ColdKing Company is a small producer of fruit-flavored frozen desserts. For many years, its products have had strong regional sales because of brand recognition; however, other companies have begun marketing similar products in the area, and price competition has become increasingly important. Janice Wakefield, the company’s controller, is planning to implement a standard cost system for ColdKing and has gathered considerable information from her co-workers about production and materials requirements for ColdKing’s products. Janice believes that the use of standard costs will allow the company to improve cost control, make better pricing decisions, and enhance strategic management. ColdKing’s most popular product is raspberry sherbet. The sherbet is produced in 10-gallon batches, each of which requires 6 quarts of good raspberries and 10 gallons of other ingredients. The fresh raspberries are sorted by hand before they enter the production process. Because of imperfections in the raspberries and normal spoilage, one quart of berries is discarded for every four accepted. The standard direct labor time for sorting to obtain one quart of acceptable raspberries is 3 minutes. The acceptable raspberries are then blended with the other ingredients; blending requires 12 minutes of direct labor time per batch. After blending, the sherbet is packaged in quart containers.

Janice has gathered the following price information:

• ColdKing purchases raspberries for $4.00 per quart. All other ingredients cost $2.25 per gallon.

• Direct labor is paid at the rate of $15 per hour.

• The total packaging cost (labor and materials) for the sherbet is $0.50 per quart.

Required

1. Develop the standard cost for the direct cost components of a 10-gallon batch of raspberry sherbet. For each direct cost component, the standard cost should identify the following:

a. Standard quantity.

b. Standard rate.

c. Standard cost per batch.

2. As part of the implementation of a standard cost system at ColdKing, Janice plans to train those responsible for maintaining the standards to use variance analysis. She is particularly concerned with the causes of unfavorable variances.

a. Discuss the possible causes of unfavorable materials price variances, identify the individuals who should be held responsible for them, and comment on the implications of these variances on strategic cost management.

b. Discuss the possible causes of unfavorable labor efficiency variances, identify the individuals who should be held responsible for them, and comment on the implications of these variances on strategic cost management.