Managerial accounting

Briefly describe the activity-based costing allocation process.

Activity-based costing consists of two allocation stages and employs a variety of cost drivers. In the first stage, ABC assigns costs to pools. These pools represent the activities that cause the costs to be incurred. In the second stage the costs in the activity cost pools are allocated to products or other cost objects through the use of cost drivers that measure the object's use of that activity.

What is the relationship between activity-based management and just-in-time inventory?

Activity-based management seeks to eliminate or reduce non-value-added activities. A nonvalue-added activity is any unit of work that does not contribute to a product's satisfaction of customer needs. The maintenance of excessive inventory is an example of a nonvalue-added activity. Excessive inventories contribute to high inventory holding costs such as the costs of financing, warehouse space, supervision, theft, and obsolescence. Just-in-time inventory seeks to eliminate this nonvalue-added activity by reducing inventory holdings and eliminating the activities associated with their maintenance. Under just-in-time systems, inventory is made available just-in-time for customer consumption.

Why do activity-based cost drivers provide more accurate allocations of overhead in an automated manufacturing environment?

Automated business environments are based on more technically complex equipment and machinery. Machinery replaces labor as the major production vehicle. These automated processes based on a new kind of manufacturing generate costs that have no cause and effect relationship with volume-based cost drivers. Activities, rather than volume, drive overhead costs. Volume-based cost drivers assign more overhead to high-volume products and assign less overhead to low-volume products. Since the new kinds of overhead cost are not driven by volume, inaccuracies in allocations and poor decisions can occur.Activity-based cost drivers are not based on volume and therefore avoid overcosting high volume products and undercosting low-volume products. They assign overhead based on incursion of activities. The activity-based cost driver produces a better allocation because it distributes the relevant costs to the appropriate products.

Martinez Manufacturing makes two products, one of which is produced at a significantly higher volume than the other. The low-volume product consumes more of the company's engineering resources because it is technologically complex. Even so, the company's cost accountant chose to allocate engineering department costs based on the number of units produced. How could selecting this allocation base affect a decision about outsourcing engineering services for the low- volume product?

Because of the product's low volume, less of the company's engineering overhead cost would have been assigned than the product's complexity warrants. An activity-based cost driver would provide a more accurate assignment of engineering overhead cost. Erroneous cost assignment can affect the quality of the company's short-term decisions. For instance, in an outsourcing decision, it may have been decided to continue performing the engineering design internally instead of outsourcing because the cost assigned to the product for engineering appears lower than the cost of outsourcing this service activity. If a more accurate allocation based on the engineering department's time and effort on each product had been used, the decision may have been different. Cost allocation has an effect on the relevant cost that is considered in business decisions.

Milken Manufacturing has three product lines. The company's new accountant, Marvin LaSance, is responsible for allocating facility-level costs to these product lines. Mr. LaSance is finding the allocation assignment a daunting task. He knows there have been disagreements among the product managers over the allocation of facility costs, and he fears being asked to defend his method of allocation. Why would the allocation of facility-level costs be subject to disagreements?

Facility-level costs are not directly associated with a particular product but incurred to support the facility as a whole. Therefore, the allocation is arbitrary and difficult to defend.

Tom Rehr made the following comment: "Facility-lever costs should not be allocated to products because they are irrelevant for decision-making purposes." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Justify your response.

Facility-level costs are relevant for pricing decisions. Even though the costs are unavoidable, the company's revenues must cover all costs incurred by the company for the company to remain profitable. The company's products must be sold at prices that exceed total cost of administration, research and development, production, and marketing. To do so, all costs, not just product costs, must be allocated to the product even if the allocation is arbitrary.

Issacs Corporation produces two lines of pocket knives. The Arrowsmith product line involves very complex engineering designs; the Starscore product line involves relatively simple designs. Since its introduction, the low-volume Arrowsmith products have gained market share at the expense of the high-volume Starscore products. This pattern of sales has been accompanied by an overall decline in company profits. Why may the existing cost system be inadequate?

If the company is using a traditional costing system based on volume to assign overhead costs to the company's two product lines, it may be over-assigning overhead costs to the simple and high-volume product line and under-assigning overhead cost to the more complex and low-volume product line. More technologically complex products usually require more overhead cost because they consume more production activities. A volume-driven cost driver assigns costs based on volume, not based on activities consumed in production. If prices are linked to cost, then the Starscore line may be overpriced and losing market share while the Arrowsmith line may be underpriced and losing money. Using an activity-based costing system would probably give more accurate production costs for the company's two product lines. More accurate costs would facilitate a more profitable pricing scheme.

Beth Nelson, who owns and runs a small sporting goods store, buys most of her merchandise directly from manufacturers. Ms. Nelson was shocked at the $7.50 charge for a container of three ping-pong balls. She found it hard to believe that it could have cost more than $1.00 to make the balls. When she complained to Jim Wilson, the marketing manager of the manufacturing company, he tried to explain that the cost also included companywide overhead costs. How could companywide overhead affect the cost of ping-pong balls?

In order to stay in business, a company's product revenues must cover the company's total costs. The total overhead costs include overhead cost directly associated with producing products and overhead cost incurred in other companywide operations. All these costs must be allocated to products for appropriate pricing. The price of ping pong balls must include not only production costs but a proportionate share of the following costs: facility-level utilities and rent, administrative salaries, supplies, companywide marketing, research and development, depreciation on the manufacturing facility, maintenance, security, and landscaping.

Alisa Kamuf's company has reported losses from operations for several years. Industry standards indicate that prices are normally set at 30 percent abore manufacturing cost, which Ms. Kamuf has done. Assuming that her other costs are in line with industry norms, how could she continue to lose money while her competitors earn a profit?

In order to stay in business, products must be priced above all costs, not just production costs. The costs of product-related activities that occur before (upstream) and after (downstream) the manufacturing process must be considered in product costing. These kinds of costs include research and development, marketing, packaging and labeling, and sales commissions. The price must exceed the total cost of making and selling products. Pricing the product only above production costs will lead to operating losses.

Why are labor hours ineffective as a companywide allocation base in many industries today?

More highly skilled workers, that are not easily replaced, are required in an automated business environment. When production falls, they are not as easily laid off and when production rises, increased labor may not be useful since most production processes are machine driven and labor is merely used to keep machinery functional. With these changes, labor is less related to volume of production and no longer provides an effective companywide allocation base.

To facilitate cost tracing, a company's activities can be subdivided into four hierarchical categories. What are these four categories? Describe them and give at least two examples of each category.

To facilitate cost tracing a company's activities can be divided into the following categories: Unit-level activities: Activities that increase or decrease, each time, a unit of product is made. Examples are inspection costs, production supplies, indirect labor, and machine-related utilities. Batch-level activities: Activities associated with the production of a group of products. Examples include materials handling cost, setup cost, quality control cost, and inspection cost. Product-level activities: Activities related to a specific product line. Examples include design and engineering cost, and product-specific advertising cost. Facility-level activities: Activities that are performed for the benefit of the production process as a whole and not related to any specific product, batch, or unit of production. Examples include the cost of depreciation for the manufacturing facility, the cost of security, landscaping cost, and the cost of maintenance and taxes.

Why did traditional costing systems base allocations on a single companywide cost driver?

Traditional costing systems evolved when the manufacturing process was labor intensive. Labor constituted the major manufacturing cost and was correlated to overhead use. This situation made it rational to allocate overhead cost on a companywide basis using one rate based on labor usage.

If each patient in a hospital is considered a cost object, what are examples of unit-, batch-, product-, and facility-level costs that would be allocated to this object using an activity-based costing system?

Unit-level costs associated with a hospital patient would include supplies, medications, laundry, and food. Batch-level costs could include food service, rehabilitation, and quality control. Product-level costs could include depreciation on specialized equipment used for specific illnesses, salaries of doctors, nurses, and orderlies, and emergency room costs. Facility-level costs could include maintenance, security, hospital-wide utilities, and administrative costs.

Why would machine hours be an inappropriate allocation base for batch-level costs?

Using a volume-driven allocation base (machine hours) will allocate more batch-level costs to products that consume the most machine hours. There may be little or no correlation between batch-level costs such as setups, materials handling, and inspection and the number of machine hours. In fact, most batch-level costs are fixed regardless of the number of units in a batch. Units and machine hours are normally strongly correlated. Machine hours and batches are not necessarily correlated at all. A product could require few machine hours but many different setups in the manufacturing process. Batch-level costs are related to the production of groups of products and could best be allocated using an activity measure that is correlated to the number of batches.

What is the difference between volume-based cost drivers and activity-based cost drivers?

Volume-based cost drivers are based on some measure of production volume such as units, direct labor hours, or material quantities. They are highly correlated with production volume, increase and decrease in direct relation to production volume. They are useful allocation bases when allocating costs related to volume. Activity-based cost drivers are based on some measure of business activity such as number of setups, utilization of research activities, or number of pounds of material moved. They are designed to measure the cost of a particular production activity. They are useful allocation bases when allocating costs resulting from designated business activities.

When would it be appropriate to use volume-based cost drivers in an activity-based costing system?

Volume-based cost drivers should be used to assign costs that exhibit variable cost behavior in relation to volume. They assure that the greater the volume, the greater the costs assigned. This choice results in assigning an equal amount of cost to each unit. Activity-based cost drivers can be used to assign costs that exhibit either variable or fixed behavior in relation to volume depending on the level of cost that is being assigned. Most unit-level overhead costs do exhibit variable behavior in relation to volume and are best assigned using a volume-based cost driver. Most batch-level costs exhibit fixed cost behavior in relation to volume and are best assigned by a measure of activity. The cost assigned by measures of activity would exhibit variable cost behavior in relation to the activity, but fixed cost behavior in relation to volume.