Many firms are moving toward flexible manufacturing systems and adopting the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy.

Required: A. How is cost behavior altered in the typical flexible manufacturing environment as compared to a traditional manufacturing system? What is the impact on the break-even point? Explain.

B. One of the assumptions underlying cost-volume profit analysis is that sales volume and production volume are equal. Stated another way, inventories are assumed to remain constant. Is this assumption likely to be violated under an ongoing JIT philosophy? Explain.