Coffee Bean Inc.

Coffee Bean, Inc. (CBI), is a processor and distributor of a variety of blends of coffee. The company buys coffee beans from around the world and roasts, blends, and packages them for resale. CBI currently has 40 different coffees that it sells to gourmet shops in one-pound bags. The major cost of the coffee is raw materials. However, the company’s predominately automated roasting, blending, and packing process requires a substantial amount of manufacturing overhead.The company uses relatively little direct labor. Some of CBI’s coffees are very popular and sell in large volumes, while a few of the newer blends have very low volumes. CBI prices its coffee at manufacturing cost plus a markup of 30%. If CBI’s prices for certain coffees are significantly higher than market, adjustments are made to bring CBI’s prices more into alignment with the market since customers are somewhat price conscious.For the coming year, CBI’s budget includes estimated manuf acturing overhead cost of $3,000,000. CBI assigns manufacturing overhead to products on the basis of direct labor-hours. The expected direct labor cost totals $600,000, which represents 50,000 hours of direct labor time. Based on the sales budget and expected raw materials costs, the company will purchase and use $6,000,000 of raw materials (mostly coffee beans) during the year.The expected costs for direct materials and direct labor for one-pound bags of two of the company’s coffee products appear below: |   | |   | |Mona Loa | |Malaysian | | | |Direct materials | |$ 4. 0 | |$ 3. 20 | | | |Direct labor | |0. 30 | |0. 30 | | | CBI’s controller believes that the company’s traditional costing system may be providing misleding cost information.To determine whether or not this is correct, the controller has prepared an analysis of the year’s expected manufacturing overhead costs, as shown in the following table: |Activity Cost Pool | |Activity Meas ure | |Expected Activity for the Year | |Expected Cost for the Year | | | |Purchasing | |Purchase orders | |1,710 orders | |$513,000 | | | |Materials handling | |# of Setups | |1,800 setups | |720,000 | | | |Quality control | |# of Batches | |600 batches | |144,000 | | | |Roasting | |Roasting-hours | |96,100 roasting hours |961,000 | | | |Blending | |Blending-hours | |33,600 blending hours | |402,000 | | | |Packaging | |Packaging-hours | |26,000 packaging hours | |260,000 | | | |Total manufacturing overhead cost | |$3,000,000 | | | Data regarding the expected production of Mona Loa and Malaysian coffee are presented below.    | |  Ã‚   | |   | |Mona Loa   | |   | |Malaysian | | | |Expected sales   | |   | |100,000 pounds | | | |2,000 pounds | | |Batch size   | |   | |10,000 pounds | | | |500 pounds | | | |Setups | |3 per batch | |3 per batch | | | |Purchase order size   | |   | |20,000 pounds | | | |500 pounds | | | |Roasting time    per 100 pounds | |   | |1 hour | | | |1 hour | | | |Blending time   per 100 pounds | |   | |0. 5 hour | | | |0. hour | | | |Packaging time   per 100 pounds | |   | |0. 1 hour | | | |0. 1 hour | | | 1.Using the direct labor-hours as the base for assigning manufacturing overhead cost to products, do the following: a. Determine the predetermined overhead rate that will be used during the year. b. Determine the unit product cost of one pound of the Mona Loa coffee and one pound of the Malaysian coffee. 2. Using activity-based costing as the basis for assigning manufacturing overhead cost to products, do the following: a. Determine the total amount of manufacturing overhead cost assigned to the Mona Loa coffee and to the Malaysian coffee for the year. b. Using the data developed in 2(a), computer the amount of manufacturing overhead cost per pound of the Mona Loa coffee and the Malaysian coffee.Round all computations to the nearest whole cent. c. Determine the u nit product cost of one pound of the Mona Loa coffee and one pound of the Malaysian coffee. Write a brief memo to the president of CBI explaining what you have found in (1) and (2) above and discussing the implications to the company of using direct labor as the base for assigning manufacturing overhead cost to products. MEMORANDUM To:The president of CBI From: Date: Subject:the implications to the company of using direct labor as the base for assigning manufacturing overhead cost to products. 1) Per pound cost of the Mona Loa coffee and the Malaysian coffee as per traditional costing system is $ 6 and $ 5 respectively. ) The manufacturing overhead assigned to each pound of the Mona Loa coffee and the Malaysian coffee is same because the direct labour hours required for manufacturing each pound of coffee are same 3) Per pound cost of the Mona Loa coffee and the Malaysian coffee as per Activity based costing system is $ 4. 83 and $ 7. 15 respectively. 4) Following are the implication s to the company of using direct labor as the base for assigning manufacturing overhead cost to products: 1. Price determination under existing costing system (using direct labor as the base) is not accurate. Under activity based costing cost is calculated more accurately than existing product costing system. 2. Higher prices of popular product affect market adversely.As the customers are price conscious company can sell Mona Loa Coffee (which is more popular) at lower price and can increase its market share if the cost is calculated accurately. 3. As company uses relatively little direct labour, direct labour is not an appropriate basis for applying overheads to products. 4. By using activity based costing company can discontinue its non-profitable products or suggest appropriate price for those product 5) Activity based costing allocated indirect cost more accurately . It helps in reducing the cost by eliminating unwanted activities Helps in improving product and customer profitab ility. Activity based costing helps in forecasting and planning.

Of mice and men †dreams and hope Essay

Hopes and dreams help people survive even if they never become real. How true is this for the characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’? The novel ‘Of mice and Men’ was written by John Steinbeck and is set in Salinas and Soledad California in the 1930s when life was hard for so many people because of the great depression. A major theme of John Steinbeck’s novel ‘of mice and men’ is the American dream and the drive to attain it. There are two major themes in ‘of mice and men’ novel that is foreshadowed by the reference to Robert Burns’ poem called â€Å"To a mouse† the word mouse within the title means loneliness and dreams. (BBC Bitesize, 2014:2) This poem contains the lines, â€Å"The best laid plans of mice and men/ often go awry† Most of the main characters in â€Å"Of Mice and Men† harbour dreams and have plans that never come true. George, Lennie, and Candy all share a doomed dream of buying their own f arm and living off the land. George often thinks about how his life he could have had as an unrestricted bachelor and free of the burden of caring for Lennie. â€Å"If I was alone I could live so easy,† he says. (Steinbeck, 1965:12) However, Lennie has his own private dream of living in a cave with his own rabbits but Curley’s wife regrets the missed chance to become a movie star. The main theme throughout this novel is that people must learn to reconcile their dreams with the reality to accept that everyone’s best laid plans often die. Each of the characters plans go askew not because they give up on them but because the forces beyond their control destroyed each one of them. Due to the bleak economic outlook of the Great Depression coming to terms with your broken dreams was the reality nearly everyone in America faced. The American Dream is written into the Declaration of Independence: â€Å"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.† â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.† With these protections, any American, regardless of class, religion, gender, and eventually race, could always strive—and even sometimes succeed—at improving himself via wealth, education, or labour. (SparkNotes, 2014). George and Lennie’s dream about owning a farm and living off the â€Å"fatta the lan† (Steinbeck, 1965:16) symbolises this dream. In the novel â€Å"Of Mice and Men† shows that the American Dream became an illusion and a trap for the poor migrant workers during the Great Depression. Every single one of the ranch  workers in the novel dream of life, liberty and happiness but not one of them ever gets is. When Crooks hears of George and Lennie’s dream of owning their farm he says â€Å"Nobody ever gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.† (Steinbeck, 1965:84). Although the ranch workers dreams may not be realised, the novel suggest that in order for a person’s life to be full and meaningful it has to contain some sort of dream. At the end of the novel George and Lennie never achieved their dream but it did hold their remarkable friendship together throughout the story, for them this dream was real even if it was just there imagination because kept Lennie happy and it stopped George from becoming a mean and lonely guy like the other ranch workers. The dream gives them life, even if life never allows them to achieve their dreams. This novel explores the changing aspects of male friendship during this period this is shown when Lennie asks George to tell him why they are not like the other ranchers; George tells him â€Å"we got a future Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place†¦.With us it ain’t like that. We got a future†¦. An’ why? Because†¦because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.† (Steinbeck, 1965:15) this is George’s way of sayi ng he and Lennie are different to the other workers. It could also be suggested that the word ‘future’ could be a metaphor for something bright and so much greater then what they have got now, which could be linked to their version of the American Dream and to ‘live off the fatta the lan’. (Steinbeck, 1965:16) this could almost suggest a biblical meaning like a promised land where all their dreams could come true. This dream helps George and Lennie to endure the hardship they face each day and to help them not to give in to despair. Usually the men who worked on these ranches would have no family, friends so therefore no future. Their friendship strikes the other ranch workers as odd due to their dependency on each other. This makes the boss and Curley suspicious and Slim observes that ranch workers rarely travel together because they’re scared of each other. Although most of the men in the novel are completely alone they still all crave true friendship. As Crooks, perhaps the novel’s most solitary character because of his black skin puts it, â€Å"A guy needs somebody—to be near him.† (Steinbeck, 1965:82) All the characters in the novel long for friendship and kindness but yet they all live in fear of one  another. This is shown with the tough shooting of Candy’s dog which makes it clear that during the Great Depression if you are useless, old or weak you will certainly be destroyed because the strong and the useful will fight for survival. All the workers on the ranch would constantly try to make themselves look strong especially if they feeling weak. The fear of the weak being overrun by the strong could explain why Curley likes to fight a larger men then he is â€Å"Curley’s pretty handy. He done quite a bit in the ring. He’s a light weight and he’s handy† (Steinbeck, 1965:29) and it could also be why Crooks tells Lennie that George is going to abandon him. Then Curleyâ₠¬â„¢s wife threatens to have Crooks lynched. Each of these characters tries to appear strong by asserting power over one another. This fear of being the strongest explains why the other characters in novel find it hard to understand George and Lennie’s friendship because they see being the strongest as a fight for survival. In ‘Of Mice and Men’ it has two different visions of women in it the first is the male character view and the second is the novel’s view of women. The male characters view on women which is they tend to view the women with fear and negatively labelling them as dangerous sexual temptresses. The male workers often referred to Curley’s wife with insulting words like a â€Å"tart† (Steinbeck, 1965:31) and â€Å"jail bait† (Steinbeck, 1965:36). George and Lennie have a friend in prison â€Å"on account of a tart† (Steinbeck, 1965:63) plus they have had their own troubles twice as a result from a woman. The first the women from Weeds and the second is Curley’s wife. Although she plays into her role as sexy temptress throughout the novel until the last part of it where is a victim. Curley’s wife craves the attention of the men on the ranch because she’s desperately lonely so she flaunts her power over the men because she h erself feels weak. There are a number of symbols within the novel that have different meanings these are George and Lennie’s farm, the rabbits that Lennie keeps talking about, Candy’s old dog and also Lennie’s puppy. The dream of owning a farm for George and Lennie is a symbol of the American Dream. This fantasy of owning their own farm leads George, Lennie and the other ranch workers such as Candy and Crooks to indulge in the dream of living â€Å"off the fatta the lan† (Steinbeck, 1965:16). George’s rich description of the farm’s lavish plants and animals also makes it seem like a symbol of paradise. While Lennie dreams of tending to the rabbits on the farm that he and George hope to own  one day. This dream forms Lennie’s complete innocence. Lennie enjoys touching anything that has a soft fur such as rabbits and mice due to this love of touching soft things leads to his fate. This symbolise not just innocence but also Lennie’s downfall of innocence in the harsh world that he lives. The next symbol is Candy’s old but once powerful sheepdog. For Carlson killing Candy’s dog makes it clear that during the Great Depression those who was strong would only survive. The way that Carlson kills Candy’s dog in the back of the head with just a single gunshot is foreshadowing how George will kill Lennie in the end. The link between Lennie and Candy’s dog is that they are powerless, innocent and doomed from the start. The symbol of Lennie’s puppy shows how dependent Lennie is on George, just as the puppy is dependent on Lennie. The puppy symbolise the fate of the weak in the face of the strong.

Control Structures in programming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Control Structures in programming - Essay Example s control structures for the statements have been held up for the reason that the primeval control structures of a digital computer that has a sequential uni-processor that is adequate to replicate some other control structure. The compensate of extraordinary as well as meticulous control structures are for the most part in simplicity plus briefness of appearance and in programming effortlessness, events which are tough to determine and normally in unpredictability by competence of accomplishment proceedings. It is accessed that "language programmers should by no means be pleased by languages that give permission to them to program the whole thing, on the other hand to computer program not anything excluding attention simply"(Fisher, 1990). The control arrangements of programming have not reserved rate by the augment (Fisher, 1990). The next important control structure is the selection that permits the selection in the middle of diverse ways. For instance the C++ offers dissimilar ranks of assortment: we have the one-way choice by means of an â€Å"if structure† then we have the 2-way choice by means of an â€Å"if-else structure†. The last selection can be used for the multiple choices by means of a â€Å"switch statement†. The last type of the control structure is the iteration control structure that guides to the looping of the programming statements. In the C++ we have 3 types of the iteration control structure lopping structures:2 This type of the control structure permits single set of programming language statements to be performed if an outcome is correct plus one more group of proceedings to be performed if a statement is false.   A selection structure is as well acknowledged as an "If-Then-Else" arrangement, its pictorial representation is given below in picture # 1. Here in the selection control structure the state in the â€Å"if statement† is the expression that is calculated for the decision of the â€Å"if statement†. If this statement is correct,

Responses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Responses - Essay Example Toby Stephens was portrayed as a very rich and passionate individual with an unkempt appearance and who seems to have a mystery to himself. He just does not seem the person he has played in films like die another day, so I would say that he acted really well. Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre was also very sensible and composed just like the book describes the character as a woman of intellect. The best part was that Ruth Wilson’s eyes actually have a very deep feel to them as if she is scanning a person’s character with her look. In the 1996 version of the film, I personally felt that William Hurt looked like a sweet lover with nothing going beyond that face which I felt Toby Stephens was able to convey; Charlotte Gainsbourg does not look as unconventional a heroine as does Ruth Wilson. Chapters 23-28 in the book are part of the time when Jane is in Thornfield. The first time Jane Eyre sees Bertha is when Bertha comes in her room one night and tears apart her wedding gown. Bert ha was Mr. Rochester’s first wife who had lost control of her senses, which was a disease that ran in her family. I really liked the connection of the red cloth that hung from the window of the room where Bertha was locked.

Continental Airlines Flight 1404 Research Paper

Continental Airlines Flight 1404 - Research Paper Example Earlier, nearly 90 percent of the aircraft accidents were grouped as survivable or technically survivable. As part of this initiative, a range of new features are integrated into aircraft at the design stage. The aircraft manufacturing industry collected details of several fatal air accident incidents and identified the key issues led to catastrophes. As a result of those extensive research practices, the air accident survival rate has significantly improved in the United States for the last two decades. This paper will discuss the case ‘Runway side excursion during attempted takeoff in strong and gusty crosswind conditions: Continental airlines flight 1404’. The paper will specifically point out why this air accident was survivable. The Mishap 250 The Continental Airlines Flight 1404 was a passenger carrier flight from Denver International Airport at Denver in Colorado to George Bush Intercontinental Airport at Huston in Texas. On 20th December 2008, at 1818 Mountain Standard Time, the Continental Airlines flight 1404 (a Boeing 737-500, N18611) skidded off the left side of the runway while taking off from the Denver International Airport. As an impact of the skidding, the flight crashed into 40 feet deep ravine which was several hundred yards away from the runway. During the course of the crash, the flight caught fire. As described in Aviation Safety Network (2008), although whereabouts of Flight 1404 were unknown at the initial stages, firefighters could immediately respond to the disaster because the plane came to rest beside one of the four fire houses of the airport. When firefighters reached the accident site, right side of the plane had been almost damaged by the fire. Passengers were being assisted by flight attendants to escape through the left side. There were 110 passengers in the flight. The captain and 5 of the passengers were severely injured whereas the first officer, 2 cabin crewmembers, and 38 passengers sustained minor injuries. Luckily, one cabin crewmember and rest of the passengers escaped unscathed. However, the flight was damaged substantially (Aviation Safety Network, 2008). Evidently, there were visual meteorological conditions at the time of the aircraft disaster. The plane followed an instrument flight rules flight plan. Investigation reports indicated that a faulty air tr affic control system and improper crosswind training in the airline industry were the major causes of the disaster. Why the Accident was Survivable While analyzing this disaster case, it seems that flight attendants’ timely responsive actions significantly contributed to the survivability of this aircraft crash. Although the flight attendants could not communicate with the pilots immediately after the aircraft came to a halt, they timely ordered an evacuation at the moment they identified the danger or fire. Since the right side of the airplane was almost caught by fire, three exits on the plane’s left side including forward, aft, and overwing were used for the evacuation process. When the forward and aft exits were operated by flight attendants, a passenger operated the left overwing exit. During the evacuation, three flight attendants and two other flight crewmembers assisted passengers to escape through less congested exits and blocked access to right side exits. In the opinion of Leib (2009), the accident was survivable because only left side of the aircraft caught fire and therefore passengers could escape through right side exits. Post-accident interviews revealed that even though passengers seemed frightened, they were greatly responsive to instructions and hence the evacuation pr

Investment Portfolio Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Investment Portfolio - Research Paper Example It involves providing concise method of communicating the process and objectives amongst all parties involved with the investments and to assign responsibility for implementations. (Winfield R. G. and Curry S. J., 1995.) Once the Investment Policy has been established other factors affecting the investment such as financial and economic conditions, and risk factors will be examined. How to allocate the 100,000 to specific assets will be determined. RiskGrades will be used for optimal allocation. RiskGradeTM measure is an open and transparent benchmark to measure the risk of the world's financial assets. Another optimization criterion to be looked at briefly is the Markowitz co-variance approach. According to Markowitz, (1952), the co-variance matrix can be used to compute portfolio variance. Peter Zangari (1996)'s document on risk metrics assumes that the market is driven by risk factors with observable co-variance. These risk factors which have been incorporated in the analysis include; time series of prices or levels of stocks, currencies (foreign exchange rates), commodities and interest rates. The evaluation of investment performance is very important to any investor. Evaluation goes hand in hand with re-examining the policies and altering the strategies. The constructed portfolio will be monitored throughout the period under review. The reasons why it is performing in a certain way is examined. Policy Statement This is a statement of Investment Policy and investment goals, which establish the investment management procedures. The five basic components of the statement include; Summary of investor circumstances. Investment objectives, time horizon and risk attitudes. Permissible asset classes, constraints and restrictions. The asset allocation decisions. Selection, monitoring and control procedures. For an investor, investment policy depends on circumstances (Winfield, 2005). Institutional investor will be concerned with long-term investments as opposed to an individual investor who will be limited to personal factors such as financial situation, age, family circumstances, and personal preferences to risk. An elderly investor will invest in investments which are short-term though the risks might be high as opposed to a young investor. Diversification comes in for the issue of risks. Diversification is a risk limiting strategy. Since I am a young investor, I would like to diversify my investment and also take a greater amount of risk to enhance the potential earnings on the investment. According to Winfield (2005), as a

Research Methods and Statistics (Report) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Research Methods and Statistics (Report) - Essay Example That is, communication must be determined based on the different dimensions that surround this concept, which include, among others, the ability of the disabled individual to communicate through speech and nonverbal communication, as well as understand communication from other people, or as the message is being transmitted to him/her. When the dependent variable is clearly determined and defined-that is, effectively operationalized-the authors will be able to state the generalizability of the results of the study in terms of communication, and specifically in the context of the participants' experiences as individuals with either learning or physical disabilities. 2) While communication is just one facet of the variable engagement level, engagement level as a dependent variable was also not clearly stated in the article. In this particular variable, the measures through which communication was identified as such was not only restrictive, but are also limited or few in scope. Identifying engagement level of the self in terms only of rocking and hand-flicking are simple measures that do not cover the entirety of the measure, 'engagement level in terms of the self.' The article left the reader wondering whether the engagement levels were only identified in the terms reported by the authors, or whether there are other measures that they used to quantify engagement levels, and in effect, establish the quantitative relationship between engagement levels and response vis--vis the participant's immersion to hydrotherapeutic environment. In effect, what this observation demonstrates is that engagement level does not translated to communication only, b ut also an understanding of the activity and corresponding physical action that the individual has given in response to a specific communication prompt. 3) The article reported an increase in the engagement levels of the participants once they have been immersed or exposed to the hydrotherapeutic environment. Although there has been an increase in the engagement levels, three contentions to these findings can be observed. The first contention is that the reported increase in engagement levels are not reliable because of the questionable operationalization of the variables used for the study. Secondly, the study did not also report whether these increase in engagement levels are significant relationships or not. This is a crucial point that must be established in the article, since the increase in engagement levels of the participants will cease to be relevant and important if the reported percentages and increases are not significant in relation to the participants' immersion to the hydrotherapeutic environment. In effect, because the relationship established in the article were not clarified as whether significant or not, the effect and influence of the independent variable from the dependent variables loses its importance, rendering the study and its findings insignificant for the readers. 4) The design of the research study itself should have used a time-series experimental design, comparing the participants' performance during and after the time they have been exposed