Question 2 Rickman Records Ltd has been offered a contract for which there is available production capacity. The contract is for 20,000 identical items, manufactured by an intricate assembly operation, to be produced and delivered in the next few months at a price of 80 each. The specification for one item is as follows: Assembly labour 4 hours Component X 4 units Component Y 3 units There would also be the need to hire equipment, for the duration of the contract, at an outlay cost of 200,000. The assembly is a highly skilled operation and the workforce is currently underutilised. It is the business's policy to retain this workforce on full pay in anticipation of high demand next year, for a new product currently being developed. There is sufficient available skilled labour to undertake the new contract now under consideration. Skilled workers are paid 15 an hour. Component X is used in a number of other sub-assemblies produced by the business. It is readily available. 50,000 units of component X are currently held in inventories. Component Y was a special purchase in anticipation of an order that did not in the end materialize. It is, therefore, surplus to requirements and the 100,000 units that are currently held may have to be sold at a loss. An estimate of various values for components X and Y provided by the materials planning department is as follows: Component X /unit Y /mit Historic cost 4 10 Replacement cost 5 11 Net realisable value 3 8 It is estimated that any additional relevant costs associated with the contract ( beyond the above) will amount to 8 an item. Required: Analyse the information and advise Rickman Records Ltd on the desirability of the contract. (100 marks)