Performance Analysis and Strategic Decision Making for DMI Printing Company: A Variance Analysis Approach

DMI Printing Company produces luxury personal diaries for corporate clients. Diaries are designed for individual corporations. The company’s operating budget for January 2023 included these data:
Number of diaries
Selling price per diary
Variable cost per diary
Fixed costs for the month
15,000 RM20
RM8
RM145,000
The actual results for January 2023 were as follows:
Number of diaries sold
12,000
Average selling price per diary
RM21
Variable cost per diary
RM7
Fixed costs for the month
RM150,000
DMI Printing Company develops its flexible budget based on budgeted per-output-unit revenue and per-output-unit variable costs without detailed analysis of budgeted inputs.
As the company’s management accountant, you have been tasked with providing explanations for the disappointing January results. This comes after the executive vice president of the company noticed that the operating income for January fell considerably below expectations.
Required:
a. Prepare a static-budget-based variance analysis of the January performance. (10 Marks) b. Prepare a flexible-budget-based variance analysis of the January performance. (10 Marks) c. Examine the variance analysis conducted in part a and part b to identify the challenges encountered by DMI Printing Company.
(10 Marks) d. DMI is considering two strategic changes: advertising their product and reducing the selling price to RM19 per diary. The implementation of these changes will result in a fixed cost increase of $15,000. However, as a potential benefit, they anticipate being able to boost the number of units sold to 15,000 units. The variable cost will remain unchanged based on the current situation. Assess whether DMI should proceed with this decision.
(20 Marks)