Current information for the healey company follows: beginning raw materials inventory $ 16,400 raw material purchases 61,200 ending raw materials inventory 17,800 beginning work in process inventory 23,600 ending work in process inventory 29,200 direct labor 44,000 total factory overhead 31,200 all raw materials used were traceable to specific units of product. healey company's direct materials used for the year is:

Activity-based costing (abc) is not truly a cost collection mechanism as much as it is an inventory valuation method. the main purpose for implementing an activity-based cost system is to try to overcome some of the cost distortions that occur in traditional costing from product differences when there are variations in size and complexity. however, one of the disadvantages of utilizing abc is that the additional information gathering necessary to implement costing with that level of detail might be beyond the reach of some companies with resource or financial constraints. with this in mind, what kinds of industries or companies do you think would benefit most from using activity-based costing and why? in designing or modifying an accounting system to capture appropriate costs for abc, what considerations do you think would need to be made?