Brandy Dees recently bought Nievo Enterprises, a company that manufactures ice skates. Brandy decided to assume management responsibilities for the company and appointed herself president shortly after the purchase was completed. When she bought the company, Brandys investigation revealed that with the exception of the blades, all parts of the skates are produced internally. The investigation also revealed that Nievo once produced the blades internally and still owned the equipment. The equipment was in good condition and was stored in a local warehouse. Nievos former owner had decided three years earlier to purchase the blades from external suppliers.

Brandy Dees is seriously considering making the blades instead of buying them from external suppliers. The blades are purchased in sets of two and cost $8 per set. Currently, 100,000 sets of blades are purchased annually.

Skates are produced in batches, according to shoe size. Production equipment must be reconfigured for each batch. The blades could be produced using an available area within the plant. Prime costs will average $5.00 per set. There is enough equipment to set up three lines of production, each capable of producing 80,000 sets of blades. A supervisor would need to be hired for each line. Each supervisor would be paid a salary of $40,000. Additionally, it would cost $1.50 per machine hour for power, oil, and other operating expenses. Since three types of blades would be produced, additional demands would be made on the setup activity. Other overhead activities affected include purchasing, inspection, and materials handling. The companys ABC system provides the following information about the current status of the overhead activities that would be affected. (The lumpy quantity indicates how much capacity must be purchased should any expansion of activity supply be neededthe units of purchase. The purchase cost per unit is the fixed activity rate. The variable rate is the cost per unit of resources acquired as needed for each activity.)

Activity	Cost Driver	Current Activity Capacity	Activity Usage	Lumpy Quantity	Fixed Activity Rate	Variable Activity Rate
Setups	Number of setups	1,000	800	100	$200	$500
Purchasing	Number of orders	50,000	47,000	5,000	10	0.50
Inspecting	Inspection hours	20,000	18,000	2,000	15	None
Materials handling	Number of moves	9,000	8,700	500	30	1.50

The demands that the production of blades places on the overhead activities are as follows:

Activity	Resource Demands
Machining	50,000	machine hours
Setups	250	setups
Purchasing	4,000	purchase orders (associated with materials)
Inspection	1,500	inspection hours
Materials handling	650	moves

If the blades are made, the purchase of the blades from outside suppliers will cease. Therefore, purchase orders will decrease by 6,500 (the number associated with their purchase). Similarly, the moves for the handling of incoming blades will decrease by 400. Any unused activity capacity is viewed as permanent.

Required:

1. Should Nievo make or buy the blades?

The company should Make or Buy the blades. This will save $____ per year.

2. How did the ABC resource usage model help in the analysis?

Which one best represent the model:

• ABC more completely assessed the way activities are affected by decisions.
• ABC viewed setups, purchasing, inspection, and materials handling as part of fixed overhead
• ABC did not help with the analysis.