Within the realm of capital budgeting the majority of projectsare not new product lines or major corporate acquisitions. They arereplacement projects or projects considered for efficiency gains.Projects taken on for efficiency gains are much less risky than newproduct lines or large acquisitions. A gain in efficiency or inother words a decreasing of expenses immeadetly increases netincome and cash flow. It does not require one addtional item sold.Our case will review an efficiency gain capital budgeting project.Meadville Widgets is considering the purchase of a fully automatedwidget finishing machine to replace an older but still functioningbut more labor intensive model. The machine being replaced waspurchased 5 years ago for a price of $45,000.00 at which time ithad an expected life of 10 years. This machine is being depreciatedby the straight line method with an anticiapated salvage value of$0.00 The current market value of this machine is estimated to be$27,000.00. The current machine requires one operator with anannual cost of $37,500.00 in salary and benifits. The replacementmachine has a purchase price of $79,500, a 5 year life, and anexpected salvage value of $17,000. The new machine will require a440 volt three phase electric service and a new concrete pad theseinstallation expenses are $7,500. Meadville Widgets expect themaintence costs to be $5,000 as compared to the current costs of$6,000 and the defects to be $2,000 compared to current defectcosts of $4,000. Before considering the purchase of the new machineMeadville Widgets conducted and engineering study to determine ifthe installation costs would be prohibitive, this study costs$5,000. In order to undertake this project the firm will add$30,000 in debt at 11.5% and the required rate of return is 15%.Meadville Widgets marginal tax rate is 34%