Members of the board are surprised that the industrial systems product line is losing money. They commission a study to determine whether the company should discontinue the line. Company accountants estimate that discontinuing the industrial systems line will decrease fixed cost of goods sold by $80,000 and decrease fixed marketing and administrative expenses by $11,000. Requirements Prepare an incremental analysis to show whether Security Alliance should discontinue the industrial systems product line. Prepare contribution margin income statements to show Security Alliance’s total operating income under the two alternatives: (a) with the industrial systems line and (b) without the line. Compare the difference between the two alternatives’ income numbers to your answer to Requirement 1. What have you learned from this comparison?

Activity-based costing (abc) is not truly a cost collection mechanism as much as it is an inventory valuation method. the main purpose for implementing an activity-based cost system is to try to overcome some of the cost distortions that occur in traditional costing from product differences when there are variations in size and complexity. however, one of the disadvantages of utilizing abc is that the additional information gathering necessary to implement costing with that level of detail might be beyond the reach of some companies with resource or financial constraints. with this in mind, what kinds of industries or companies do you think would benefit most from using activity-based costing and why? in designing or modifying an accounting system to capture appropriate costs for abc, what considerations do you think would need to be made?