Developing Standards
Cold Queen Company is a small producer of fruit-flavored frozen desserts. For many years, Cold Queen's products have had strong regional sales on the basis of brand recognition; however, other companies have begun marketing similar products in the area, and price competition has become increasingly important. John Wakefield, the company's controller, is planning to implement a standard cost system for Cold Queen and has gathered considerable information from his co-workers on production and materials requirements for Cold Queen's products. Wakefield believes that the use of standard costing will allow Cold Queen to improve cost control and make better pricing decisions.
Cold Queen's most popular product is raspberry sherbet. The sherbet is produced in 10-gallon batches, and each batch requires six quarts of good raspberries. The fresh raspberries are sorted by hand before entering the production process. Because of imperfections in the raspberries and normal spoilage, one quart of berries is discarded for every four quarts of acceptable berries. Three minutes is the standard direct labor time for sorting to obtain one quart of acceptable raspberries. The acceptable raspberries are then blended with the other ingredients; blending requires 12 minutes of direct labor time per batch. After blending, the sherbet is packaged in quart containers. Wakefield has gathered the following pricing information:
• Cold Queen purchases raspberries at a cost of $0.80 per quart. All other ingredients cost a total of $4.50 per 10-gallon batch.
• Direct labor is paid at the rate of $9.00 per hour.
• The total cost of material and labor required to package the sherbet is $0.38 per quart.
Required:
a. Develop the standard cost for the direct cost components of a 10-gallon batch of raspberry sherbet. For each direct cost component of a batch of raspberry sherbet, the standard cost should identify the
(i) Standard quantity.
(ii) Standard rate.
(iii) Standard cost per batch.
b. As part of the implementation of a standard cost system at Cold Queen, John Wakefield plans to train those responsible for maintaining the standards in the use of variance analysis. Wakefield is particularly concerned with the causes of unfavorable variances.
(i) Discuss the possible causes of unfavorable materials price variances and identify the individual(s) who should be held responsible for them.
(ii) Discuss the possible causes of unfavorable labor efficiency variances and identify the individual(s) who should be held responsible for them.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Answer is a. Standard cost for ten-gallon batch of raspberry sherbet.

\begin{array}{|c|c|c|}\hline ext { Direct material } & & \\hline \begin{array}{l} ext { Raspberries }\left(7.5 ext { qts. }{ }^{*} ight. \ imes \$ .80)\end{array} & \$ 6.00 & \\hline ext { Other ingredients } & 4.50 & \$ 10.50 \\hline \begin{array}{l} ext { Direct labor } \ ext { Sorting }\left[\frac{(3 \mathrm{~min} . imes}{6 ext { qts. }) imes \$ 9.00]} ight. \60\end{array} & 2.70 & \\hline \begin{array}{l} ext { Blending }(12 ext { min. } \div 60) \ imes \$ 9.00\end{array} & 1.80 & 4.50 \\hline \begin{array}{l} ext { Packaging }\left(40 ext { qts. }{ }^{* *} imes ight. \\$ .38 ext { ) }\end{array} & & 15.20 \\hline \begin{array}{l} ext { Standard cost per ten- } \ ext { gallon batch }\end{array} & & \$ 30.20 \\hline\end{array}

{ }^{*} 6

quarts

imes(5 \div 4)=7.5

quarts required to obtain 6 acceptable quarts.

{ }^{**} 4

quarts per gallon

imes 10

gallons

=40

quarts b. (i) In general, the purchasing manager is held responsible for material price variances. Causes of these variances include the following:
• Failure to correctly forecast price increases.
• Purchasing nonstandard or uneconomical lots.
• Purchasing from suppliers other than those offering the most favorable terms.
(ii) In general, the production manager or supervisor is held responsible for labor efficiency variances. Causes of these variances include the following:
• Poorly trained labor.
• Substandard or inefficient equipment.
• Inadequate supervision.
• Purchasing substandard raspberries.

Developing Standards Cold Queen Company Is a Small Producer of Fruit-Flavored Frozen