Materials Varance1 Cinturon Corporation produces hlgh-quality leather beits. The company's plant in Boise uses a standard costing systam and has set the following standarte for materials. and labor During the firit month of the year, the Boise plant produced 92,000 beits. Actual leather purchated was 287,500 strips at $3.69 per strip. There were no beginning or ending inventories of leather. Actual direct labor was 78,200 hours at $12.50 per hour. Required: 1. Break down the total variance for materials into a price variance and a usage variance using the columnar and formula approaches. 2. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION SUppose the Bolse plant manager investigates the materials variances and is told by the purchasing managor that a cheader source of leather strips had been discovered and that this is the reason for the favorable materials price variance. Quite pleased, the purchasing manager suggests that the