Pacific Mill Consists of Two Operating Divisions, a Cutting Division

question 86

Essay

Pacific Mill consists of two operating divisions, a Cutting division and the Assembly division. The Cutting division prepares cords of timber at its sawmills, while the Assembly division prepares the cut cords of lumber into board-feet of finished wood (which is sold to various furniture manufacturers). During the most recent year the Cutting division prepared 60,000 cords of wood at a cost of $1,320,000. All of this lumber was transferred to the Assembly division, where incremental costs of $12 per cord were added. Pacific Mill sold the 600,000 board-feet of finished wood for $5,000,000.
Required:
1. What would the operating income for each of the two divisions be if the transfer price from Cutting to Assembly was set at the cord cost of $22 per cord? (Show calculations.)
2. What would the operating income for each of the two divisions be if the transfer price is set at $18 per cord? (Show calculations.)
3. Since Cutting transfers all of its output internally (to Assembly), does the manager of Cutting care what price is selected? Why? Should Cutting be treated as a cost center under the circumstances (rather than a profit center or investment center)? Explain.

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Definitions:

Symbolic Thought

The capacity to use symbols, language, or other abstract representations to think about and communicate complex concepts.

Preoperational

The stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development where children from about 2 to 7 years of age begin to engage in symbolic play and struggle with logic and the perspective of others.

Reversibility

The ability to recognize that numbers or objects can be changed or returned to their original state.

Preoperational Intelligence

Piaget’s term for cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6; it includes language and imagination (which involve symbolic thought), but logical, operational thinking is not yet possible at this stage.