At the end of 2008, Cyril Fedako, CFO for Fedako Products, received a report comparing budgeted and actual production costs for the company's plant in Forest Lake. Minnesota:
Manufacturing Costs
Forest Lake Plant
Budget versus Actual 2008
Budget Actual Difference
(Actual vs. Budget)
Materials $3,000,000 $3,300,000 $300,000
Direct labor $2,100,000 $2,300,000 $200,000
Supervisory salaries $375,000 $400,000 $25,000
Utilities $75,000 $85,000 $10,000
Machine maintenance $250,000 $280,000 $30,000
Building depreciation $50,000 $50,000 -0-
Equipment depreciation $200,000 $205,000 $5,000
Janitorial $120,000 $135,000 $15,000
TOTAL $6,170,000 $6,755,000 $585,000

His first thought was that costs must be out of control since actual costs exceed the budget by $585,000. However, he quickly recalled that the budget was set assuming a production level of 50,000 units. The Forest Lake plant actually produced 55,000 units in 2008.

a.Given that production was greater than planned, should Cyril expect that all actual costs would be greater than budgeted? Which costs would you expect to increase, and which costs would you expect to remain relatively constant?

b.Cyril is extremely busy - the company has six other plants. Therefore, he cannot spend time investigating every departure from the budget. With this in mind, which cost(s) should Cyril concentrate on in his investigation of budget differences?