Activity-Based Supplier Costing

Bowman Company manufactures cooling systems. Bowman produces all the parts necessary for its product except for one electronic component, which is purchased from two local suppliers: Manzer Inc. and Buckner Company. Both suppliers are reliable and seldom deliver late; however, Manzer sells the component for $89 per unit, while Buckner sells the same component for $86. Bowman purchases 80% of its components from Buckner because of its lower price. The total annual demand is 4,000,000 components.

To help assess the cost effect of the two components, the following data were collected for supplier-related activities and suppliers:

I.Activity Data

Activity Cost

Inspecting components (sampling only)

$500,000

Reworking products (due to failed component)

7,370,000

Warranty work (due to failed component)

11,270,000

II.Supplier Data

Manzer Inc.

Buckner Company

Unit purchase price

$89

$86

Units purchased

800,000

3,200,000

Sampling hours*

80

3,920

Rework hours

360

5,640

Warranty hours

800

15,200

* Sampling inspection for Manzer's product has been reduced because the reject rate is so low.

Required:

1.Calculate the cost per component for each supplier, taking into consideration the costs of the supplier-related activities and using the current prices and sales volume. (Note: Round the intermediate calculations to the whole number for the following activity rates: "Reworking products" and "Warranty work". Round the unit cost to two decimal places.)

Manzer Inc.

$per unit

Buckner Company

$per unit

2a.Suppose that Bowman loses $5,760,000 in sales per year because it develops a poor reputation due to defective units attributable to failed components. Using warranty hours, assign the cost of lost sales to each supplier.

Manzer

$

Buckner

$

2b.By how much would this change the cost of each supplier's component? Round your answers to the nearest cent.

Manzer

unit cost increase

$

Buckner

unit cost increase

$

3.Based on the analysis in Requirements 1 and 2, discuss the importance of activity-based supplier costing for internal decision making.

As with product costing, accurate assignment of costs to the cost object is essential for well-grounded decision making. Suppliers can cause a firm to perform costly activities such as inspection, rework, and warranty work. Thetotal costof a component is thus more than its purchase price. As this example shows, the component with thehigherprice is actually less expensive because it causes less demand on internal costly activities. Thus, the company would likelydecreasethe purchases of the one supplier in favor of the other. It also might attempt to work with the one supplier which is causing significant demands on internal activities to see if the quality of its component can be increased.