In managing production worker compensation and expenditures for best practice training, the overriding objective of company managers should be to achieve the highest possible worker productivity (pairs produced per worker per year). make sure its annual base wage for production workers is always above the average base wage paid by all companies in those regions where it has production facilities. achieve labor costs per pair produced that are at worst below the industry average and at best are very close to (or even equal to) the industry-low in each region where the company has production facilities. establish an incentive pay per non-defective pair that results in the lowest feasible reject rate for branded pairs produced. establish total compensation packages for production workers that are close to the highest in the industry in each geographic region where its production facilities are located--this is because companies with the highest total annual compensation packages attract highly-motivated workers with the skills needed to achieve the highest levels of labor productivity.

Laval produces lamps and home lighting fixtures. its most popular product is a brushed aluminum desk lamp. this lamp is made from components shaped in the fabricating department and assembled in the assembly department. information related to the 22,000 desk lamps produced annually follows.direct materials $280,000direct labor fabricating department (8,000 dlh × $24 per dlh) $192,000assembly department (16,600 dlh × $26 per dlh) $431,600machine hours fabricating department $15,200mhassembly department $20,850mhexpected overhead cost and related data for the two production departments follow.fabricating assemblydirect labor hours 150,000dlh 295,000dlhmachine hours 161,000mh 128,000mhoverhead cost $400,000 430,000required1. determine the plantwide overhead rate for laval using direct labor hours as a base.2. determine the total manufacturing cost per unit for the aluminum desk lamp using the plantwide overhead rate.3. compute departmental overhead rates based on machine hours in the fabricating department and direct labor hours in the assembly department.4. use departmental overhead rates from requirement 3 to determine the total manufacturing cost per unit for the aluminum desk lamps.