MA Ltd provides online educational services to their clients in the higher education sector. The company offers its products in a package which includes online courses and supporting materials for follow up reading and self-paced practices. In the recent years, the company has experienced rapid growth rate and is operating beyond its initial expansion plans. While the management is excited about the growth, it is also concerned about the rising operating costs, particularly the overhead costs. The company operates a standard costing system and all departments are required to participate in the system. The current company policy is to allocate production overheads using the direct labour hours. As the management accountant in the company, you have gathered the following information about the planned overhead costs and the actual amount incurred, as follows. Planned information for the period under review: . . To complete 8,500 packages Standard direct labour hours is 8 hours per package Variable overhead costs was expected to be 54,400 Fixed overhead costs was expected at 136,000. Actual information for the same period: . Completed 8,700 packages A total of 82,650 direct labour hours were used Variable overhead costs incurred recorded at 59,508 . Fixed overhead costs incurred amounted to 133,893. You are getting ready to analyse the information gathered, and have informed the management that you will be presenting the variance analysis in the forthcoming management meeting. However, some members in the management seem sceptical about the value of such analysis. They feel that maintaining a standard costing is in itself problematic and hindering the company from adopting modern management approaches, such as pursuing continuous improvement and being creative with products and processes. In fact, the management is in the midst of considering implementing some quality management initiatives to ensure that, albeit the rapid I