value-added activity or a non-value-added activity

FireOut, Inc. manufactures steel cylinders and nozzles for two models of fire extinguishers: (1) a home fire extinguisher and (2) a commercial fire extinguisher. The home model is a high-volume (54,000 units), half-gallon cylinder that holds 2 1/2 pounds of multipurpose dry chemical at 480 PSI. The commercial model is a low-volume (10,200 units), two-gallon cylinder that holds 10 pounds of multi-purpose dry chemical at 390 PSI. Both produts require 1.5 hours of direct labor for completion. Therefore, total annual direct labor hours are 96,300 or [1.5 hrs. × (54,000 + 10,200)]. Expected annual manufacturing overhead is $1,502,280. Thus, the predetermined overhead rate is $15.60 or ($1,502,208 ÷ 96,300) per direct labor hour. The direct materials cost per unit is $18.50 for the home model and $26.50 for the commercial model. The direct labor cost is $19 per unit for both the home and the commercial models.
The company's managers identified six activity cost pools and related cost drivers and accumulated overhead by cost pool as follows.

Activity Cost Pools Cost Drivers Estimated Overhead Expected Use of Cost Drivers Expected Use of Drivers by Product
Home Commercial
Receiving Pounds $ 70,350 335,000 215,000 120,000
Forming Machine hours 150,500 35,000 27,000 8,000
Assembling Number of parts 390,600 217,000 165,000 52,000
Testing Number of tests 51,000 25,000 15,000 10,000
Painting Gallons 52,580 5,258 3,680 1,578
Packing and shipping Pounds 787,250 335,000 215,000 120,000
$1,502,280

Hint:
Assign overhead using traditional costing and ABC; compute unit costs; classify activities as value- or non-value-added.

Instructions
(a) Under traditional product costing, compute the total unit cost of each product. Prepare a simple comparative schedule of the individual costs by product (similar to Illustration 4-4).

(b) Under ABC, prepare a schedule showing the computations of the activity-based overhead rates (per cost driver).

(c) Prepare a schedule assigning each activity's overhead cost pool to each product based on the use of cost drivers. (Include a computation of overhead cost per unit, rounding to the nearest cent.)

(d) Compute the total cost per unit for each product under ABC.

(e) Classify each of the activities as a value-added activity or a non-value-added activity.