Hartman Company's Lucas plant manufactures thermostatic controls. Plant management has experienced fluctuating monthly overhead costs and...

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Hartman Company's Lucas plant manufactures thermostatic controls. Plant management has experienced fluctuating monthly overhead costs and wants to estimate overhead costs accurately to plan its operations and its financial needs. Interviews with plant personnel and studies reported in trade publications suggest that overhead in this industry tends to vary with labor-hours. A member of the controller's staff proposed that the behavior pattern of these overhead costs be determined to improve cost estimation. Another staff member suggested that a good starting place for determining cost behavior patterns is to analyze historical data. Following this suggestion, monthly data were gathered on labor-hours and overhead costs for the past two years. No major changes in operations occurred over this period of time. The data are shown in the following table. Month Labor-Hours Overhead Costs 1 251,730 $2,742,120 2 238,630 2,375,680 3 193,500 2,400,600 4 271,750 2,590,950 5 324,250 3,072,270 6 291,130 2,618,620 7 271,750 2,480,690 8 251,750 2,746,010 9 232,125 2,821,800 10 343,900 3,438,160 11 186,130 2,315,790 12 232,080 2,551,130 13 383,000 3,604,170 14 376,750 3,405,240 15 291,120 3,016,950 16 396,130 3,638,790 17 356,750 3,554,350 18 323,950 3,192,070 19 389,575 3,482,170 20 317,380 3,219,970 21 343,640 3,495,880 22 337,070 3,207,710 23 383,010 3,601,080 24 376,450 3,637,100 Hartman Company's Lucas plant manufactures thermostatic controls. Plant management has experienced fluctuating monthly overhead costs and wants to estimate overhead costs accurately to plan its operations and its financial needs. Interviews with plant personnel and studies reported in trade publications suggest that overhead in this industry tends to vary with labor-hours. A member of the controller's staff proposed that the behavior pattern of these overhead costs be determined to improve cost estimation. Another staff member suggested that a good starting place for determining cost behavior patterns is to analyze historical data. Following this suggestion, monthly data were gathered on labor-hours and overhead costs for the past two years. No major changes in operations occurred over this period of time. The data are shown in the following table. Month Labor-Hours Overhead Costs 1 251,730 $2,742,120 2 238,630 2,375,680 3 193,500 2,400,600 4 271,750 2,590,950 5 324,250 3,072,270 6 291,130 2,618,620 7 271,750 2,480,690 8 251,750 2,746,010 9 232,125 2,821,800 10 343,900 3,438,160 11 186,130 2,315,790 12 232,080 2,551,130 13 383,000 3,604,170 14 376,750 3,405,240 15 291,120 3,016,950 16 396,130 3,638,790 17 356,750 3,554,350 18 323,950 3,192,070 19 389,575 3,482,170 20 317,380 3,219,970 21 343,640 3,495,880 22 337,070 3,207,710 23 383,010 3,601,080 24 376,450 3,637,100