Laser Cast, Inc., manufactures color laser printers. Model J$20$ presently sells for $$425$ and has a total product cost of $$340,$ as follows:

Direct materials $$240$

Direct labor $60$

Factory overhead $40$

Total $$340$

It is estimated that the competitive selling price for color laser printers of this type will drop to $$400$ next year. Laser Cast has established a target cost to maintain its historical markup percentage on product cost. Engineers have provided the following cost$-$reduction ideas:

Purchase a plastic printer cover with snap$-$on assembly, rather than with screws. This will reduce the amount of direct labor by $9$ minutes per unit.

Add an inspection step that will add six minutes per unit of direct labor but reduce the materials cost by $$8$ per unit.

Decrease the cycle time of the injection molding machine from four minutes to three minutes per part. Thirty percent of the direct labor and $40\%$ of the factory overhead are related to running injection molding machines.

The direct labor rate is $$25$ per hour.

a$.$ Determine the target cost for Model J$20$ assuming that the historical markup on product cost and selling price are maintained. Round your final answer to two decimal places.

$fill in the blank $1$

b$.$ Determine the required cost reduction. Enter as a positive number. Round your final answer to two decimal places.

$fill in the blank $2$

c$.$ Evaluate the three engineering improvements together to determine if the required cost reduction $($drift$)$ can be achieved. Enter all amounts as positive numbers. Do not round interim calculations but round your final answers to two decimal places.

$1.$ Direct labor reduction $fill in the blank $3$

$3\mathrm{.}75$

$2.$ Additional inspection $fill in the blank $4$

$5\mathrm{.}50$

$3.$ Injection molding productivity improvement $fill in the blank $5$

Total savings $fill in the blank $6$