Multiple Cost Drivers
Newman's Own manufactures a variety of specialty salad dressings. Production runs are both high
volume and lowvolume activities, depending on customer orders. Assume the following represents
general manufacturing costs manufacturing overhead and each costs related activity cost driver for
Newman's Own.
The lime vinaigrette dressing required machine hours to fill customer orders for a total of
cases.
Required
a Assuming all manufacturing overhead is estimated and predicted on the basis of machine hours,
determine the predicted total overhead costs to produce the cases of lime vinaigrette.
b Assuming manufacturing overhead is estimated and predicted using separate rates for machine
hours, customer orders, and products a multiplelevel cost hierarchy determine the predicted total
overhead costs to produce the cases of lime vinaigrette.
c Calculate the error in predicting manufacturing overhead using machine hours versus using multiple
cost drivers. Indicate whether the use of only machine hours results in overpredicting or underpre
dicting the costs to produce cases of lime vinaigrette.
d Looking just at batch level costs, calculate the error in predicting those costs using machine hours
versus using customer orders. Indicate whether the use of only machine hours results in overpredict
ing or underpredicting the batchlevel costs to produce cases of lime vinaigrette.
Looking just at productlevel costs, calculate the error in predicting those costs using machine hours
versus using number of products. Indicate whether the use of only machine hours results in overpre
dicting or underpredicting the productlevel costs to produce cases of lime vinaigrette.