Jefferis Inc. manufactures only two products, Medium (42-inch) and Large (63-inch) plasma screen TVs. To generate adequate

Question:

Jefferis Inc. manufactures only two products, Medium (42-inch) and Large (63-inch) plasma screen TVs. To generate adequate profit and cover its expenses throughout the value chain, Jefferis prices its TVs at 300% of manufacturing cost. The company is concerned, because the Large model is facing severe pricing competition, whereas the Medium model is the low-price leader in the market. The CEO questions whether the cost numbers generated by the accounting system are correct. He has just learned about ABC and wants to reanalyze this past year€™s product costs using an ABC system. Information about the company€™s products this past year is as follows:
Medium (42-inch) Plasma TVs
Total direct material cost: $661,000
Total direct labour cost: $223,000
Production volume: 3,180 units
Large (63-inch) Plasma TVs:
Total direct material cost: $1,240,000
Total direct labour cost: $386,000
Production volume: 4,120 units
Currently, the company applies manufacturing overhead on the basis of direct labour hours. This year, the company incurred $828,000 of MOH and 26,500 direct labour hours
(9,600 direct labour hours making Medium TVs and 16,900 making Large TVs). The ABC team identified three primary production activities that generate MOH costs:
Materials Handling ($156,000); driven by number of material orders handled
Machine Processing ($570,000); driven by machine hours
Packaging ($102,000); driven by packaging hours
The company€™s only two products required the following activity levels during the year:

Requirements
1. Use the company€™s current costing system to find the total cost of producing all Medium TVs and the total cost of producing all Large TVs. What was the average cost of making each unit of each model? Round your answers to the nearest cent.
2. Use ABC to find the total cost of producing all Medium TVs and the total cost of producing all Large TVs. What was the average cost of making each unit of each model? Round your answers to the nearest cent.
3. How much cost distortion was occurring between Jefferis€™ two products? Calculate the cost distortion in total and on a per unit basis. Could the cost distortion explain the CEO€™s confusion about pricing competition? Explain.