In early 2009, the company announced plans to consolidate its
network of seven buying offices into one location in New York. With
all centralized buying and merchandise planning in one location,
Macy’s buying structure and overhead costs were in line with
how many other large chains operate, including JCPenney
and Kohl’s. All told, the move to centralized buying
would generate $100 million in annualized cost savings
for the company.
While centralized buying was applauded by industry
experts and shareholders, Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren
was concerned about keeping a “localized flavor” in his
stores. To ensure that nationwide buying accommodated
local tastes, a new team of merchants was formed in each
Macy’s market to gauge local buying habits. That way, the
company could reduce its overhead costs while ensuring
that Macy’s stores near water parks had extra swimsuits.
Companies such as DuPont, International Paper,
and U.S. Steel, which invest heavily in capital
equipment, or Amazon.com and Yahoo!, which invest
large amounts in software, have high overhead costs.
As the Macy’s example suggests, understanding the behavior of
overhead costs, planning for them, performing variance analysis, and
acting appropriately on the results are critical for a company.
In this chapter, we will examine how flexible budgets and variance
analysis can help managers plan and control overhead costs.
Chapter 7 emphasized the direct-cost categories of direct materials
and direct manufacturing labor. In this chapter, we focus on the
indirect-cost categories of variable manufacturing overhead and fixed
manufacturing overhead. Finally, we explain why managers should be
careful when interpreting variances based on overhead-cost concepts
developed primarily for financial reporting purposes.