A maintenance department will likely not have any direct materials or direct labor. The entire department will likely be considered factory overhead if the maintenance department is supporting a manufacturing operation--but the maintenance department is not a production department so I'm not sure what "price" will refer to--with the exception of the standard price of units produced by the production department that relies on the maintenance department. I would think using this approach to measure the financial results of cost center is a real stretch.

What about a budget or a trend of expenses? Wouldn't it make the most sense to determine the financial results of any cost center by simply comparing the current periods costs (or expenses) to what was budgeting or to compare the spending to a past period?

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