The Gadget Co produces three products, A, B and C, all made from the same material. Until now, it has used traditional absorption costing to allocate overheads to its products. The company is now considering an activity based costing system in the hope that it will improve profitability. Information for the three products for the last year is as follows: A B CProduction and sales volumes (units)15,000 12,000 18,000Selling price per unit $7.50 $12 $13Raw material usage (kg) per unit 2 34Direct labour hours per unit 0·10·15 0·2Machine hours per unit 0·5 0·7 0·9Number of production runs per annum 16 12 8Number of purchase orders per annum 24 28 42Number of deliveries to retailers per annum 48 30 62The price for raw materials remained constant throughout the year at $1·20 per kg. Similarly, the direct labour cost for the whole workforce was $14·80 per hour. The annual overhead costs were as follows:$Machine set up costs 26,550Machine running costs 66,400Procurement costs 48,000Delivery costs54,320Required:
(c) Using your calculation from (a) and (b) above, explain how activity based costing may help The Gadget Co improve the profitability of each product. (6 marks)
参考答案：Using activity-based costingWhen comparing the full unit costs for each of the products under absorption costing as compared to ABC, the following observations can be made:Product AThe unit cost for product A is AF% higher under ABC as opposed to traditional absorption costing. Under ABC, it is $G·GF per unit compared to $F·GA under traditional costing. This is particularly significant given that the selling price for product A is $G·E0 per unit. This means that when the activities that give rise to the overhead costs for product A are taken into account, product A is actually making a loss. If the company wants to improve profitability it should look to either increase the selling price of product A or somehow reduce the costs. Delivery costs are also high, with DH deliveries a year being made for product A. Maybe the company could seek further efficiencies here. Also, machine set up costs are higher for product A than for any of the other products, due to the larger number of production runs. The reason for this needs to be identified and, if possible, the number of production runs needs to be reduced.Product BThe difference between the activity based cost for B as opposed to the traditional cost is quite small, being only $0·A0. Since the selling price for B is $AB, product B is clearly profitable whichever method of overhead allocation is used. ABC does not really identify any areas for concern here.Product CThe unit cost for C is G% lower under ABC when compared to traditional costing. More importantly, while C looks like it is making a loss under traditional costing, ABS tells a different story. The selling price for C is $AC per unit and, under ABC, it costs $AB·DH per unit. Under traditional absorption costing, C is making a loss of $0·DB per unit. Identifying the reason for the differences in C, it is apparent that the number of production runs required to produce C is relatively low compared to the volumes produced. This leads to a lower apportionment of the machine set up costs to C than would be given under traditional absorption costing. Similarly, the number of product tests carried out on C is low relative to its volume.ABC is therefore very useful in identifying that C is actually more profitable than A, because of the reasons identified above. The company needs to look at the efficiency that seems to be achieved with C (low number of production runs less testing) and see whether any changes can be made to A, to bring it more in line with C. Of course, this may not be possible, in which case the company may consider whether it wishes to continue to produce A and whether it could sell higher volumes of C.
