In: Finance
Jake Chemicals – Short-Term Decision Making
“If these new products are to be competitively priced, we have got to do something about
our container costs” said Mr. Walsh. Walsh is the general manager of Jake Chemicals
which manufactured and sold a range of high-grade chemical products. These products
required careful packing and the company made a special feature of the properties of the
containers used. They used patented lining made from a material known as GHL, and the
firm operated a department especially to maintain its containers in good condition and to
make new ones to replace those that were past repair.
“I believe that we can achieve substantial economies if we buy our containers from an
outside source” continued Walsh. “I have been making some inquiries and it appears that
Packages would offer us a contract, for five years certain, to keep our containers in good
repair and to make all the containers we are planning to need. This would cost £500,000
per year and I believe they would offer us as good a service as we could get elsewhere, or
by doing the job ourselves. The equivalent cost of doing it ourselves is £578,000 per year
so that over a five year period we would save nearly £400,000 if we make the change
now.”
The £578,000, which Walsh quoted was made as follows:
£
Materials 200,000
Labour 145,000
Manager’s salary 34,000
Rent 45,000
Depreciation of machinery 33,500
Maintenance of machinery 10,500
Other expenses 42,500
510,500
Proportion of general administrative overheads 67,500
578,000
Mr. Duffy, the manager of the containers department, looked thoughtful and asked for
time to think the matter over. The next morning he asked to speak to Walsh again, and
said he thought there were a number of points that ought to be borne in mind before his
department was closed. “For instance”, he said, “we would have to scrap the machine. It
cost us £360,000 three years ago, but there isn’t a market for second-hand equipment of
this type and you’d be lucky if you got £50,000 for it now, even though it’s good for
another five years. And then there’s the inventory of GHL (the special chemical) we
bought a year ago. That cost us £150,000. We used up about third of it last year. The
material cost you quoted yesterday (£200,000) probably includes about £50,000 for GHL.
We bought it for £1,500 a ton, and you couldn’t buy it today for less than £1,800, but it is
tricky stuff to handle and if you sold it you wouldn’t have more than £1,200 a ton left after
handling expenses have been allowed for.”
Walsh admitted that Duffy had raised a number of points that ought to be borne in mind.
He also pointed out that Duffy need have no fear of redundancy because, if his department
were closed, he would be moved to another managerial post which was shortly becoming
vacant, without loss of pay or prospects.
Duffy seemed relieved to hear this, but said that he was worried about the workers in his
department. “Perhaps you could see if Packages would take some of them on”, he said
“but otherwise I am afraid I cannot see them fitting into any of our other sections without
considerable retraining.”
Walsh agreed and said he would see what could be done. He went on, “Of course the
closure of your department would release much needed space. At the moment we are
renting outside warehouse space which is costing us £45,000 a year. The closure of your
department would mean we would have all the additional space we need without outside
renting.”
“Do you think there would be any saving in general administrative overheads?” asked
Duffy. “As you know, I am being charged £67,500 a year for this service from Head Office.”
“Probably not” said Walsh, “but remember that someone will still have to pay for these
costs and we can ignore them in our calculations. Well, I think we have thrashed this out
pretty fully. This has been a useful discussion. I will let you know what I decide by the
end of the week.”
Questions
1. From the information given in the case, if Walsh signs with Packages will Jake
Chemicals be better off or worse off financially?
Total Cost of Material=$50,000
Cost per tonne-$1,500
Total Material purchased (in tonnes)=33.33 tonnes
Material used in first year=1/3rd=11.11 tonnes
Material Left=22.22 tonnes
Net Benefit if offer is accepted
Amount received from the sale of second hand equipment = 50,000
Amount received from the sale of materials= 26,667 (22.22 tonne*1200)
Savings in Material Cost=150,000
Savings in Warehouse Cost=45,000
Savings in Depreciation Cost=33,500
Savings in Labour Cost=145,000
Savings in Other Expenses=42,500
Savings in Manager Salary=34,000
Savings in Maintenance Charges of Machinery=10,500
Total Savings=5,37,167
-) Cost of Packages Contract= (500,000)
-) Loss of usage of depreciation for further 5 years (360,000/8*5)= (2,25,000)
-) Purchase Cost of Material(1500*22.22 tonnes)=(33,330)
Total Cost=7,58,330
Net Payable=758,330-5,37,167=221,163
Hence, it is not beneficial to accept the contract
Note No. 1- It is to be remember that proportion of General Administrative Overhead is required to be paid whether or not we accepts the offer or not. So it would not be considered as relevant cost for the purpose of Decision Making.
Note No. 2- It is not clearly mention in the question that what is the written down value of the machinery. But one such thing has been mentioned that the machinery is good for further 5 years. So in the absence of requisite information, machinery useful life is expected to be of 8 years.
Note No. 3 - The above mentioned answer may differ, on the basis of assumption of the useful life of machinery.