Jamison, Inc., uses three forklifts to move materials from Receiving to Stores. The forklifts are also used to move materials from Stores to the production area. The forklifts are obtained through an operating lease that costs $8,000 per year per fork- lift. Jamison employs 10 forklift operators who receive an average salary of $40,000 per year, including benefits. Each move requires the use of a crate. The crates are used to store the parts and are emptied only when the parts are used in produc- tion. Crates are disposed of after one cycle (two moves), where a cycle is defined as Receiving to Stores to Production. Each crate costs $2.00. Fuel for a forklift costs $1.20 per gallon. A gallon of gas is used for every 20 moves. Forklifts can make three moves per hour and are available for 280 days per year, 24 hours per day (the remaining time is downtime for various reasons). Each operator works 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year.
Required
1. Prepare an annual budget for the activity of moving materials, assuming that all of the capacity of the activity is used. Identify which resources you would treat as fixed costs and which would be viewed as variable costs.
2. Assume that the company uses only 90 percent of the activity capacity. What is the budget for this level of activity?
3. Suppose that a redesign of the plant layout reduces the demand for moving materials by 75 percent. What would be the budget for this new activity level?