Manchester Technology, Inc. manufactures several different types of printed circuit boards; however, two of the boards account for the majority of the companys sales. The first of these boards, a television circuit board, has been a standard in the industry for several years. The market for this type of board is competitive and price-sensitive. Manchester plans to sell 79,000 of the TV boards in 20x1 at a price of $450 per unit. The second high-volume product, a personal computer circuit board, is a recent addition to Manchesters product line. Because the PC board incorporates the latest technology, it can be sold at a premium price. The 20x1 plans include the sale of 54,000 PC boards at $785 per unit.

Manchesters management group is meeting to discuss how to spend the sales and promotion dollars for 20x1. The sales manager believes that the market share for the TV board could be expanded by concentrating Manchesters promotional efforts in this area. In response to this suggestion, the production manager said, Why dont you go after a bigger market for the PC board? The cost sheets that I get show that the contribution from a PC board is significantly larger than the contribution from a TV board. I know we get a premium price for the PC board. Selling it should help overall profitability.

The cost-accounting system shows that the following costs apply to the PC and TV boards.

	PC Board			TV Board
Direct material	$	243		$	153
Direct labor		3.5	hr.		1.5	hr.
Machine time		1.5	hr.		1.5	hr.

Variable manufacturing overhead is applied on the basis of direct-labor hours. For 20x1, variable overhead is budgeted at $2,450,000, and direct-labor hours are estimated at 322,875. The hourly rates for machine time and direct labor are $26 and $34, respectively. The company applies a material-handling charge at 10 percent of material cost. This material-handling charge is not included in variable manufacturing overhead. Total 20x1 expenditures for direct material are budgeted at $25,209,000.

Andrew Fulton, Manchesters controller, believes that before the management group proceeds with the discussion about allocating sales and promotional dollars to individual products, it might be worthwhile to look at these products on the basis of the activities involved in their production. Fulton has prepared the following schedule to help the management group understand this concept.

Using this information, Fulton explained, we can calculate an activity-based cost for each TV board and each PC board and then compare it to the standard cost we have been using. The only cost that remains the same for both cost methods is the cost of direct material. The cost drivers will replace the direct labor, machine time, and overhead costs in the old standard cost figures.

Budgeted Cost				Cost Driver	Budgeted Annual Activity for Cost Driver
Procurement	$	940,000		Number of parts		8,024,100	parts
Production scheduling		510,000		Number of boards		139,650	boards
Packaging and shipping		1,020,000		Number of boards		139,650	boards
Total	$	2,470,000
Machine setup	$	948,000		Number of setups		615,300	setups
Hazardous waste disposal		124,000		Pounds of waste		50,337	pounds
Quality control		1,204,000		Number of inspections		475,650	inspections
General supplies		174,000		Number of boards		139,650	boards
Total	$	2,450,000
Machine insertion	$	3,100,000		Number of parts		5,658,000	parts
Manual insertion		9,400,000		Number of parts		2,256,000	parts
Wave-soldering		334,000		Number of boards		139,650	boards
Total	$	12,834,000

Required per Unit	PC Board			TV Board
Parts:		83			40
Machine insertions		50			39
Manual insertions		33			1
Machine setups		5			4
Hazardous waste disposal, in lb.		.80			.06
Inspections		4			3

Required:

1. Identify at least four general advantages associated with activity-based costing.

Allows management to focus on value-added and non-value-added activities, so that non-value-added activities can be controlled or eliminated, thus streamlining production processes.
Highlights the relationship between activities and identifies opportunities to reduce costs (i.e., designing products with fewer parts in order to reduce the cost of the manufacturing process).
Provides management with reports that are easier to interpret because only one manufacturing-overhead cost pool is used per product.
Provides management with a more thorough understanding of complex product costs and product profitability for improved resource management and pricing decisions.
Provides a more appropriate means of charging overhead costs to products.
Requires less resources and is easier to implement than traditional costing systems.

2. On the basis of Manchesters unit cost data given in the problem, calculate the total amount that each of the two product lines will contribute toward covering fixed costs and profit in 20x1.

	PC Board	TV Board
Total contribution margin

3. Using activity-based costing, calculate the total amount that each of the two product lines will contribute toward covering fixed costs and profit in 20x1.

PC Board	TV Board
Total contribution margin