Hartman Company's Lucas plant manufactures thermostatic controls. Plant management has experienced fluctuating monthly overhead costs...

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Accounting

Hartman Company's Lucas plant manufactures thermostatic controls. Plant management has experienced fluctuating monthly overhead costs and wants to estimate overhead costs accurately to plan its operations and its financial needs. Interviews with plant personnel and studies reported in trade publications suggest that overhead in this industry tends to vary with labor-hours.

A member of the controller's staff proposed that the behavior pattern of these overhead costs be determined to improve cost estimation. Another staff member suggested that a good starting place for determining cost behavior patterns is to analyze historical data. Following this suggestion, monthly data were gathered on labor-hours and overhead costs for the past two years. No major changes in operations occurred over this period of time. The data are shown in the following table:

Month Labor-Hours Overhead Costs
1 251,610 $ 2,741,520
2 238,510 2,375,380
3 192,900 2,400,300
4 271,450 2,590,830
5 323,950 3,071,970
6 291,010 2,618,320
7 271,450 2,480,390
8 251,630 2,745,710
9 231,975 2,821,500
10 343,600 3,437,860
11 186,010 2,231,490
12 231,960 2,550,830
13 382,880 3,603,870
14 376,450 3,404,940
15 291,000 3,016,650
16 396,010 3,638,490
17 356,630 3,554,050
18 323,830 3,191,770
19 389,455 3,481,870
20 317,260 3,219,670
21 343,520 3,495,580
22 336,950 3,207,410
23 382,890 3,600,780
24 376,330 3,636,800

Required:

a. Use the high-low estimation method to estimate the overhead cost behavior (fixed and variable portions components of cost) for the Lucas plant. (Round variable cost per unit to 2 decimal places and fixed cost to the nearest whole dollar.)

c. Using Excel, compute regression coefficients to describe the overhead cost equation. (Round your answers to 2 decimal places.)

d. Use the results of your regression analysis to develop an estimate of overhead costs assuming 390,000 labor-hours will be worked next month. (Round Cost per Labor hour to 2 decimal places.)

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