Caterpillar Inc (CAT) has the following excerpts from their financial statements: CAT Financial Statements Interest Period December 31, 2016 December 31, 2015 December 31, 2014
Inventory (in $ Millions) 9,615 9,700 12,205
Net Income (in $ Millions) (67) 2,512 2,452

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or market. Cost is principally determined using the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method. The value of inventories on the LIFO basis represented about 60 percent of total inventories at December 31, 2016 and 2015. If the FIFO (first-in, first-out) method had been in use, inventories would have been $1,639 million and $2,498 million higher than reported at December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Assume a corporate tax rate of 35%.

If CAT had used FIFO method instead of LIFO method...

The amount CAT’s 2016 net cash from operations would change by (rounded to the nearest million):

a. $301 Million increase
b. $126 Million increase
c. $76 Million decrease
d. No change in cash from operations

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.