New Fashions Inc. manufactures shirts for retail chains. Andy Jorgenson, the controller, is becoming increasingly disenchanted with New Fashions' standard costing system. The budgeted and actual amounts for direct materials and direct manufacturing labour for June 2015 were as follows:

Budgeted AmountsActual Amounts

Shirts manufactured.......................6,000.............................6,732

Direct material costs....................$30,000..........................$30,294

Direct material units (rolls of cloth).........600...............................612

Direct manufacturing labour costs....$27,000..........................$27,693

Direct manufacturing labour-hours......1,500.............................1,530

There were no beginning or ending inventories of materials.

Standard costs are based on a study of the operations conducted by an independent consultant six months earlier. Jorgenson observes that, since that study, he has rarely seen an unfavourable variance of any magnitude. He notes that even at their current output levels, the workers seem to have a lot of time for sitting around and gossiping. Jorgenson is concerned that the production manager, Charlie Fenton, is aware of this but does not want to tighten up the standards because the lax standards make his performance look good.

Required

1. Compute the rate and efficiency variances of New Fashions for direct materials and direct manufacturing labour in June 2015.

2. Describe the types of actions the employees at New Fashions may have taken to reduce the accuracy of the standards set by the independent consultant. Why would employees take those actions? Is this behaviour ethical?

3. If Jorgenson does nothing about the standard costs, will his behaviour violate any ethical conduct guidelines?

4. What actions should Jorgenson take?

5. Jorgenson can obtain benchmarking information about the estimated costs of New Fashions' major competitors from Benchmarking Clearing House (BCH). Discuss the pros and cons of using the BCH information to compute the variances in requirement 1.