(Prepared from a situation suggested by Professor John W. Hardy) Lone Star Meat Packers is a major processor of beef and other meat products. The company has a large amount of T-bone steak on hand, and it is trying to decide whether to sell the T-bone steaks as they are initially cut or to process them further into filet mignon and the New York cut. If the T-bone steaks are sold as initially cut, the company figures that a 1-pound T-bone steak would yield the following profit $ 2.30 Selling price ($2.30 per pound Lone Joint conte incurred up to the split-off point where T-bone steak can be identified as a separate product Profit per pound 1.60 $0.70 if the company were to further process the T-bone steaks, then cutting one side of a T-bone steak provides the filet mignon and cutting the other side provides the New York cut. One 16-ounce T-bone steak cut in this way will yield one 6-ounce filet mignon and one 8-ounce New York cut the remaining ounces are waste. It costs $0.11 to further process one T-bone steak into the filet mignon and New York cuts. The filet mignon can be sold for $4.40 per pound, and the New York cut can be sold for $3.50 per pound. Required: 1. What is the financial advantage (disadvantage) of further processing one T-bone steak into filet mignon and New York cut steaks? 2. Would you recommend that the T-bone steaks be sold as initially cut or processed further? Outdoor Luggage, Inc., makes high-end hard-sided luggage for sports equipment. Data concerning three of the company's most popular models appear below. Selling price per unit Variable cost per unit Plastic injection molding machine processing time required to produce one unit Pounds of plastic pellets per unit Ski GOLE Pishing Guard Guard Guard $ 290 5 190$ 215 $ 185 5 90 $ 90 12 minutes 6 minutes 8 minutes 10 pounds 13 pounds 9 pounds Required: 1. If we assume that the total time available on the plastic injection molding machine is the constraint in the production process, how much contribution margin per minute of the constrained resource is earned by each product? 2. Which product offers the most profitable use of the plastic injection molding machine? 3. If we assume that a severe shortage of plastic pellets has required the company to cut back its production so much that its new constraint has become the total available pounds of plastic pellets, how much contribution margin per pound of the constrained resource is earned by each product? 4. Which product offers the most profitable use of the plastic pellets? 5. Which product has the largest contribution margin per unit
