8-Birch Company normally produces and sells 46,000 units of RG-6 each month. The selling price is $30 per unit, variable costs are $10 per unit, fixed manufacturing overhead costs total $170,000 per month, and fixed selling costs total $38,000 per month.

Employment-contract strikes in the companies that purchase the bulk of the RG-6 units have caused Birch Companys sales to temporarily drop to only 11,000 units per month. Birch Company estimates that the strikes will last for two months, after which time sales of RG-6 should return to normal. Due to the current low level of sales, Birch Company is thinking about closing down its own plant during the strike, which would reduce its fixed manufacturing overhead costs by $45,000 per month and its fixed selling costs by 10%. Start-up costs at the end of the shutdown period would total $13,000. Because Birch Company uses Lean Production methods, no inventories are on hand.

Required:

1. What is the financial advantage (disadvantage) if Birch closes its own plant for two months?

2. Should Birch close the plant for two months?

3. At what level of unit sales for the two-month period would Birch Company be indifferent between closing the plant or keeping it open?

2-

Troy Engines, Ltd., manufactures a variety of engines for use in heavy equipment. The company has always produced all of the necessary parts for its engines, including all of the carburetors. An outside supplier has offered to sell one type of carburetor to Troy Engines, Ltd., for a cost of $39 per unit. To evaluate this offer, Troy Engines, Ltd., has gathered the following information relating to its own cost of producing the carburetor internally:

	Per Unit				21,000 Units Per Year
Direct materials	$	18		$	378,000
Direct labor		11			231,000
Variable manufacturing overhead		3			63,000
Fixed manufacturing overhead, traceable		3	*		63,000
Fixed manufacturing overhead, allocated		6			126,000
Total cost	$	41		$	861,000

*One-third supervisory salaries; two-thirds depreciation of special equipment (no resale value).

Required:

1. Assuming the company has no alternative use for the facilities that are now being used to produce the carburetors, what would be the financial advantage (disadvantage) of buying 21,000 carburetors from the outside supplier?

2. Should the outside suppliers offer be accepted?

3. Suppose that if the carburetors were purchased, Troy Engines, Ltd., could use the freed capacity to launch a new product. The segment margin of the new product would be $210,000 per year. Given this new assumption, what would be the financial advantage (disadvantage) of buying 21,000 carburetors from the outside supplier?

4. Given the new assumption in requirement 3, should the outside suppliers offer be accepted?