Dan Jacobs, production manager for Green-Life, invested in computer-controlled production machinery last year. He purchased the machinery from Superior Design at a cost of $3,000,000. A representative from Superior Design has recently contacted Dan because the company has designed an even more efficient piece of machinery. The new design would double the production output of the year-old machinery but would cost Green-Life another $4,500,000. Jacobs is afraid to bring this new equipment to the company president’s attention because he convinced the president to invest $3,000,000 in the machinery last year.
Explain what is relevant and irrelevant to Jacobs’s dilemma. What should he do?