Background Destin brass products co. Destin Brass Products is a manufacturing company specialized in brass products started in Destin, Florida, 1984, running by Roland Guidry (president), Peggy Alford (controller), John Scott, (manufacturing manager) and Steve Abbott (sales and marketing manager). There are three major product lines: valves (24% of company revenue), pumps (55% of revenue) and flow controllers (21 of revenue). Recently, due to its competitors keeping reducing product price, Destin found it become difficult to match such low price with a profitability decline under the current cost system. A meeting was held among senior management aiming to find out some new strategies to keep Destin’s competitive position. Problems & Issues The major problem faced by Destin is that pumps are losing profits due to intense price competition. Destin was forced to match the continuously reduced price from its competitors despite of the high production costs. As a result, the gross margins in the latest month have fallen from 35% to 22%. The reason why the company has been stuck in such difficulty, as Peggy pointed out in the meeting, is primarily because its competitors might be using a revised costing system while Destin is still using the traditional one. Analysis There are three standard costing system related to Destin Brass Products and the major difference between them are how overheads are assigned. -Destin has very traditional volume-based costing system which does not
• Net profit margin has been negative and no major patterns over the 9 year period on net profit since the trend of the industry is based mostly on economic factors, and whether or not they secure contracts. Due to high percentage of COGS they are only left with a net profit of $980 or
There are also various cost assumptions used by businesses, with every entity choosing a respective method in accordance to their inventories, based on the effects they
David Jones’ gross profit margin for the past three years has remained stable with minimal fluctuations. The following calculated figures are for the year 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013; 39.73%, 39.10%, 37.50% and 37.8% respectively. Such an observation is desirable as it is indicative that the company is financially stable as it is generating enough income to cover its operating expenses and make savings. It suggests that the industry in which the company operates has not experienced drastic economic fluctuations that can affect the company’s cost of goods sold. However,
The existing cost system measures direct labour and overhead. Overhead is grouped into a single cost pool that includes overhead costs associated with each of the testing rooms as well as the engineering overhead costs
Owens & Minor is a distributor of surgical and medical supplies to hospitals and other health care facilities. Due to changing demand from customers, the company is facing increased operating costs, which has resulted in lower profit margins and even losses. In 1993, O&M recorded an $18 million profit, which was reduced to a loss of $11 million in 1995. The entire industry is experiencing similar difficulties. In an effort to resume profitability, O&M is evaluating alternatives to “cost-plus pricing”. Cost-plus pricing does not reflect the true cost of the services provided by O&M. Customers are demanding more of O&M while
The purpose of this report is discussing the case of Wilkerson Company that confronting tough competition in price cutting in pumps which caused to a big drop of pre-tax operating income from 10% to 3%. After observing the existing costing allocation, we found out there is an issue on the existing costing report that the manager could not be able to see the real situation. In light of this, there will be brought to the discussion on the feasibility of using an alternative costing method – Activity based costing (ABC) in the latter paragraphs.
Although the company did show an increased gross profit of $8,255,000 with $6,358,000 less Net Sales in 2013 versus 2012, that increase is due to the reduction in product Cost of Goods Sold by $14,613,000. Since increases in product price will negatively affect sales, one of management’s primary goals is to keep prices stable. This objective is achieved through implementation of cost cutting programs, investing in more efficient equipment, and automation of more steps in the production process.
are costs that have already been incurred and cannot be changed by any decision made
Overhead costs are not in proportion to the production output because of the method they are using. This leads to inaccurate pricing and costing decisions. An Activity Based Costing System would help find the real relationship between the products produced and overhead.
330-10-30330-10-30-1 The primary basis of accounting for inventories is cost, which has been defined generally as the price paid or consideration given to acquire an asset. As applied to inventories, cost means in principle the sum of the applicable expenditures and charges directly or indirectly incurred in bringing an article to its existing condition and location. It is understood to mean acquisition and production cost, and its determination involves many considerations. 330-10-30330-10-30-2 Although principles for the determination of inventory costs may be easily stated, their application, particularly to such inventory items as work in process and finished goods, is difficult because of the variety of considerations in the allocation of costs and charges.
Wilkerson employs a Normal Cost System, which means that they use predetermined overhead rates along with actual costs for direct material and direct labor. Normal costing systems are appropriate when overhead costs are a relatively small percentage of total manufacturing costs and product diversity is limited. For Wilkerson, normal costing does not make sense. Overhead costs make up over 50 percent of total manufacturing costs and their product offering is relatively more diverse. This indicates that the current accounting system in place may be distorting costs significantly. Supporting data:
3.) The estimated product costs for valves, pumps, and flow controllers using ABC for overhead activities (primarily Ex. 1 & 4) and direct cost data from the Exhibits are:
• This cost method does not provide the best system for JDCW’s cost allocation. By using only three overhead rates the present system grossly undermines the true production costs since other activities of the production process are not acknowledged.
Jones over forecasts his inventory and has a low inventory turnover ratio. This drastically increases his accounts payable, as he isn’t able to pay due to low cash inflow. His account’s payable increased by nearly 9 percent in 2006. Nearly half of his current assets are in inventory. Also Jones isn’t able to take advantage of the cash discounts offered by his suppliers due to his slow cash collection process. In order to perform well, the company must improve its inventory system and its cash collection policies.
reducing the price and Destin Brass has not been able follow. We address this issue