Destin Brass Products Co. Essay Example

Destin Brass Products Co. Essay Example Destin Brass Products Co. Essay Destin Brass Products Co. Essay Case Study: Destin Brass Products Co. Hsien-Da Lin 003253093 1. By using activity-based costing method, we can reallocate the overhead costs into three product lines based on four activities, which are numbers of used set up labor hours, percentage of transaction and machine usage, and numbers of machine hours used. Next, we add up the direct material, direct labor and overhead costs of each product line. After that, we divided the results by total production units. We get valve unit cost=$37. 70, pump unit cost=$48. 9, flow controller unit cost=$100. 91. ( see table 1) 2. Standard unit costs and revised unit costs both show that the highest product cost is pump product line. However, our transaction-based analysis shows it should be the flow controllers. We can tell that the unit costs have been badly distorted as a result of using single allocation basis (production-run labor cost). Through activity-based costing, we can be able to more accurately assign overhead costs to each prod uct, which means the result can effectively reflect the actual costs on each product line. 3. The strategies that I would recommend to the company are: a. Cutting the price of pumps to better compete with other suppliers in the market. Comparing the product cost between the new activity-based system and traditional system, we can easily find out that the company has been overestimated the pump cost. Thus, they thought the profit margin should be merely 22%. By reallocating the overhead costs more accurately, we found the profit margin should be doubled to 40%. (Table 2) The number shows that the profit margin of pump is much higher than their estimation. Besides, the competitors in market have been cutting prices to attract more customers and opportunities. We suggest the company should start cutting the pump price to better compete with those pump suppliers in the market. b. Increase the price of flow controllers or give up the product line: First of all, after calculating the actual cost of flow controller by activity-based cost method (see table 2), we realized that Destin Co. has been â€Å"underestimated† the controller cost by $44. 41. The company’s current system made them believe the product has 42% gross margin when the actual margin is -4%. The company has been losing money in this product line without knowing the fact. They claimed that they once raised the price by 12. 5% with no apparent effect on demand. This reveals two possibilities: 1. There is still room for the company to raise their price to earn more profit. By setting the new price $155. 25, they can reach 35% profit margin. 2. The price was too low for other competitors to enter the market because Dustin, Co. has been miscalculated the cost. Under this circumstance, if they should also consider getting out of the market to stop losing money. Conclusion: By adapting the new pricing strategies, the company can earn $696,338. 85 gross profit comparing to the $541,092. 00 when using the traditional price setting. (See table 3). However, if the flow controller market demand decreases significantly after raising the prices, they can quit the market immediately to avoid losing money on this product line. 4. The net income will not change, because the activity-transaction-based system only provides different individual cost. The total cost of good sold and sales will be the same under the two methods. Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory

The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory The Frankfurt School refers to a collection of scholars known for developing critical theory  and popularizing the dialectical method of learning by interrogating societys contradictions and is most closely associated with the work of Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse. It was not a school, in the physical sense, but rather a school of thought associated with some scholars at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. The Institute was founded by Marxist scholar  Carl Grà ¼nberg  in 1923, and initially financed by another Marxist scholar, Felix Weil. However, the Frankfurt School is known for a  particular brand of culturally focused  neo-Marxist theory- a rethinking of classical Marxism to update it to their socio-historical period- which proved seminal for the fields of sociology, cultural studies, and media studies. Max Horkheimer receiving the chain of office by former Rector Prof. Rajewski. Dr. Horkheimer left Germany in the early days of the Third Reich when his institute for Social Research fell under the Nazi ban. Bettman/Getty Images In 1930 Max Horkheimer became the director of the Institute and recruited many of those who came to be known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Living, thinking, and writing in the aftermath of  Marxs failed prediction of revolution, and dismayed by the rise of Orthodox Party Marxism and a dictatorial form of communism, these scholars turned their attention to the problem of rule through ideology, or rule carried out in the realm of culture. They believed that this form of rule was  enabled by technological advancements in communications and the reproduction of ideas. (Their ideas were similar to Italian scholar-activist  Antonio Gramscis theory of cultural hegemony.)  Other early members of the Frankfurt  School included Friedrich Pollock, Otto Kirchheimer, Leo Là ¶wenthal, and Franz Leopold Neumann. Walter Benjamin was also associated with it during its mid-twentieth  century heyday. One of the core concerns of the scholars of the Frankfurt School, especially Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, and  Marcuse, was the rise of what Horkheimer and Adorno initially called mass culture (in  Dialectic of Enlightenment).  This phrase refers to the way technological developments had newly  allowed for the distribution of cultural products- like music, film, and art- on a mass scale, reaching all who were connected by the technology in society. (Consider that when these scholars began crafting their critiques, radio and cinema were still new phenomena, and television had not yet hit the scene.) Their concern focused on how technology-enabled both a sameness in production, in the sense that technology shapes content and cultural frameworks create styles and genres, and also, a sameness of cultural experience, in which an unprecedented mass of people would sit passively before cultural content, rather than actively engage with one another for entertainment, as they had in the past. They theorized that this experience made people intellectually inactive and politically passive, as they allowed mass-produced ideologies and values to wash over them and infiltrate their consciousness. They argued that this process was one of the missing links in Marxs theory of the domination of capitalism, and largely helped to explain why Marxs theory of revolution never came to pass.  Marcuse took this framework and applied it to consumer goods and the new consumer lifestyle that had just become the norm in Western countries at mid-twentieth century, and argued that consumerism functioned in much the same way, through a creation of false needs that can only be satisfied by the products of capitalism. Given the political context of pre-WWII Germany at the time, Horkheimer chose to move the Institute for the safety of its members. They first moved to Geneva in 1933, and then to New York in 1935, where they affiliated with Columbia University. Later, after the war, the Institute was re-established in Frankfurt in 1953. Later theorists affiliated with the School include Jà ¼rgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, among others. Philosopher Herbert Marcuse in 1968 while he was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego. Bettman/Getty Images Key works by members of the Frankfurt School include but are not limited to: Traditional and Critical Theory, Max HorkheimerDialectic of Enlightenment, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. AdornoCritique of Instrumental Reason, Max HorkheimerThe Authoritarian Personality, Theodor W. AdornoAesthetic Theory, Theodor W. AdornoCulture Industry Reconsidered, Theodor W. AdornoOne-Dimensional Man, Herbert MarcuseThe Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics, Herbert MarcuseThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter BenjaminStructural Transformation and the Public Sphere, Jà ¼rgen HabermasTowards a Rational Society,  Jà ¼rgen Habermas