P2 Performance Management

Transcription

1 Pillar P P2 Performance Management Instructions to candidates Specimen Examination Paper You are allowed three hours to answer this question paper. You are allowed 20 minutes reading time before the examination begins during which you should read the question paper and, if you wish, make annotations on the question paper. However, you will not be allowed, under any circumstances, to open the answer book and start writing or use your calculator during this reading time. You are strongly advised to carefully read all the question requirements before attempting the question concerned (that is, all parts and/or subquestions). The requirements for all questions are contained in a dotted box. ALL answers must be written in the answer book. Answers or notes written on the question paper will not be submitted for marking. Answer the FIVE compulsory questions in Section A on pages 2 to 6. Answer the TWO compulsory questions in Section B on pages 7 to 11. Maths Tables and Formulae are provided on pages 12 to 14. The list of verbs as published in the syllabus is given for reference on page 15. Write your candidate number, the paper number and examination subject title in the spaces provided on the front of the answer book. Also write your contact ID and name in the space provided in the right hand margin and seal to close. Tick the appropriate boxes on the front of the answer book to indicate which questions you have answered. P2 Performance Management TURN OVER The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants 2009

2 SECTION A 50 MARKS [The indicative time for answering this section is 90 minutes.] ANSWER ALL FIVE QUESTIONS IN THIS SECTION - 10 MARKS EACH. Question One You are engaged as a consultant to the DT group. At present the group source their raw materials locally, manufacture their products in a single factory, and distribute them worldwide via an international distribution company. However, their manufacturing facilities are restricting them from expanding so they are considering outsourcing some of their manufacturing operations to developing economies. Required: (a) (b) Discuss the concept of the value chain and how the changes being considered by the DT group may impact on the management of contribution/profit generated throughout the chain. (6 marks) Discuss how gain sharing arrangements might be used by the DT group in the context of the changes being considered. Suggest one non-financial target that may be used as part of these gain sharing arrangements. (4 marks) (Total for Question One =10 marks) Performance Management 2 Specimen Exam Paper

3 Question Two S uses a standard absorption costing system to control its production costs and monitors its performance using monthly variance reports. S has recently launched a new product which is being manufactured in batches of 100 units. An extract from the standard cost details per unit for this new product is as follows: 5 3 hours of direct $10 per hour $53 00 It is now realised that the standard cost details were based on an average learning period target of 5 3 hours per unit, and that a batch related period of learning was expected. The time expected for the initial batch was 1,000 hours and 90% learning rate was anticipated. During August production commenced on the product, and 400 units were produced in four batches of 100 units using 2500 hours of direct labour at a cost of $26,000. The direct labour variances that were reported in respect of this product were: Direct labour rate variance $1,000 Adverse Direct labour efficiency variance $3,800 Adverse Required: (a) Calculate the expected length of the learning period in batches (to the nearest whole batch). (4 marks) (b) Calculate planning and operating variances for August. (4 marks) (c) Explain why the variances you have calculated in (b) above provide more meaningful information to the managers of S. (2 marks) (Total for Question Two = 10 marks) TURN OVER Specimen Exam Paper 3 Performance Management

4 Question Three A firm of solicitors is preparing its budgets for The structure of the firm is that it has a managing partner who is responsible for client and staff management, the firm s accounts and compliance matters and three other partners who each take responsibility for case matters depending on the branch of law that is involved in each case. For a number of years the managing partner has prepared the budgets for the firm. These include budgets for fee income and costs analysed by each partner, and a cash budget for the firm as a whole. The firm has overdraft facilities which are renewable in June each year and sets cash balance targets for each month that reflect the seasonality of some of its work. At the end of each month there is a partners meeting at which the managing partner presents a statement that compares the actual results of the month and the year to date with the corresponding budget. At this meeting all partners are asked to explain the reasons for the variances that have arisen. The managing partner recently attended a course on Budget Planning & Cost Control at which the presenter argued that each of the partners in the firm should be involved in the budget setting process. However, the managing partner is not convinced by this argument as she believes that this could lead to budget manipulation. Required (a) (b) Explain feedback and feed-forward control systems and give an example of each in the context of the firm of solicitors. (5 marks) Discuss ONE potentially beneficial consequence and ONE potentially adverse consequence of involving the firm s other partners in the budget setting process of the firm. (5 marks) (Total for Question Three = 10 marks) Performance Management 4 Specimen Exam Paper

5 Question Four W is a manufacturing company that produces three products: X, Y and Z. Each uses the same resources, but in different quantities as shown in the table of budgeted data for 2010 below: Product X Y Z Budgeted production Direct labour hours per unit Machine hours per unit Batch size Machine setups per batch Purchase orders per batch Material movements per batch W s budgeted production overhead costs for 2010 are $400,000 and current practice is to absorb these costs into product costs using an absorption rate based on direct labour hours. As a result the production overhead cost attributed to each product unit is: Product X $32 Product Y $64 Product Z $48 The management of S are considering changing to an activity based method of attributing overhead costs to products and as a result have identified the following cost drivers and related cost pools: Cost pool $ Cost driver Machine maintenance 100,000 machine hours Machine setups 70,000 machine setups Purchasing 90,000 purchase orders Material handling 60,000 material movements The remaining $80,000 of overhead costs are caused by a number of different factors and activities that are mainly labour related and are to be attributed to products on the basis of labour hours. Required: (a) (b) Calculate the production overhead cost attributed to each product unit using an activity based approach. (7 marks) Explain how W has applied Pareto Analysis when determining its cost drivers and how it may continue to use Pareto Analysis to control its production costs. (3 marks) (Total for Question Four = 10 marks) TURN OVER Specimen Exam Paper 5 Performance Management

6 Question Five HJ is a printing company that specialises in producing high quality cards and calendars for sale as promotional gifts. Much of the work produced by HJ uses similar techniques and for a number of years HJ has successfully used a standard costing system to control its costs. HJ is now planning to diversify into other promotional gifts such as plastic moulded items including key fobs, card holders and similar items. There is already a well established market place for these items but HJ is confident that with its existing business contacts it can be successful if it controls its costs. Initially HJ will need to invest in machinery to mould the plastic, and it is likely that this machinery will have a life of five years. An initial appraisal of the proposed diversification based on low initial sales volumes and marginal cost based product pricing for year 1, followed by increases in both volumes and selling prices in subsequent years, shows that the investment has a payback period of four years. Required (a) (b) Explain the relationship between target costs and standard costs and how HJ can derive target costs from target prices (5 marks) Discuss the conflict that will be faced by HJ when making pricing decisions based on marginal cost in the short term and the need for full recovery of all costs in the long term. (5 marks) (Total for Question Five = 10 marks) (Total for Section A = 50 marks) Performance Management 6 Specimen Exam Paper

7 SECTION B 50 MARKS [The indicative time for answering this section is 90 minutes.] ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS IN THIS SECTION - 25 MARKS EACH. Question Six M is the holding company of a number of companies within the engineering sector. One of these subsidiaries is PQR which specialises in building machines for manufacturing companies. PQR uses absorption costing as the basis of its routine accounting system for profit reporting. PQR is currently operating at 90% of its available capacity, and has been invited by an external manufacturing company, to tender for the manufacture of a bespoke machine. If PQR s tender is accepted by the manufacturing company then it is likely that another company within the M group will be able to obtain work in the future servicing the machine. As a result, the Board of Directors of M are keen to win the tender for the machine and are prepared to accept a price from the manufacturing company that is based on the relevant costs of building the machine. An engineer from PQR has already met with the manufacturing company to determine the specification of the machine and he has worked with a non-qualified accountant from PQR to determine the following cost estimate for the machine. Note $ Engineering specification 1 1,500 Direct material A 2 61,000 Direct Material B 3 2,500 Components 4 6,000 Direct Labour 5 12,500 Supervision Machine hire 7 2,500 Overhead costs 8 5,500 Total 91,850 NOTES 1. The engineer that would be in charge of the project to build the machine has already met with the manufacturing company, and subsequently prepared the specification for the machine. This has taken three days of his time and his salary and related costs are $500 per day. The meeting with the manufacturing company only took place because of this potential work; no other matters were discussed at the meeting. 2. The machine would require 10,000 square metres of Material A. This material is regularly used by PQR. There is currently 15,000 square metres in inventory, 10,000 square metres were bought for $6 per square metre and the remainder were bought for $6 30 per square metre. PQR uses the weighted average basis to value its inventory. The current market price of Material A is $7 per square metre, and the inventory could be sold for $6 50 per square metre. TURN OVER Specimen Exam Paper 7 Performance Management

8 3. The machine would also require 250 metre lengths of Material B. This is not a material that is regularly used by PQR and it would have to be purchased specifically for this work. The current market price is $10 per metre length, but the sole supplier of this material has a minimum order size of 300 metre lengths. PQR does not foresee any future use of any unused lengths of Material B, and expects that the net revenue from its sale would be negligible. 4. The machine would require 500 components. The components could be produced by HK, another company within the M group. The direct costs to HK of producing each component is $8, and normal transfer pricing policy within the M group is to add a 50% mark up to the direct cost to determine the transfer price. HK has unused capacity which would allow them to produce 350 components, but thereafter any more components could only be produced by reducing the volume of other components that are currently sold to the external market. These other components, although different, require the same machine time per unit as those required by PQR, have a direct cost of $6 per component and currently are sold for $9 each. Alternatively PQR can buy the components from the external market for $14 each. 5. The machine will require 1000 hours of skilled labour. The current market rate for engineers with the appropriate skills is $15 per hour. PQR currently employs engineers that have the necessary skills at a cost of $12.50 per hour, but they do not have any spare capacity. They could be transferred from their existing duties if temporary replacements were to be engaged at a cost of $14 per hour. 6. The project would be supervised by a senior engineer who currently works 150 hours per month and is paid an annual salary of $42,000. The project is expected to take a total of one month to complete, and if it goes ahead is likely to take up 10% of the supervisor s time during that month. If necessary the supervisor will work overtime which is unpaid. 7. It will be necessary to hire specialist machine for part of the project. In total the project will require the machine for 5 days but it is difficult to predict exactly which five days the machine will be required within the overall project time of one month. One option is to hire the machine for the entire month at a cost of $5,000 and then sub-hire the machine for $150 per day when it is not required by PQR. PQR expects that it would be able to sub-hire the machine for 20 days. Alternatively PQR could hire the machine on the days it requires and its availability would be guaranteed at a cost of $500 per day. 8. PQR s fixed production overhead cost budget for the year totals $200,000 and is absorbed into its project costs using a skilled direct labour hour absorption rate, based on normal operating capacity of 80%. PQR s capacity budget for the year is a total of 50,000 skilled direct labour hours. PQR s latest annual forecast is for overhead costs to total $220,000, and for capacity to be as originally budgeted. Performance Management 8 Specimen Exam Paper

9 Required: (a) (b) (c) You are employed as assistant Management Accountant of the M group. For each of the resource items identified you are to: (i) discuss the basis of the valuation provided for each item (ii) discuss whether or not you agree with the valuation provided in the context of the proposed tender (iii) prepare a revised schedule of relevant costs for the tender document on behalf of the M group. (15 marks) Assume that PQR successfully wins the bid to build the machine for a selling price of $100,000 and that the costs incurred are as expected. Discuss the conflict that will arise between the profit expected from the project by the Board of M on a relevant cost basis and the project profit that will be reported to them by PQR using its routine accounting practices. Use at least two specific examples from the bid to explain the conflict that you discuss. Discuss two non-financial matters that you consider relevant to this decision. (5 marks) (5 marks) (Total for Question Six = 25 marks) TURN OVER Specimen Exam Paper 9 Performance Management

10 Question Seven DEF is a trading company that is divided into three divisions: D, E and F. Each division maintains its own accounting records and prepares an annual summary of its results. These performance summaries are shown below for the year ended 30 September Division D E F $000 $000 $000 Sales (net of returns) Variable production costs Fixed production costs Administration costs Profit Capital Employed The following additional information is available: 1. Divisions are free to trade with each other without any interference from Head Office. The managers of the respective divisions negotiate transfer prices between themselves. During the year and included in the above costs and revenues are the following transactions: Division D sold goods for $20,000 to Division E. The price negotiated was agreed on a unit basis between the managers of the two divisions. The variable production cost of these items in Division D was $18,000. Division D was operating under capacity and agreed to a transfer price that was little more than its own variable cost. Division F sold goods for $15,000 to Division E. The price negotiated was agreed on a unit basis between the managers of the two divisions. The variable production cost of these items in Division F was $9,000. Division F was operating under capacity and negotiated a transfer price based on its total production cost. 2. Included in the Administration costs for each division are the following management charges from Head Office: D: $10,000 E: $8,000 F: $15, At the start of each year Head Office sets each division a target Return on Capital Employed. The target depends on their nature of the work and their industry sector. For the year ended 30 September 2009 these targets were: D: 6% E: 3% F: 15% Performance Management 10 Specimen Exam Paper

11 Required (a) (b) (c) (d) Discuss the shortcomings of the above performance summaries when measuring the performance of each division. (5 marks) Discuss the potential problems of negotiated transfer pricing, and how these have impacted on the performance of each of Divisions D, E, and F for the year ended 30 September (6 marks) Prepare an alternative statement that is more useful for measuring and reporting the performance of Divisions D, E, and F. (8 marks) Discuss how the use of Dual transfer prices could affect the measurement of divisional performance within DEF. Illustrate your answer with suggested dual prices. (6 marks) (Total for Question Seven = 25 marks) (Total for Section B = 50 marks) End of Question Paper TURN OVER Specimen Exam Paper 11 Performance Management

12 Present value table MATHS TABLES AND FORMULAE Present value of 1 unit of currency, that is 1 r n where r = interest rate; n = number of periods until payment or receipt. Periods Interest rates (r) (n) 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% Periods Interest rates (r) (n) 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% Performance Management 12 Specimen Exam Paper

13 Cumulative present value of 1 unit of currency per annum, Receivable or Payable at the end of each year for n years n 1 (1 r ) r Periods (n) Interest rates (r) 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% Periods (n) Interest rates (r) 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% TURN OVER Specimen Exam Paper 13 Performance Management

14 Formulae TIME SERIES Additive model: Series = Trend + Seasonal + Random Multiplicative model: Series = Trend*Seasonal*Random REGRESSION ANALYSIS The linear regression equation of Y on X is given by: where: Y = a + bx or Y Y = b(x X ), b = Covariance ( XY ) Variance ( X ) = n XY ( X )( Y ) n X 2 ( X ) 2 and or solve a = Y b X Y = na + b X XY = a X + b X 2 Exponential Geometric Y = ab x Y = ax b LEARNING CURVE Y x = ax b where: Y x = the cumulative average time per unit to produce X units; a = the time required to produce the first unit of output; X = the cumulative number of units; b = the index of learning. The exponent b is defined as the log of the learning curve improvement rate divided by log 2. Performance Management 14 Specimen Exam Paper

15 LIST OF VERBS USED IN THE QUESTION REQUIREMENTS A list of the learning objectives and verbs that appear in the syllabus and in the question requirements for each question in this paper. It is important that you answer the question according to the definition of the verb. LEARNING OBJECTIVE VERBS USED DEFINITION Level 1 - Knowledge What you are expected to know. List Make a list of State Express, fully or clearly, the details of/facts of Define Give the exact meaning of Level 2 - Comprehension What you are expected to understand. Describe Communicate the key features Distinguish Highlight the differences between Explain Make clear or intelligible/state the meaning or purpose of Identify Recognise, establish or select after consideration Illustrate Use an example to describe or explain something Level 3 - Application How you are expected to apply your knowledge. Level 4 - Analysis How you are expected to analyse the detail of what you have learned. Level 5 - Application How you are expected to use your learning to evaluate, make decisions or recommendations. Apply Calculate Demonstrate Prepare Reconcile Solve Tabulate Analyse Categorise Compare and contrast Construct Discuss Interpret Prioritise Produce Advise Evaluate Recommend Put to practical use Ascertain or reckon mathematically Prove with certainty or to exhibit by practical means Make or get ready for use Make or prove consistent/compatible Find an answer to Arrange in a table Examine in detail the structure of Place into a defined class or division Show the similarities and/or differences between Build up or compile Examine in detail by argument Translate into intelligible or familiar terms Place in order of priority or sequence for action Create or bring into existence Counsel, inform or notify Appraise or assess the value of Propose a course of action Specimen Exam Paper 15 Performance Management

16 Performance Pillar Management Level Paper P2 Performance Management Specimen Paper Wednesday Afternoon Session Performance Management 16 Specimen Exam Paper