Question

Zytel Corporation produces cleaning compounds and solutions for industrial and household use. While most of its products are processed independently, a few are related. Grit 337, a coarse cleaning powder with many industrial uses, costs $2.20 a pound to make and sells for $3.40 a pound. A small portion of the annual production of this product is retained for further processing in the Mixing Department, where it is combined with several other ingredients to form a paste, which is marketed as a silver polish selling for $5.60 per jar. This further processing requires 1/4 pound of Grit 337 per jar. Costs of other ingredients, labor, and variable overhead associated with this further processing amount to $2.40 per jar. Variable selling costs are $0.40 per jar. If the decision were made to cease production of the silver polish, $8,800 of Mixing Department fixed costs could be avoided. Zytel has limited production capacity for Grit 337, but unlimited demand for the cleaning powder.
Required:1. Calculate the minimum number of jars of silver polish that would have to be sold to justify further processing of Grit 337. (Round your intermediate calculation to 2 decimal places and final answer to the nearest whole number.)

Answer 1

Answer:

4,513 approx.

Explanation:

The computation of the minimum number of jars of silver polish is shown below:-

Sales revenue for one jar of silver polish    $5.60

Sales revenue for 1/4 pound of Grit 337     0.85

($3.40 ×  1 ÷ 4)

Incremental revenue from

further processing                                        $4.75

($5.60 - 0.85)

Incremental costs of further processing:

Processing costs                      $2.40

Selling costs                              $0.40          $2.80

Incremental contribution

margin from further

processing into silver polish

per jar                                                            $1.95

($4.75 - $2.80)

Point of indifference denotes the point where all options are equally profitable. But after that we will see that more processing is profitable. This is due to the fixed costs involved in further production.

Thus Minimum number of jars needed to produce to justify the further processing = Avoidable Fixed cost ÷ Incremental contribution

= $8,800 ÷ $1.95

= 4,513 approx.