Question

Fixed Overhead Spending and Volume Variances, Capacity Management

Lorale Company, a producer of recreational vehicles, recently decided to begin producing a major subassembly for jet skis. The subassembly would be used by Lorale’s jet ski plants and also would be sold to other producers. The decision was made to lease two large buildings in two different locations: Little Rock, Arkansas, and Athens, Georgia. The company agreed to an 11-year, renewable lease contract. The plants were of the same size, and each had 10 production lines. New equipment was purchased for each line, and workers were hired to operate the equipment. The company also hired production line supervisors for each plant. A supervisor is capable of directing up to two production lines per shift. Two shifts are run for each plant. The practical production capacity of each plant is 300,000 subassemblies per year. Two standard direct labor hours are allowed for each subassembly. The costs for leasing, equipment depreciation, and supervision for a single plant are as follows (the costs are assumed to be the same for each plant):

Supervision (10 supervisors @ $50,000)		$ 500,000
Building lease (annual payment)		800,000
Equipment depreciation (annual)		1,100,000
Total fixed overhead costs*		$2,400,000

*For simplicity, assume these are the only fixed overhead costs.

After beginning operations, Lorale discovered that demand for the product in the region covered by the Little Rock plant was less than anticipated. At the end of the first year, only 240,000 units were sold. The Athens plant sold 300,000 units as expected. The actual fixed overhead costs at the end of the first year were $2,500,000 (for each plant).

1. Calculate a fixed overhead rate based on standard direct labor hours.
$ per hour

2. Calculate the fixed overhead spending and volume variances for the Little Rock and Athens plants. What is the most likely cause of the spending variance? Enter amounts as positive numbers and select Favorable or Unfavorable. If an amount is zero, enter "0" and choose "Not applicable" from the dropdown list.

	Athens Plant
Spending variance		$	Unfavorable
Volume variance		$	Not applicable

	Little Rock Plant
Spending variance		$	Unfavorable
Volume variance		$	Unfavorable

Answer 1

1. Fixed overhead rate = $2,400,000/600,000 hours*

= $4 per hour

*Standard hours allowed = 2 × 300,000 units.

2. Athens plant:

Actual FOH Budgeted FOH Applied FOH

$2,500,000 $2,400,000 $4 × 600,000 hours

$100,000 U 0

Spending Volume

Little Rock plant:

Actual FOH Budgeted FOH Applied FOH

$2,500,000 $2,400,000 $4 × 480,000 hours

$100,000 U $480,000 U

Spending Volume

The spending variance is almost certainly caused by supervisor salaries (for example, an unexpected midyear increase due to union pressures). It is unlikely that the lease payments or depreciation would be greater than budgeted. Changing the terms on a 10-year lease in the first year would be unusual (unless there is some sort of special clause permitting increased payments for something like unexpected inflation). Also, the depreciation should be on target (unless more equipment was purchased or the depreciation budget was set before the price of the equipment was known with certainty).

The volume variance is easy to explain. The Little Rock plant produced less than expected, and so there was an unused capacity cost:

$4 × 120,000 hours = $480,000. The Athens plant had no unused capacity.