Suppose a production manager at your company approaches you with a question about last month's performance reports (not prepared by you). The report shows that the actual spend on direct materials for the prior period in the manager's division was $24,000, while the planning budget that was prepared during the master budget process shows an expected cost of $20,500 for the same period. The manager points out that the planned level of activity for the period in their division was 5,000 units, while actual activity was a bit higher at 5,500 . The production manager, who is also new to their role, says "I can't believe we overspent on materials by $3,500 in one period! Where did this difference come from?" Which of the following could NOT be contributing to the $3,500 difference between actual results and planning budget results for materials costs? Actual production of the finished product was higher than expected. The supplier of the raw material used in this production process raised the price of that input during the period. All of the other choices could contribute to the difference. The production manager changed some employees' task assignments for the month, resulting in some employees performing production-related tasks for the first time ever. Some of the material used in production for the period in question was damaged while sitting in the factory storeroom, and as a result some units of finished produc had to be re-done for quality reasons