Question

Process Activity Analysis

The Brite Beverage Company bottles soft drinks into aluminum cans. The manufacturing process consists of three activities:

1. Mixing: water, sugar, and beverage concentrate are mixed.
2. Filling: mixed beverage is filled into 12-oz. cans.
3. Packaging: properly filled cans are boxed into cardboard “fridge packs.”

The activity costs associated with these activities for the period are as follows:

Mixing	$257,000
Filling	227,000
Packaging	66,000
Total	$550,000

The activity costs do not include materials costs, which are ignored for this analysis. Each can is expected to contain 12 ounces of beverage. Thus, after being filled, each can is automatically weighed. If a can is too light, it is rejected, or “kicked,” from the filling line prior to being packaged. The primary cause of kicks is heat expansion. With heat expansion, the beverage overflows during filling, resulting in underweight cans.

This process begins by mixing and filling 5,720,000 cans during the period, of which only 5,500,000 cans are actually packaged. 220,000 cans are rejected due to underweight kicks.

A process improvement team has determined that cooling the cans prior to filling them will reduce the amount of overflows due to expansion. After this improvement, the number of kicks is expected to decline from 220,000 cans to 55,000 cans, thus increasing the number of filled cans to 5,665,000 [5,500,000 + (220,000 - 55,000)].

a. Determine the total activity cost per packaged can under present operations. Round to the nearest cent.
$ per can

b. Determine the amount of increased packaging activity costs from the expected improvements.
$

c. Determine the expected total activity cost per packaged can after improvements. Round to three decimal places.
$ per can

Answer 1

Required a

Total activity cost = $550,000

Total Number of Cans packed = 5,500,000

Therefore total activity cost per can packed = $550,000 / 5,500,000

= $0.10 per can

Required b

Packaging cost incurred earlier = $66,000

This cost was incurred for packaging 5,500,000 cans.

After the improvement, total number of cans to be packed = 5,665,000

Thus new packaging cost = $66,000 / 5,500,000 * 5,665,000

= $67,980

Therefore increase in packaging cost = $67,980 - $66,000 = $1980

Required c

Total activity cost = $257,000 + 227,000 + $67980 = $551,980

Total Number of Cans packed = 5,665,000

Therefore total activity cost per can packed = $551,980 / 5,665,000

= 0.097

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