Questions and Answers of Horngrens Cost Accounting

61. (Strategy) Select a major company in a well-known industry. Use library, Internet, and other resources to answer as completely as possible the questions in Exhibit 1–7 about the company you
60. (Strategy) Dell Computer Co. has a straightforward business strategy: “Eliminate middlemen and don’t build PCs until you have firm orders in hand.”31a. Dell is gaining a large European
59. (Benefits of successful planning) Successful business organizations appear to be those that have clearly defined long-range goals and a well-planned strategy to reach those goals. These
58. (Mission statement) You have owned Lee Construction for 15 years and employ 100 employees. Business has been profitable, but you are concerned that the locale in which your business is based may
57. (E-commerce) Competition in your industry is becoming fierce and you decide to begin selling on-line. Select one of the following industries and research the benefits and problems of e-commerce
56. (Organizational accountants) Use library and Internet resources to find how the jobs of management accountants have changed in the last 10 years.a. Prepare a “then vs. now” comparison.b. What
55. (Value chain) You are the management accountant for a manufacturer of breakfast cereals. You’ve been asked to prepare a presentation that will illustrate the company’s value chain.a. What
54. (Competition strategy) Choose a company that might utilize each of the following strategies relative to its competitors and discuss the benefits that might be realized from that strategy.
53. (Organizational culture) Southwest Airlines is known for its “wacky” organizational culture. Use library and Internet resources to research this culture and write a brief paper about how you
52. (Intellectual capital) Use library and Internet resources to research the inclusion of intellectual capital measurement at Skandia, a Swedish financial services company. Write a short paper
51. (Core competencies) As a team, make a list of the core competencies of your college or university and explain why you believe these items to be core competencies.Make appointments with the dean,
50. (Empowerment) Early this year, you started a house-cleaning service and now have 20 customers. Because of other obligations (including classes), you have had to hire three employees.a. What types
49. (Strategy) You are the manager of a small restaurant in your hometown.a. What information would you want to have in making the decision whether to add chicken fajitas and Boston clam chowder to
48. (Strategy) You are the manager of the local Home Depot store. What are the five factors that you believe to be most critical to the success of your organization?How would these factors influence
47. (Mission) Obtain a copy of your college’s mission statement. Draft a mission statement for this class that supports the college’s mission statement.a. How does your mission statement reflect
46. (Business risks) You have just been promoted to manage a branch location of a regional bank.a. Provide three examples of the strategic, operating, financial, and information risks that your
45. (Trade agreements) You have been appointed to a business advisory group in your country to consider the implementation of the NAFTA. What issues relative to implementation concern you and why?
44. (E-commerce) It is predicted that e-commerce will help speed the process of a single European market by forming “eZones” or “regions of Internet commerce between cross-border
43. (E-commerce) A new aspect of e-commerce is home management services. Andersen Consulting predicts that “the market for on-line orders of food, household goods, and services will mushroom from
42. (Globalization) The 1996 annual report of Callaway Golf Company (headquartered in California) was slightly untraditional in that the opening “letter”to shareholders was given not only in
41. (Accounting information) You are the owner and manager of a small auto repair shop that does routine maintenance, major repairs, and body work. Business is good, and your monthly financial
40. (Terminology) Match the following lettered items on the left with the appropriate numbered description on the right.a. Business intelligence system 1. An organization’s intangible assetsb.
39. (Terminology) Match the following lettered items on the left with the appropriate numbered description on the right.a. Authority 1. A target expressed in quantitativeb. Centralization termsc.
38. What is the value chain of an organization and how does it interface with strategic resource management?
37. What is strategic resource management? Why is financial accounting an insufficient information source for strategic resource management?
36. What are the three generic segment missions and how are these missions related to the concept of product life cycle?
35. Why would a useful business intelligence system contain substantial information about an organization’s competitors?
34. Define each of the strategies an organization may pursue to avoid competition, and discuss the benefits of each type of strategy.
33. How can a change in governmental laws or regulations create a strategic opportunity for an organization? Give an example.
32. Differentiate between human, structural, and relationship forms of intellectual capital. Which do you believe is more important in each of the following organizations:a start-up software
31. “If an organization can borrow money or sell stock, it does not have a capital constraint.” Is this statement true or false? Discuss the rationale for your answer.
30. What is a core competency and how do core competencies impact the feasible set of alternative organizational strategies?
29. If you were Dean of your College, how would you more fully empower your students relative to their college studies?
28. Use the Internet to find three companies that have recently changed their organizational structures. How were the companies restructured and what reasons were given for the change?
27. In what types of organizations or under what organizational conditions would centralization be a more useful structure than decentralization? Would decentralization be more useful than
26. Differentiate between authority and responsibility. Can you have one without the other? Explain.
25. Distinguish between goals and objectives. What goals do you hope to achieve by taking this course? What objectives can you establish to measure the degree to which you achieve these stated goals?
24. Are the financial implications of strategic planning more important in a business than in a not-for-profit organization? Why or why not?
23. What is organizational strategy? Why would each organization have a unique strategy or set of strategies?
22. Select three large, publicly held companies in the same industry. Use the Internet to access their Web sites and find a mission statement for each. How do these mission statements differ and how
21. Why is a mission statement important to an organization?
20. Use the Internet to find the ethics codes for three businesses. How do these codes differ? Which do you think is better and why?
19. Why is a code of ethics a necessity in any organization?
18. What factors impede the development of an international code of ethics for profit-oriented businesses? Do you believe these factors can be overcome through the passage of laws? Discuss the
17. Use the Internet to find three companies that have been indicted for or convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In what countries were these companies offering bribes? Do you
16. Compare and contrast legal and ethical standards.
15. Why should businesses concern themselves with a clean environment when it might be substantially less expensive to pollute, thus making their products cheaper for consumers?
14. How do government regulations affect planning processes in the business organizations in your country?
13. Select a category of risk from Exhibit 1–6. Briefly explain some differences in the risks that would be experienced for the listed factors between your country and another selected country.
12. Use the Internet to find five domestic companies that have introduced in foreign countries what you would consider “radically” different products than those sold domestically. Discuss why
11. What political and cultural issues might affect an American (or a Canadian)company considering opening a business in Russia?
10. Use the Internet to find how the euro has impacted businesses in the last six months.
9. Use the Internet to find two businesses that have benefited and two businesses that have been disadvantaged by NAFTA. Briefly discuss the situations of each of these four businesses.
8. Why are economic trade agreements so important to the globalization of business?
7. The AICPA has introduced CPA WebTrust to reduce or eliminate some problems related to engaging in e-commerce. Use the Internet to prepare a short discussion about WebTrust. What organizations are
6. Would you purchase products from Internet sources? Why or why not? If you have purchased from the Internet, did you experience any problems? If so, what were they and were they easily eliminated?
5. Discuss the validity of the following statement, “Only large companies (such as those that are publicly held and listed on a major stock exchange) have the opportunity to operate in a global
4. Why would operating in a global (rather than a strictly domestic) marketplace create a need for additional information for management? Discuss some of the additional information you think managers
3. Is cost accounting a subset of management accounting or is management accounting a subset of cost accounting? Why?
2. Flexibility is said to be the hallmark of modern management accounting, whereas standardization and consistency describe financial accounting. Explain why the focus of these two accounting systems
1. Discuss how financial, cost, and managerial accounting interface. Is one more important than another? Discuss the rationale for your answer.
7 How is gap analysis used in the implementation of a cost management system?
6 What three groups of elements affect the design of a cost management system and how are these elements used?
5 How do the internal and external operating environments impact the cost management system?
4 Why should one consider organizational form, structure, and culture when designing a cost management system?
3 What major factors influence the design of a cost management system?
2 What is a cost management system and what are its primary goals?
1 Why do organizations have management control systems?
9 What is the value chain and why is it important in managing a business?
8 Why is a company segment’s mission affected by product life cycle?
7 How does the accounting function impact an organization’s ability to successfully achieve its strategic goals and objectives?
6 How does an organization’s competitive environment impact its strategy and how might an organization respond to competition?
5 What are the primary factors and constraints that influence an organization’s strategy and why are these factors important?
4 What factors have influenced the globalization of businesses and why have these factors been significant?
3 What is the role of a code of ethics in guiding the behaviors of an organization’s global workforce?
2 How does cost accounting relate to financial and management accounting?
1 How do financial and management accounting relate to each other?
54. Find the Web page for Agile Software. Provide its Web address and discuss the nature of this Internet-based software and how it can affect cost accounting practices in industries that manufacture
53. Find a Web site or current professional article discussing developments in the pharmaceutical/medical devices industry. Read the materials on that site about evolving practices in the industry to
52. In a team of three or four people, choose a company whose mass production process you would like to learn. Use the library, the Internet, and (if possible)personal resources to gather
51. Search the Internet to identify a vendor of process costing software. Read the on-line literature provided by the vendor regarding the software. Then, briefly describe the major features of the
50. Cost accountants use the concept of equivalent units of production (EUP) to measure actual production for a period in a process costing environment. Write a memo describing what EUP measures and
49. The weighted average and FIFO methods generally result in approximately the same unit costs because costs do not usually vary dramatically from period to period. Discuss some reasons for
48. The term total cost to account for has been used in this chapter and in another setting earlier in the text. Find that earlier reference to this term and write a brief report explaining whether
47. (WA and FIFO) Rainbow Paints makes quality paint sold at premium prices in one production department. Production begins with the blending of various chemicals, which are added at the beginning of
45. (Standard process costing) HealthySight is a manufacturer of high-quality lenses for sunglasses and ski goggles. HealthySight uses a standard process costing system and carries inventories at
39. (Cost assignment; FIFO) Green Seasons Processors is a contract manufacturer for the Delectable Dressing Company. Green Seasons uses a FIFO process costing system to account for the production of
38. (FIFO cost per EUP) The following information has been gathered from the records of Jack’s Snacks for August 2001. The firm makes a variety of snacks;the information presented here is for a
37. (Weighted average) You have just been hired as the cost accountant for Sun Valley Micro, a producer of personal computer cases. This position has been vacant for one month. John Amos, manager of
36. (Weighted average) Alt Enterprises manufactures belt buckles in a single-step production process. To determine the proper valuations for inventory balances and Cost of Goods Sold, you have
35. (Weighted average) Frankfurt Products manufactures an electronic language translator.The device can translate seven languages in either direction. Analysis of beginning Work in Process Inventory
34. (EUP; weighted average & FIFO) The Midwest Coal Company mines and processes coal that is sold to four power plants in central Pennsylvania. The company employs a process costing system to assign
33. (EUP; weighted average & FIFO) Patio Company produces outdoor brooms. On April 30, 2001, the firm had 3,600 units in process that were 70 percent complete as to material, 40 percent complete as
32. (Hybrid costing) Carolina Coats makes casual coats (one size fits most). Each coat goes through the same conversion process, but three types of fabric(Dacron, denim, or cotton) are available. The
31. (Standard process costing) Tico Company uses a standard FIFO process costing system to account for its tortilla manufacturing process. The tortillas are packaged and sold by the dozen. The
30. (Standard process costing; variances) DiskCity Products manufactures 3.5-inch preformatted computer disks and uses a standard process costing system. All material is added at the start of
27. (Cost assignment; FIFO) In November 2000, Walker Corporation computed its costs per equivalent unit under FIFO process costing as follows:Raw material $12.75 Packaging 1.50 Direct labor 6.42
26. (Cost assignment; weighted average) Thomson Co. uses weighted average process costing. The company’s cost accountant has determined the following production and cost per EUP information for
25. (EUP; cost per EUP; FIFO) ReallyRoll makes skateboards and uses a FIFO process costing system. The company began April 2001 with 1,000 boards in process that were 70 percent complete as to
24. (EUP; cost per EUP; weighted average) TakeThat manufactures canisters of mace.On August 1, 2001, the company had 4,800 units in beginning Work in Process Inventory that were 100 percent complete

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