Assignment Two:20%

Part A:Group submission - 12 noon Friday 20^th April

Part B:Individual Submission - 12 noon Friday 11^th May(20%)

Assignment 2 consists of two parts, which must both be submitted.

Part A:

Assignment 2 features a case study of a company facing some costing issues. Students will be organised into groups of 4 or 5 students each to analyse the problems facing the company. Note this is a group submission so 1 submission is required per group.

IMPORTANT: A credible submission must be made for Part A before Part B of the assignment will be marked.

NB: You will also be required to submit an individual Self and Peer review of your group members to Stream in the appropriate submission box.

Part B:

Requires an individual submission of the points listed in the required section for part B.Note as an individual submission all students are required to submit their own individually written analysis.

The structure of the assignment is designed to follow the approach that would occur in any project, with aninitial analysis of the current situation followed by the application of this analysis and your costing knowledge to the analysis to address the listed requirements.

Part A requires you as a group to analyse the current situation and address the set questions. You will need to submit an agreed analysis of the current situation for your group.This will involve you completing an individual reading of the case and initial analysis, then as a group combining this into an agreed analysis of the current situation in the case.This agreed analysis will also form the basis of part of your individual assessment in Part B submission. This is expected to be your agreed summary submitted for Part A of the assignment but you will be able to submit your own summary in place of the agreed group work if you wish.

Part B of the assignment will require you to individually address the provided scenario and apply your knowledge to identify and discuss feasible solutions to the costing problem the company faces. In so doing, you will critically apply your costing knowledge as appropriate.You need to explain how the costing systems you select apply to the case and solve/address the costing problems the firm is facing.You need to explain how the costing system being discussed fits with and addresses the issues the firm is facing.

Assignment 2 Case:

Jetson Engineering (JE) is a specialist structural steel engineering firm who design and produce structural steel items for new and existing buildings.The recent focus on earthquake strengthening buildings has created significant additional work for JE which has led to issues with the timely completion of design work.

The increased design work has pushed the computer-aided design system (called the A2 Designer) beyond its intended capacity which has resulted in slow response times and significant additional support costs for the system.Colin Wilson, the production manager, decided to purchase a new computer system (called the DesignMaster) to absorb some of the additional work.

The DesignMaster system was purchased in October 2017 and has been operational for 5 months.Colin has noted that few of the engineers are using the new system even though it has several features that simplify the design work, enable faster completion of some designs, and therefore allow more time to complete the fabrication of steel items.The low usage means the DesignMaster system (the new system) has significant excess capacity and the existing A2 Designer system is still experiencing heavy demand, low response times and significant additional support costs that are caused by the heavy workload put on the system.

Colin discussed the situation with the supervisors of the firm's six design teams.They explained that the accountants allocate the cost of each computer system to their work based on the number of hours they use the computer system. One supervisor responded that "as the A2 designer system is highly utilised (even the accounting function uses it) and its purchase costs were low, the calculated cost per actual hour is very low.The new machine, on the other hand, has a high purchase cost and in the first few months, we didn't use it very much as it takes a significant number of hours to learn how to use the new system.Because of this high cost and low usage, the allocated cost per hour was incredible. This high allocated computer cost makes our job costs high which makes our performance look bad".The supervisor went on to explain how next month he planned to use only the A2 Designer system (i.e. old system) as it would produce the "best" cost for the jobs he had scheduled - "It will take longer but will cost us less so the A2 Designer system is the best system to use".

Colin continued his discussions with Bridget Duns, the firm's management accountant.She explained the costs of the computer systems are allocated to jobs on the basis of actual hours of operation each month.Bridget helpfully explained "We use actual costs as we have to allocate all costs to get full job costs so we can get accurate profit figures for each job.These profit figures are used to evaluate the performance of each job.We use actual hours as this ensures each month's costs are allocated in full to the activity for the month. We also use actual costs for each month so we calculate the overhead rate each month and apply it to jobs at the end of the month.Actual costing gives the most accurate allocation of costs".Bridget goes on to state "Surely you agree accuracy is the most important aspect of any cost allocation?"

Colin is concerned that the investment the firm made in the DesignMaster system has not resulted in any improvement in the design process and seems to have just increased costs.He wonders how the cost allocation process could be changed to encourage engineers to use the two systems more effectively.Colin approaches you as a newly appointed graduate management accountant to see if you can provide a solution.

Part A:Due Noon Friday 20^th April - Group Submission and Peer Review

You are required to work in groups to complete Part A of Assignment 2.Course staff will assign the groups.Each group will have its own discussion forum on Stream.

Required:

Individually read the assignment case study and

oidentify the current costing system the firm is operating with and the issues with this system

oidentify and research any literature and resources as appropriate to assist you with this task

As a group, discuss the current costing system and the issues with the system faced by the company

As a group, decide on the key costing issue(s) facing the company and the cause(s) of this

Write a summary, not exceeding 250 words of the group's agreed issues and causes

Note: your summary must address what you think is the design of the costing system as a whole

NB: The focus must be on identifying the costing system issues and causes of the issues identified not on detailing the facts of the case.You are not to consider solutions to the current issues as this is covered in Part B of the assignment, which requires individual work.

1.Submit your group analysis on Stream before Noon on Friday 20^th April as a .docx or .doc file.Name your assignment file "Group#_A2_110329" (The Group# being your group name).

IMPORTANT: A credible submission must be made for Part A before Part B of the assignment will be marked.

The only feedback provided on your Group's Part A submission will be an indication of whether it is deemed a credible submission or not. Feedback will be provided on the content of your Part A submission as part of the feedback on Part B.

2.Individually:

oIndividually complete the Self and Peer review table available on Stream by 12 noon 20^th April

oIndividually submit your completed Self and Peer review to Stream in the appropriate submission box.

oName your Self and Peer Review file "Surname_Student ID#_Peer Review"

NB:The Self and Peer review is completed individually and does not need to be shared with your group members.

Part B:Due Noon Friday 11^th May - Individual Submission

REQUIRED:

Write a short report for Colin that addresses the following points:

Two (2) alternative costing systems dealing with computer systems costs.For each of your two (2) selected costing systems you need to explain:

oHow the computer costs will be allocated.

oThe capacity you recommend using to allocate the costs.

oHow any under or over allocated costs will be treated if this is a possibility in the costing system/approach you discuss.

A discussion of:

oThe impact each costing system should have on the allocation of costs and the Engineers decision on which computer system to use.

oHow each of your selected alternative costing systems addresses Colin's concerns and any disadvantages of the selected costing systems.

oYour recommendation on how to deal with computer systems costs- including a justification/explanation of your decision suitable for Colin (a non-accountant).

A clear statement of your recommendation on how to allocate the computer systems costs.

Note: your report must briefly describe the costing system you think the company is operating to contextualise the issue(s) with it.

The word limit for the assignment is 1,000 words. The word count excludes the title page and reference list but includes in-text reference details and appendices.Penalties may be applied to reports which exceed the word limit. If an assignment is not materially over the word limit and all material is relevant we will not apply a penalty but if it is materially over the word limit or includes irrelevant material or is not succinct while exceeding the word limit we will apply a penalty.

The short report is for a busy manager so needs to be as brief as possible while conveying the full information required on the stated issue.You need to carefully consider the information included and its organisation.

Submit your Part B submission on Stream on or before Noon on Friday 11 May as a .docx or .doc file.Name your assignment file "Surname_Student ID_A2B_110329".

The required features of the short report are:

Title page - topic, author, date, audience and word count must be clearly stated.

Discussion section - with meaningful headings. Ensure you discuss and justify your recommendations in the discussion section.

Recommendations section - clear summary of your recommendation. (NB: The justification of your recommendation should be discussed in the discussion section, not the recommendation section).

NB: Other common sections of report format are not required i.e. you are not required to include an executive summary, introduction or conclusions section or a cover letter/memo.

A key focus of this assignment is that you can clearly communicate your understanding, conclusions and recommendations to the manager.Therefore the expectation is that your report will contain the following features:

Is clearly focused and does not include unnecessary material.

Clear communication - limited technical jargon used or any jargon used is explained.

Is tailored to the audience.

Avoids complex unclear sentences.

Explicitly explains your opinion and conclusions.

Conforms to the report structure outlined above.

NB: Penalties will be applied to all late assignments, which may include awarding a grade of 0/20. This is in fairness to all those students who do meet the set deadline.No assignments will be accepted for grading once marked assignments are returned.

Remember to completethe honesty declaration quiz on Stream.Once you have completed the Honesty Declaration quiz the relevant assignment submission box will become visible.

Marking Criteria for Assignment Two

The report will be graded against the following criteria:

Presentation 15%

Conforms to report format

Language, tone and level of detail is appropriate for the management team

The material is discussed and explained not just stated or listed.

Grammar and spelling are correct

If material from others is used,referencing is complete and all material is acknowledged

Content 85%

Addresses all the issues raised in the listed requirements

Analyses and discusses the issues (a discussion of the issues, not just listing points).

The recommendation is appropriate for the situation and reflects the discussion.

Clear statements of the recommendation made

Your recommendation is discussed clearly in the discussion section of the report and only summarised in the Recommendation section

Material included in the report is succinct and does not include irrelevant material