Elegance Bath Products, Inc. (EBP) makes a variety of ceramic sinks and tubs. EBP has just developed a line of sinks and tubs made from a mixture of glass and ceramic. The sinks sell for $150 each and have variable costs of $80. The tubs sell for $600 and have variable cost of $450. The glass and ceramic sinks and tubs require the use of specialized molding equipment. The specialized molding equipment has 4,050 hours of capacity per year. A sink uses an average of 2 hours of specialized molding equipment time; a tub uses an average of 5 hours of specialized molding equipment time. Assume that EBP can sell as many as 1,000 sinks and 500 tubs per year. How many tubs should EBP produce? a. 1,000b. 500c. 410d. 675e. zero

C) 410 tubs

Explanation:

the contribution margin for sinks is $70 ( = $150 - $80) and the contribution margin for tubs is $150 ( = $600 - $450).

the molding equipment has 4,050 hours of capacity per year, so it can produce either 2,025 sinks or 810 tubs.

we can determine what product is more profitable if we determine a contribution margin per molding equipment usage ratio:

sink = $70 / 2 hours = $35 per hour tub = $150 / 5 hours = $30 per hour

It is more profitable to produce sinks than tubs, but we can sell only 1,000 sinks per year, so even after we product the 1,000 sinks we will have spare molding equipment capacity which we can use to produce tubs.

The spare molding equipment capacity after producing sinks = 4,050 total hours - 2,000 hours used to produce sinks = 2,050 spare molding hours

We can produce 410 tubs ( = 2,050 molding hours / 5 hours per tub)