The Tracy Corporation has a machining facility specializing in jobs for the aircraft- components market. Tracy's previous simple job-costing system had two direct-cost categories (direct materials and direct manufacturing labor) and a single indirect-cost pool (manufacturing overhead, allocated using direct manufacturing labor-hours). The indirect cost-allocation rate of the simple system for 2010 would have been $115 per direct manufacturing labor-hour.
Recently a team with members from product design, manufacturing, and accounting used an ABC approach to refine its job-costing system. The two direct-cost categories were retained. The team decided to replace the single indirect-cost pool with five indirect-cost pools. The cost pools represent five activity areas at the plan., each with its own supervisor and budget responsibility. Pertinent data are as follows:
Activity Area Cost-Allocation Base Cost-Allocation Rate Materials handling Parts $0.40 Lathe work Lathe turns 0.20 Milling Machine-hours 20.00 Grinding Parts 0.80 Testing Units tested 15.00 Information-gathering technology has advanced to the point at which the data necessary for budgeting in these five activity areas are collected automatically.
Two representative jobs processed under the ABC system at the plant in the most recent period had the following characteristics:
Job 410 Job 411
Direct material cost per job $9,700 $59,900
Direct manufacturing labor cost per job $750 $11,250
Number of direct manufacturing labor-hours per job 25 375
Parts per job 500 2,000
Lathe turns per job 20,000 60,000
Machine-hours per job 150 1,050
Units per job (all units are tested) 10 200
Required
1. Compute the manufacturing cost per unit for each job under the previous simple job-costing system.
2. Compute the manufacturing cost per unit for each job under the activity-based costing system.
3. Compare the per-unit cost figures for jobs 410 and 411 computed in requirements 1 and 2. Why do the simple and activity-based costing systems differ in the manufacturing cost per unit for each job? Why might these differences be important to Tracy Corporation?