Price and efficiency variances, problems in standard-setting, benchmarking. New —— oe Fashions Inc. manufactures shirts for retail chains. Andy Jorgenson, the controller, is | pirect-maierials price becoming increasingly disenchanted with New Fashions’ standard costing system. The _ariance $306F budgeted and actual amounts for direct materials and direct manufacturing labour for June 2009 were:

There were no beginning or ending inventories of materials.
Standard costs are based on a study of the operations conducted by an independent consultant six months earlier. Jorgenson observes that, since that study, he has rarely seen an unfavourable variance of any magnitude. He notes that even at their current output levels, the workers seem to have al ot of time for sitting around and gossiping. Jorgenson is concerned that the production manager, Charlie Fenton, is aware of this but does not want to tighten up the standards because the lax standards make his performance look good.

REQUIRED 1. Compute the price and efficiency variances of New Fashions for direct materials and direct manufacturing labour in June 2009. 2. Describe the types of actions the employees at New Fashions may have taken to reduce the accuracy of the standards set by the independent consultant. Why would employees take those actions? Is this behaviour ethical? 3. If Jorgenson does nothing about the standard costs, will his behaviour violate any of the ethical conduct characteristics described in Chapter 1? 4. What actions should Jorgenson take? 5. Jorgenson can obtain benchmarking information about the estimated costs of New Fash- ions' major competitors from Benchmarking Clearing House (BCH). Discuss the pros and cons of using the BCH information to compute the variances in requirement 1.LO1

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Budgeted Amounts Actual Amounts Shirts manufactured Direct material costs 6,000 6,732 30,000 $30,294 Direct material units (rolls of cloth) 600 612 Direct manufacturing labour costs $27,000 $27,693 Direct manufacturing labour-hours (DMLH) 1,500 1,530