Statement of the Problem
Ajax Manufacturing Company (Ajax) is a manufacturing company that wishes to an average gross margin of 35% across its products. It sets its prices using a traditional cost accounting method and then adding a 35% mark up. Management has found this approach to be puzzling, with the actual results differing from the projected results. Case in point is the significant decrease in volume sold of Product B despite the reduction in selling price and the absence of competition in Product C market despite a computed higher-than-expected margin.
The company modified its cost accounting approach by doing the following: allocating labor hours for units ...