Model, Inc., produces model automobiles made from metal. It operates two production departments, Molding and Painting, and has three service departments, Administration, Accounting, and Maintenance. The accumulated costs in the three service departments were $270,000, $375,000, and $198,000, respectively. Management is concerned that the costs of its service departments are getting too high. In particular, managers would like to keep the costs of service departments under $3.50 per unit on average. You have been asked to allocate service department costs to the two production departments and compute the unit costs. The company decided that Administration costs should be allocated on the basis of square footage used by each production and service department. Accounting costs are allocated on the basis of number of employees. Maintenance costs are allocated on the basis of the dollar value of the equipment in each department. The use of each base by all departments during the current period follows: Used by
Allocation Base Administration Accounting Maintenance Molding Painting
Building area 10,000 30,000 20,000 360,000 90,000
Employees 18 10 12 70 100
Equipment value (in thousands) $6.00 $120.00 $17.50 $312.00 $162.00
Direct costs of the Molding Department included $237,500 indirect materials, $337,500 indirect? labor, and $112,500 in overhead. The Painting Department's direct costs consisted of $210,000 indirect materials, $200,000 indirect labor, and $75,000 in overhead.
Required:
a. Using the step method, determine the allocated costs and the total costs in each of the two producing departments. Ignore self-usage (for example, ignore work done by Administration for itself. Rank order the allocation as follows. (1) Maintenance, (2) Accounting, and (3) Administration.
b. Assume that 100,000 units were processed through these two departments. What is the unit cost for the sum of direct materials, direct labor, and overhead (1) for Molding, (2) for Painting, and (3) in total?