Overhead Rates Used for Each Machine in a Printing Plant Ennis Inc.’s Forms Solutions Group

Overhead Rates Used for Each Machine in a Printing Plant Ennis Inc.’s Forms Solutions Group (http://www.ennis.com/) is a Texas-based machine-intensive printing company that produces business forms. The resources demanded by a specific job depend on the type and amount of paper used and the composition and the construction of the business form. All jobs are constrained by the time neces- sary on a press and on a collator capable of producing forms at the required size.

Ennis Inc.’s Forms Solutions (EFS) uses job costing for pricing and bidding decisions. EFS uses a separate factory overhead rate for each machine. Costs of machine operator, support personnel, and supplies are identified directly with presses and collators. Other factory overhead costs—including insurance, supervision, and office salaries—are allocated to machines based on their processing capacity (cost driver is the number of feet of business form per minute), weighted by the maximum paper width and complexity (the cost driver is the number of colors and other features) that they are capable of handling.

When EFS receives a request for a bid on a particular job, the company uses computer software to determine direct material costs based on the type and quantity of paper. Then it identifies the least expensive press and collator that are capable of handling the specifications for the business form ordered. The third step is to estimate the total press and collator processing costs by using specific cost-driver rates per machine time multiplied by the estimated processing time. The bid price is cal- culated by adding a standard markup to the total press, collator, and direct material costs. A higher markup is used for rush jobs and jobs requiring special features.

Required Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the EFS costing system and its strategic implications.