The Hamilton Flour Company is currently operating its mill six days a week, 24 hours a day, on three shifts. At current prices, the company could easily obtain a sufficient volume of sales to take the entire output of a seventh day of operation each week. The mill's practical capacity is 6,000 hundredweight of flour per day. Note that
• Flour sells for $12.40 a hundredweight (cwt) and the price of wheat is $4.34 a bushel. About 2.35 bushels of wheat are required per cwt of flour. Fixed costs now average $4,200 a day (or $0.70 per cwt). The average variable cost of mill opera-tion, almost entirely wages, is $0.34 per cwt.
• With Sunday operation, wages would be doubled for Sunday work, which would bring the variable cost of Sunday operation to $0.68 per cwt. Total fixed costs per week would increase by $420 (or $29,820) if the mill were to operate on Sunday.
(a) Using the information provided, compute the break-even volumes for six-day and seven day operation.
(b) What are the marginal contribution rates for six-day and seven-day operation?
(c) Compute the average total cost per cwt for six-day operation and the net profit margin per cwt before taxes,
(d) Would it be economical for the mill to operate on Sundays? (Justify your answer numerically.)