Caiman distribution Partners is the Brazilian distribution company of a U.S. consumer products firm. Inflation...

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Caiman distribution Partners is the Brazilian distribution company of a U.S. consumer products firm. Inflation in Brazil has made bidding and budgeting difficult for marketing managers trying to penetrate some of the country's rural regions. The company expects to distribute 450,000 cases of products in Brazil next month. The controller has classified operating costs (excluding costs of the distributed product) as follows:

Account Operating Cost Behavior
Supplies $ 1,729,000 All variable
Supervision 214,000 $ 166,000 Fixed
Truck expense 1,340,000 $ 182,000 Fixed
Building leases 868,000 $ 545,000 Fixed
Utilities 224,000 $ 111,000 Fixed
Warehouse labor 863,000 $ 133,000 Fixed
Equipment leases 763,000 $ 587,000 Fixed
Data processing equipment 927,000 All fixed
Other 836,000 $ 343,000 Fixed
Total $ 7,764,000

Although overhead costs were related to revenues throughout the company, the experience in Brazil suggested to the managers that they should incorporate information from a published index of Brazilian prices in the distribution sector to forecast overhead in a manner more likely to capture the economics of the business.

Following instructions from the corporate offices, the controller's office in Brazil collected the following information for monthly operations from last year:

Month Cases Price Index Operating Costs
1 255,000 122 $5,699,175
2 323,000 116 5,806,674
3 256,000 125 5,849,941
4 444,000 117 5,927,653
5 328,000 118 5,939,171
6 394,000 124 6,043,400
7 474,000 137 5,918,531
8 488,000 138 6,133,904
9 326,000 139 6,126,166
10 434,000 128 6,186,661
11 420,000 126 6,208,835
12 489,000 129 6,362,291

These data are considered representative for both past and future operations in Brazil.

b. Use the high-low method to compute an estimate of operating costs assuming that 450,000 cases will be shipped next month. (Round variable cost to 5 decimal places. Round intermediate calculations and final answer to nearest whole dollar amount.)

Estimate of operating cost

c-1. Enter the regression coefficients. (Round "Cases" to 5 decimal places.)

Intercept
Cases

c-2. Compute the estimation of operating costs assuming that 450,000 cases will be shipped next month by using the results of a simple regression of operating costs on cases shipped. (Round variable costs per unit to 5 decimal places. Round the intercept and final answer to the nearest whole dollar amount.)

Estimate of operating cost

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