Question

Miller Toy Company manufactures a plastic swimming pool at its Westwood Plant. The plant has been experiencing problems as shown by its June contribution format income statement below:

	Flexible Budget		Actual
Sales (5,000 pools)	$	260,000		$	260,000
Variable expenses:
Variable cost of goods sold*		84,500			98,865
Variable selling expenses		17,000			17,000
Total variable expenses		101,500			115,865
Contribution margin		158,500			144,135
Fixed expenses:
Manufacturing overhead		65,000			65,000
Selling and administrative		83,000			83,000
Total fixed expenses		148,000			148,000
Net operating income (loss)	$	10,500		$	(3,865	)

*Contains direct materials, direct labor, and variable manufacturing overhead.

Janet Dunn, who has just been appointed general manager of the Westwood Plant, has been given instructions to “get things under control.” Upon reviewing the plant’s income statement, Ms. Dunn has concluded that the major problem lies in the variable cost of goods sold. She has been provided with the following standard cost per swimming pool:

	Standard Quantity or Hours	Standard Price or Rate			Standard Cost
Direct materials	3.3 pounds	$	2.80	per pound	$	9.24
Direct labor	0.8 hours	$	7.40	per hour		5.92
Variable manufacturing overhead	0.6 hours*	$	2.90	per hour		1.74
Total standard cost per unit					$	16.90

*Based on machine-hours.

During June, the plant produced 5,000 pools and incurred the following costs:

Purchased 21,500 pounds of materials at a cost of $3.25 per pound.

Used 16,300 pounds of materials in production. (Finished goods and work in process inventories are insignificant and can be ignored.)

Worked 4,600 direct labor-hours at a cost of $7.10 per hour.

Incurred variable manufacturing overhead cost totaling $10,890 for the month. A total of 3,300 machine-hours was recorded.

It is the company’s policy to close all variances to cost of goods sold on a monthly basis.

Required:

1. Compute the following variances for June:

a. Materials price and quantity variances.

b. Labor rate and efficiency variances.

c. Variable overhead rate and efficiency variances.

2. Summarize the variances that you computed in (1) above by showing the net overall favorable or unfavorable variance for the month.

Answer 1

1.a)

Material Price Variance = AQ (SP - AP) =21500(2.80-3.25) = $9675(U)
Material Quantity Variance = SP ( SQ - AQ) = 2.80 [(5000*3.3) - 16300] = $560(F)

1.b)

Labour Rate Variance = AH (SR - AR) = 4600(7.40-7.10) = $1380(F)
Labour Efficiency Variance = SR ( SH - AH) = 7.40 [(5000 x 0.8) - 4600] = $4440(U)

1.c)

Variable OH Rate Variance = AH (SR - AR) = 3300 [2.9 - (10890/3300)] = $1320(U)
Variable OH Efficiency Variance = SR ( SH - AH) = 2.90 [(5000 x 0.6)- 3300] = $870(U)

2.

Material
Price	9675	U
Quantity	560	F
Labour
Rate	1380	F
Efficiency	4440	U
Ovehead
Rate	1320	U
Efficiency	870	U
Net Variance	14365	U