Fiske Corporation manufactures a popular regional brand of kitchen utensils. The design and variety have been fairly constant over the last three years. The managers at Fiske are planning for some changes in the product line next year, but first they want to understand better the relation between activity and factory costs as experienced with the current products. Discussions with the plant supervisor suggest that overhead seems to vary with labor$-$hours, machine$-$hours, or both. The following data were collected from the last three years of operations:

Quarter Machine$-$Hours Labor$-$Hours Factory costs

$118,85014,905$ $ $3,388,671$

$218,59015,4773,425,136$

$317,48016,7203,617,144$

$419,24015,9833,573,240$

$521,28017,5013,812,284$Required:

a$.$ Use the high$-$low method to estimate the fixed and variable portions of factory costs based on labor$-$hours.

b$.$ Managers expect the plant to operate at $17,000$ labor$-$hours next quarter. Assuming the relationship remains the same with the new

product line, what are the estimated quarterly factory costs?

Complete this question by entering your answers in the tabs below.

Use the high$-$low method to estimate the fixed and variable portions of factory costs based on labor$-$hours.

Note: Round "Variable cost" answer to $2$ decimal places.

Variable cost $($per labor$-$hour$)$

Fixed cost

$619,63017,3693,777,312$

$719,24015,2903,531,726$

$818,85014,3663,369,102$

$918,46015,9943,512,487$

$1020,67016,9953,730,734$

$1117,55014,2783,301,214$

$1218,46017,8443,723,785$

Required:

Use the high$-$low method to estimate the fixed and variable portions of factory costs based on labor$-$hours.

Managers expect the plant to operate at $17,000$ labor$-$hours next quarter. Assuming the relationship remains the same with the new product line, what are the estimated quarterly factory costs?

B: to operate at $17,000$ labor hours next quater, with the same relationship with the new product line $,$ what are the estimated quaterly factory costs?