Joint Products The Bean Company provides fresh coffee beans for restaurants, hotels, and other food service companies. Bean offers three types of coffee beans: Premium, Gourmet, and Quality. Each of the three coffees is produced in a joint process in which beans are cleaned and sorted. The sorting process is the split-off point in this joint process, and the output is the three types of beans. The beans can be sold at the split-off point or processed further, with different types of roasting and additional sorting. The additional processing requires additional, separable processing costs, as shown next. Separable processing requires no special facilities, and the production costs of further processing are entirely variable and traceable to the products involved. Last year all three products were processed beyond split-off. Joint production costs for the year were $90,000,000. Sales values and costs needed to evaluate Bean’s production policy follow:
1. Determine last year’s unit cost and unit gross profit for each product assuming Bean allocates joint production costs using the physical measure method. 2. Determine unit cost and unit gross profit for each product if Bean allocates joint costs using the sales value at split-off method. 3. Which of The Bean’s products should be processed further?
Joint Products Johnston Adhesives Company makes three widely used industrial adhesives: A101, A204, and B216. Sales and production information for each of the three adhesives are shown in the following table. Most of Johnston’s customers ask for a special blend of the three products, which improves heat-resistance. The additional separable processing requires additional time and materials, and the price is increased accordingly, as shown in the table. Assume that Johnston produces only for specific customer orders, so there is no beginning or ending inventory. Assume also that all of Johnston’s customers requested the heat-resistant version of the products so that all production required additional separable processing. Total joint cost for the three products is $3,500,000.
Required 1. Using four decimal points in your computations, calculate the unit product cost and total gross margin for each of the three product lines using the following methods: (a) physical measure method, (b) sales value at split-off method, (c) the net realizable value method, and (d) the constant gross margin percentage method. 2. Which of the four methods listed in requirement 1 do you think would be preferred in this case? Why?