Problem 17-38 Materials Mix and Yield Variances (LO 17-4)

Houston Corporation manufactures a wide variety of chemical compounds and liquids for industrial uses. The standard mix for producing a single batch of 1,000 liters of Rust-Off is as follows:

Input Chemical	Quantity (in liters)		Cost (per liter)			Total Cost
z-Alpha	600		$	9		$	5,400
z-Beta	450			12			5,400
z-Gamma	200			24			4,800
	1,250					$	15,600

There is a 20 percent loss in liquid volume during processing due to evaporation. The finished liquid is put into 5-liter bottles for sale. Thus, the standard material cost for a 5- liter bottle is $78 [= ($15,600 1,000 liters) 5 liters per bottle].

The actual quantities of direct materials and the cost of the materials placed in production during March were as follows (materials are purchased and used at the same time):

Input Chemical	Quantity (in liters)		Total Cost
z-Alpha	50,400		$	423,360
z-Beta	37,040			400,464
z-Gamma	16,960			417,216
	104,400		$	1,241,040

A total of 16,000 bottles (80,000 liters) were produced during March.

Required:
Calculate the total direct material variance for the liquid product for the month of March and then further analyze the total variance into:
(a) & (b)	Materials price and efficiency variances, materials mix and yield variances. (Indicate the effect of each variance by selecting "F" for favorable, "U" for unfavorable, and "None" for no effect (i.e., zero variance). Do not round your intermediate calculations. Round Standard mix values to 2 decimal places and the final answers to the nearest dollar amount.)