Question

Consider each of the following independent scenarios:a.Terrin Belson, plant manager for the laser printer factory of Compugear Inc., brushed his hair back and sighed. December had been a bad month. Two machines had broken down, and some factory production workers (all on salary) were idled for part of the month. Materials prices increased, and insurance premiums on the factory increased. No way out of it; costs were going up. He hoped that the marketing vice president would be able to push through some price increases, but that really wasn’t his department.b. Joanna Pauly was delighted to see that her ROI figures had increased for the third straight year. She was sure that her campaign to lower costs and use machinery more efficiently (enabling her factories to sell several older machines) was the reason why. Joanna planned to take full credit for the improvements at her semiannual performance review.c. Gil Rodriguez, sales manager for ComputerWorks, was not pleased with a memo from headquarters detailing the recent cost increases for the laser printer line. Headquarters suggested raising prices. "Great," thought Gil, "an increase in price will kill sales and revenue will go down. Why can’t the plant shape up and cut costs like every other company in America is doing? Why turn this into my problem?"d. Susan Whitehorse looked at the quarterly profit and loss statement with disgust. Revenue was down, and cost was up—what a combination! Then she had an idea. If she cut back on maintenance of equipment and let a product engineer go, expenses would decrease—perhaps enough to reverse the trend in income.e. Shonna Lowry had just been hired to improve the fortunes of the Southern Division of ABC Inc. She met with top staff and hammered out a 3-year plan to improve the situation. A centerpiece of the plan is the retiring of obsolete equipment and the purchasing of state-of-the-art, computer-assisted machinery. The new machinery would take time for the workers to learn to use, but once that was done, waste would be virtually eliminated.Required:For each of the above independent scenarios, indicate the type of responsibility center involved (cost, revenue, profit, or investment).

Answer 1

Answer: a. Cost center b. Investment center. c. Revenue center d. Profit center. d. Investment center.

Explanation:

a. Cost center

We are informed that Terrin Belson, a plant manager for the laser printer factory of Compugear Inc., complained that two machines had broken down, and some factory production workers were idled for part of the month. He also complained that materials prices has and insurance premiums on the factory has increased and costs were going up.

The responsibility center involved here is the cost center. Everything he was complaining about was with regards to the rise on costs of running the company. Therefore, the cost center should be in charge.

b. Investment center

We are told that Joanna Pauly was delighted to see that her ROI figures had increased for the third straight year as she was sure that her campaign to lower costs and efficiently use of machinery was the reason for this.

This is the responsibility of the investment center. We can see that Joanna is talking about the increase in the return on investment. Therefore, the investment center should be responsible to handle this.

c. Revenue center

From the information, we are told that Gil Rodriguez, sales manager for ComputerWorks, was not pleased with a memo from headquarters detailing recent cost increases for the laser printer line. The headquarters suggested that increase in prices will kill sales and that the revenue will go down.

The responsibility center involved in this situation is the revenue center. We can see that the headquarters was concerned that the increase will in price will affect revenue as the revenue will reduce. This is the revenue center in charge.

d. Profit center

We are told that Susan Whitehorse looked at the quarterly profit and loss statement with disgust as the revenue was down, and the cost was up. The responsibility center in charge here is the profit center as the main issue of discussion is about the profit and loss of the company.

e. Investment center

We are told that Shonna Lowry had just been hired to improve the fortunes of the Southern Division of ABC Inc. and that after meeting with top staff, she gave out a 3-year plan to improve the situation as obsolete equipment will be retired and the state-of-the-art, computer-assisted machinery will be bought.

This is an investment because she told the firm to buy state-of-the-art, computer-assisted machinery will be bought in order to improve their fortunes. The responsibility center involved is the investment center.