[The following information applies to the questions displayed below.]

Kinnear Plastics manufactures various components for the aircraft and marine industry. Kinnear buys plastic from two vendors: Tappan Corporation and Hill Enterprises. Kinnear chooses the vendor based on price. Once the plastic is received, it is inspected to ensure that it is suitable for production. Plastic that is deemed unsuitable is disposed of.

The controller at Kinnear collected the following information on purchases for the past year:

	Tappan	Hill
Total purchases (tons)	5,500	9,500
Plastic discarded	165	570

The purchasing manager has just received bids on an order for 280 tons of plastic from both Tappan and Hill. Tappan bid $1,746 and Hill bid $1,739 per ton.

Required:

1-a. Assume that the average quality, measured by the amounts discarded from the two companies, will continue as in the past. What is the effective cost per ton for both Tappan and Hill? (Do not round intermediate calculations.)

1-b. Which supplier would you recommend that the purchasing manager select?

• Tappan

• Hill