materials. It would take month’s to use that inventory, and there was hardly space to store it. In the meantime, space had to be found for the other materials supplies that would be ordered and processed on a regular basis. Additionally, it was a lot of capital to tie up in inventory—money that could have been used to help finance the cash needs of the new product just coming online.
Her interview with Tom was frustrating. He was defensive, arguing that he thought she wanted those standards met and that the means were not that important. He also pointed out that quantity purchases were the only way to meet the price standards. Otherwise, an unfavorable variance would have been realized.
Required:
- 1. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Why did Tom Rich purchase the large quantity of raw materials? Do you think that this behavior was the objective of the price standard? If not, what is the objective(s)?
- 2. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Suppose that Tom is right and that the only way to meet the price standards is through the use of quantity discounts. Also, assume that using quantity discounts is not a desirable practice for this company. What would you do to solve this dilemma?
- 3. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Should Tom be fired? Explain.
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Chapter 10 Solutions
Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Business Decision-Making
- Ellie Ice-cream’s owner is disturbed by the poor profit performance of his ice cream counter. He has prepared the following profit analyses for the year just ended: The owner is thinking the elimination of this counter. If it is eliminated then: Depreciation of counter equipment is avoidable The supervisory salaries is avoidable The insurance expense is unavoidable The depreciation of building unavoidable The general overhead is unavoidable Required:a) Should the company eliminate the counter or not? Fill in the table and justify your answer. b) Mention at least three relevant costs.arrow_forwardConsider each of the following independent scenarios:a. Terrin Belson, plant manager for the laser printer factory of Compugear Inc., brushed hishair back and sighed. December had been a bad month. Two machines had broken down,and some factory production workers (all on salary) were idled for part of the month.Materials prices increased, and insurance premiums on the factory increased. No way outof it; costs were going up. He hoped that the marketing vice president would be able topush through some price increases, but that really wasn’t his department.b. Joanna Pauly was delighted to see that her ROI figures had increased for the third straightyear. She was sure that her campaign to lower costs and use machinery more efficiently(enabling her factories to sell several older machines) was the reason why. Joanna plannedto take full credit for the improvements at her semiannual performance review.c. Gil Rodriguez, sales manager for ComputerWorks, was not pleased with a memo…arrow_forwardHoward Rockness was worried. His company, Rockness Bottling, showed declining profits over the past several years despite an increase in revenues. With profits declining and revenues increasing, Rockness knew there must be a problem with costs. Rockness sent an e-mail to his executive team under the subject heading, “How do we get Rockness Bottling back on track?” Meeting in Rockness’s spacious office, the team began brainstorming solutions to the declining profits problem. Some members of the team wanted to add products. (These were marketing people.) Some wanted to fire the least efficient workers. (These were finance people.) Some wanted to empower the workers. (These people worked in the human resources department.) And some people wanted to install a new computer system. (It should be obvious who these people were.) Rockness listened patiently. When all participants had made their cases, Rockness said, “We made money when we were a smaller, simpler company. We have grown, added…arrow_forward
- Howard Rockness was worried. His company, Rockness Bottling, showed declining profits over the past several years despite an increase in revenues. With profits declining and revenues increasing, Rockness knew there must be a problem with costs. Rockness sent an e-mail to his executive team under the subject heading, “How do we get Rockness Bottling back on track?” Meeting in Rockness’s spacious office, the team began brainstorming solutions to the declining profits problem. Some members of the team wanted to add products. (These were marketing people.) Some wanted to fire the least efficient workers. (These were finance people.) Some wanted to empower the workers. (These people worked in the human resources department.) And some people wanted to install a new computer system. (It should be obvious who these people were.) Rockness listened patiently. When all participants had made their cases, Rockness said, “We made money when we were a smaller, simpler company. We have grown,…arrow_forwardDay Street Deli’s owner is disturbed by the poor profit performance of his ice cream counter.He has prepared the following profit analysis for the year just ended: he owner is thinking the elimination of this counter. If it is eliminated then: ✓ Depreciation of counter equipment is avoidable ✓ The supervisory salaries is avoidable✓ The insurance expense is unavoidable ✓ The depreciation of building unavoidable ✓ The general overhead is unavoidable Required:a) Should the company eliminate the counter or not? Show your calculations and justify your answer.b) Mention at least three relevant costs.arrow_forwardReeve Lumber Company has a small information systems department consisting of five people. A backlog of approximately 15 months exists for requests for new systems applications to even be considered. Both information users and systems personnel are unhappy with this state of affairs. The users feel that the systems department is not responsive enough to their needs, while the systems personnel feel overworked, frustrated, and unappreciated.Janet Hubert, the manager of the systems department, has decided that she needs to take a proactive measure. She is requesting the funds to purchase a CASE system for approximately $75,000 that takes about 2 months to install and train workers how to use it. The president of the company, Mike Cassidy, initially responded by questioning the wisdom of taking the systems personnel away from their duties when they are backlogged so they can learn a system. Prepare a memo from Hubert to Cassidy. In the memo, outline the expected benefits of purchasing and…arrow_forward
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