A supplier of plastic and resin parts has demands for thousands of different part configurations from hundreds of small customers. Many of these parts are similar, and rather than mold each different one, a common molded blank may be used and machined to insert holes, grooves, fins, threads, and so on. Some of these parts may be called for in large amounts one year and almost disregarded the next year. Consider a spiral groover costing \($16,000\) with a life of approximately 24,000 machined parts and a salvage value of \($2,000.\) Depreciation allowances taken over 4 years based upon the units of production method are (1) \($933.33,\) (2) \($5,454.17,\) (3) \($4,433.33,\) and (4) \($694.17.\) (9.B.1)

a. How many parts were machined each year?

b. How many, if any, parts can still be machined with this spiral groover?