Funtime, Inc Implements Incentive Program to Increase Production and Decrease Costs Despite Quality Issues

Statement of Facts

Funtime, Inc manufactures video games machines. Funtime, Inc encountered a decline in profits as a result of the modernized technology. To offset the decline in profits the management team focused on manufacturing economics and increased production by developing an incentive program for production managers whose contribution allowed for an increase in the amount of units produced and a decrease in its cost. The production management team improved manufacturing by increasing the number of completed units beyond normal production levels.

To put together the videogame machines the assembly group required parts from the printed circuit boards (PCH) and the reading heads (RH). To achieve increased production, the parts were not carefully produced which resulted in the rejection of the parts that were not tested and modified to meet manufacturing standards. The preventive maintenance that would have been used was postponed and only emergency repair was being carried out to keep production going.

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As a result of the pressure on the production group to focus on their machine there was machine downtime in the PCH and RH groups along with the demand for the parts led to more parts being rejected. Analysis Based on Funtime’s newly implemented incentive program, which rewards managers for increased output and cost savings, expectations were to see an increase in output and cost savings. Numbers on the contribution report show how the incentive program is working thus far. It can be seen in the table below that the goal of increasing output is being achieved as output is 200 units over budget.

Despite the increased output, the goal of decreasing cost is failing thus far. There is an unfavorable contribution margin variance to budget of $58,660. The components that are driving that unfavorable contribution margin variance are in the analysis below. Direct Materials The first component of the unfavorable contribution margin is direct materials. The contribution report shows that direct materials has an unfavorable variance of $40,400. Funtime uses three different material types to build the video game units. A closer look at how efficient the housing units, printed circuit boards, and the reading heads are being used can be ound in the tables below. The first table shows the actual cost that Funtime is paying for the three types of direct material versus what the standard rate says they should be paying. The housing units shows no variance between the actual cost and the standard cost but both the printed circuit boards and the reading heads are both showing an unfavorable variance totaling $13,900. To obtain their goal of increasing production levels the PCB and RH groups have begun rejecting parts that in the past would have been tested and modified to meet standards and then be used in production.

Rejecting the parts and bringing in new ones is proving to increase production levels but at the same time costing Funtime $13,900 more in direct materials than they should be paying for the month of May. The direct material usage analysis gives a picture of how many materials are being used to produce the 2,200 units of output. Using the usage table below Funtime used a total of 2,200 housing units, 4,700 printed circuit boards, and 9,200 reading heads. In the direct material usage table it is seen how those actual units compared to how many units really should have been used.

Just like in the direct material cost table housing units had no variance but printed circuit boards and reading heads have an unfavorable variance. It’s shown that 300 more printed circuit boards and 400 more reading heads were used than should have been. This is in line with previous analysis that due to the rushed production more PCBs and RHs are being purchased because of the high rejection rate. Direct Labor The next component that is helping to cause the unfavorable contribution margin is the direct labor cost.

Just like in direct material there are three different types of direct labor at Funtime and those include: assembly, printed circuit boards, and reading heads. Similar tables were used to look at the efficiency of direct labor as were used to look at direct materials. The table below shows the actual hours worked for each group versus the standard hours that should have been worked. It’s seen that for the assembly group there was no variance but the PCB and RH groups both had negative variances. Because of the pressure to increase production, preventative maintenance on the machines was postponed causing machines to break down.

This in turn caused abnormal machine downtime resulting in employee idle time that required the use of overtime. This explains the unfavorable variance in direct labor hours amongst the PCB and RH groups. With the requirement to work overtime hours Funtime will have to pay higher overtime rates. The table below shows us the actual rates paid versus the standard rates that should have been paid. As expected PCB and RH groups have an unfavorable rate variance while Assembly has a favorable variance. This caused Funtime to pay $4,860 in direct labor cost over the standard cost.

Sales

The last component of the unfavorable contribution margin is the variance in sales and sales price. Looking back at the contribution report it is seen that despite output and sales having favorable variance revenue actually has an unfavorable variance. This can be tied directly to sales price per unit. The table below shows clearly that Funtime is selling their product at a discount and is losing money. Funtime is selling each unit for $20 dollars less than what was budgeted for. In May they lost $44,000 for selling each unit at $20 below budget.

Looking strictly at units sold in the table below it can be seen that Funtime has a favorable sales volume variance. Although they had a favorable variance, it was not enough of a favorable variance to help offset the revenue they are losing by selling each unit at a discount. This analysis clearly shows there are three main components causing the unfavorable contribution margin in the month of May. A closer look at the direct material and direct labor tables shows that the PCB and RH groups are foregoing efficiency to increase production.

Because of the shift in resources from testing and modifying parts to increasing production it has resulted in just rejecting the parts altogether which is driving up direct labor cost. As well the shift in resources away from maintenance on the machines to increasing production has caused the machines to breakdown often. This has caused much employee downtime resulting in overtime hours being worked which is the main driver in the unfavorable direct labor costs. And lastly the analysis showed that Funtime is selling each unit at a discount to what the budgeted price should have been.

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