Shibby Shades Incorporated manufactures artistic frames for sunglasses. Talia Demarest, controller, is responsible for preparing the company's master budget. In compiling the budget data for x Demarest has learned that new automated production equipment will be installed on March This will reduce the direct labor per frame from hours to hours.
Laborrelated costs include pension contributions of $ per hour, workers' compensation insurance of $ per hour, employee medical insurance of $ per hour, and employer contributions to Social Security equal to percent of directlabor wages. The cost of employee benefits paid by the company on its employees is treated as a directlabor cost. Shibby Shades Incorporated has a labor contract that calls for a wage increase to $ per hour on April Management expects to have frames on hand at December x and has a policy of carrying an endofmonth inventory of percent of the following month's sales plus percent of the second following month's sales.
These and other data compiled by Demarest are summarized in the following table.
tableJanuary,February,March,April,MayDirectlabor hours per unit,Wage per directlabor hour,$$$$$