The problem is only aggravated when departmental rates are used. In the cutting
department, regular cards consume 15 times as many direct labor hours as do the scented
cards (150,000/10,000). In the printing department, regular cards consume nine times
as many machine hours as the scented cards (72,000/8,000). Thus, the regular cards
receive about 15 times more overhead than do the scented cards in the cutting department,
and in the printing department, they receive nine times more overhead. As
Exhibit 4-4 shows, with departmental rates, the unit cost of the scented cards decreases
by $0.80 to $11.20, and the unit cost of the regular cards increases by $0.08 to $10.78.
This change is in the wrong direction, which emphasizes the failure of unit-based activity
drivers to reflect accurately each product’s demands for the setup and materialmoving
costs