Refer to Case 9-63. Jean Sharpe decides to gather additional data to identify the cause of overhead costs and figure out which products are most profitable. She notices that $30,000 of the overhead originated from the equipment used. She decides to incorporate machine-hours into the overhead allocation base to determine the effect on product profitability. Almond Dream requires 2 machine-hours per case, Krispy Krackle requires 7 hours per case, and Creamy Crunch requires 6 hours per case. Additionally, Jean notices that the $15,000 per month spent to rent 10,000 square feet of factory space accounts for almost 22 percent of the overhead. The assignment of square feet is 1,000 to Almond Dream, 4,000 to Krispy Krackle, and 5,000 to Creamy Crunch. Jean decides to incorporate this into the allocation base for the rental costs.

Because labor-hours are still an important cost driver for overhead, Jean decides that she should use labor-hours to allocate the remaining $24,500.

CBI still plans to produce 1,000 cases each of Almond Dream, Krispy Krackle, and Creamy Crunch. Assume that CBI can sell all products it manufactures and that if it drops any products, it will use excess capacity to produce additional cases of the most profitable product. Overhead will remain $69,500 per month under all alternatives.

Required
a. Based on the additional data, determine the product cost and gross profit margin percentages of each product using the three allocation bases (labor-hours, machine-hours, and square feet) to determine the allocation assigned to each product.
b. Would management recommend dropping any product based on the criterion of dropping products with less than 10 percent gross profit margin?
c. Based on the recommendation you make in requirement (b), recalculate the allocations and profit margins to determine whether any of the remaining products should be dropped from the product line. If so, substantiate the profitability of remaining products.

Data From Case 9-63:

Chocolate Bars, Inc. (CBI), manufactures creamy deluxe chocolate candy bars. The firm has developed three distinct products: Almond Dream, Krispy Krackle, and Creamy Crunch.

CBI is profitable, but management is quite concerned about the profitability of each product and the product costing methods currently employed. In particular, management questions whether the overhead allocation base of direct labor-hours accurately reflects the costs incurred during the production process of each product.

In reviewing cost reports with the marketing manager, Steve Hoffman, who is the cost accountant, notices that Creamy Crunch appears exceptionally profitable and that Almond Dream appears to be produced at a loss. This surprises both him and the manager, and after much discussion, they are convinced that the cost accounting system is at fault and that Almond Dream is performing very well at the current market price.

Steve decides to hire Jean Sharpe, a management consultant, to study the firm’s cost system over the next month and present her findings and recommendations to senior management. Her objective is to identify and demonstrate how the cost accounting system might be distorting the firm’s product costs.

Jean begins her study by gathering information and documenting the existing cost accounting system. It is rather simplistic, using a single overhead allocation base—direct labor-hours—to calculate and apply overhead rates to all products. The rate is calculated by summing variable and fixed overhead costs and then dividing the result by the number of direct labor-hours. The product cost is determined by multiplying the number of direct laborhours required to manufacture the product by the overhead rate and adding this amount to the direct labor and direct material costs.

CBI engages in two distinct production processes for each product. Process 1 is labor intensive, using a high proportion of direct materials and labor. Process 2 uses special packing equipment that wraps each individual candy bar and then packs it into a box of 24 bars. The boxes are then packaged into cases, each of which has six boxes. Special packing equipment is used on all three products and has a monthly capacity of 3,000 cases, each containing 144 candy bars (= 6 boxes × 24 bars).

To illustrate the source of the distortions to senior management, Jean collects the cost data for the three products, Almond Dream, Krispy Krackle, and Creamy Crunch (see Exhibit 9.21).

Exhibit 9.21:

                           

CBI recently adopted a general policy to discontinue all products whose gross profit margin percentages [(Gross margin ÷ Selling price) × 100] were less than 10 percent. By comparing the selling prices to the firm’s costs and then calculating the gross margin percentages, Jean could determine which products, under the current cost system, should be dropped. The current selling prices of Almond Dream, Krispy Krackle, and Creamy Crunch are $85, $55, and $35 per case, respectively. Overhead will remain $69,500 per month under all alternatives.