Britney Brown, the plant manager of LMN Co. s Chicago plant, is responsible for all of that plants costs other than her own salary. The plant has two operating departments and one service department. The refrigerator and dishwasher operating departments manufacture different products and have their own managers. The office department, which Brown also manages, provides services equally to the two operating departments. A monthly budget is prepared for each operating department and the office department. The companys responsibility accounting system must assemble information to present budgeted and actual costs in performance reports for each operating department manager and the plant manager. Each performance report includes only those costs that a particular operating department manager can control: raw materials, wages, supplies used, and equipment depreciation. The plant manager is responsible for the department managers salaries, utilities, building rent, office salaries other than her own, and other office costs plus all costs controlled by the two operating department managers. The April departmental budgets and actual costs for the two operating departments follow.
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The office departments budget and its actual costs for April follow.
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Required:
1. Prepare responsibility accounting performance reports like those in Exhibit 24.2 that list costs con-trolled by the following:
a. Manager of the refrigerator department.
b. Manager of the dishwasher department.
c. Manager of the Chicago plant. In each report, include the budgeted and actual costs for the month and show the amount by which each actual cost is over or under the budgeted amount. Analysis Component:
2. Did the plant manager or the operating department managers better manage costs?Explain.