Shaker Stairs Co. designs and builds factory-made premium wooden stairways for homes. The manufactured stairway components (spindles, risers, hangers, hand rails) permit installation of stairways of varying lengths and widths. All are of white oak wood. Budgeted manufacturing overhead costs for the year 2022 are as follows. Overhead Cost Pools Amount Purchasing $69,000 Handling materials 82,000 Production (cutting, milling, finishing) 210,000 Setting up machines 95,000 Inspecting 90,000 Inventory control (raw materials and finished goods) 126,000 Utilities 180,000 Total budgeted overhead costs $852,000 For the last 4 years, Shaker Stairs Co. has been charging overhead to products on the basis of machine hours. For the year 2022, 100,000 machine hours are budgeted. Jeremy Nolan, owner-manager of Shaker Stairs Co., recently directed his accountant, Bill Seagren, to implement the activity-based costing system that he has repeatedly proposed. At Jeremy Nolan's request, Bill and the production foreman identify the following cost drivers and their usage for the previously budgeted overhead cost pools. Activity Cost Pools Cost Drivers Estimated Use of Cost Drivers Purchasing Number of orders 600 Handling materials Number of moves 8,000 Production (cutting, milling, finishing) Direct labor hours 100,000 Setting up machines Number of setups 1,250 Inspecting Number of inspections 6,000 Inventory control (raw materials and finished goods) Utilities Number of components 168,000 Square feet occupied 90,000 Steve Hannon, sales manager, has received an order for 250 stairways from Community Builders, Inc., a large housing development contractor. At Steve's request, Bill prepares cost estimates for producing components for 250 stairways so Steve can submit a contract price per stairway to Community Builders. He accumulates the following data for the production of 250 stairways. Direct materials $103,600 Direct labor Machine hours $112,000 14,500 Direct labor hours 5,000 Number of purchase orders 60 Number of material moves 800 Number of machine setups 100 Number of inspections 450 Number of components 16,000 Number of square feet occupied 8,000 Traditional costing Predetermined overhead rate $8.68 per machine hour Activity Purchasing Overhead Rate Handling materials Production $125.00 per order $10.25 per move Setting up machines Inspecting $2.10 per D/L hour $84.00 per setup $15.00 per inspection Inventory control Utilities $0.75 per component $2.00 per sq. ft. Traditional costing Total cost per stairway ($284,950 250) = $1,139.80 ABC Cost per stairway = ($341,460 +250) = (d) $1,365.84 Which of the two costing systems is preferable in pricing decisions and why? BIUT T E 99