In December 2016, Learer Company's manager estimated next year's total direct labor cost assuming 50 persons working an average of 2,500 hours each at an average wage rate of $20 per hour. The manager also estimated the following manufacturing overhead costs for 2017 Indirect labor Factory supervision Rent on factory building Factory utilities Factory insurance expired Depreciation-Factory equipment 494, 000 Repairs expense-Factory equipment Factory supplies used Miscellaneous production costs 50,000 Total estimated overhead costs $1,500, 000 $ 333, 200 128,000 154, 000 102,000 82, 000 74,000 82,800 At the end of 2017, records show the company incurred $1,600,000 of actual overhead costs. It completed and sold five jobs with the following direct labor costs: Job 201, $618,000, Job 202, $577,000; Job 203, $312,000; Job 204, $730,000, and Job 205, $328,000. In addition, Job 206 is in process at the end of 2017 and had been charged $31,000 for direct labor. No jobs were in process at the end of 2016. The company's predetermined overhead rate is based on direct labor cost

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600