Calculating Your Real Costs

Western Pallet Association Annual Meeting Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa January 16, 2012

Why is this Topic Important?

 Measurement and management of your day-to-day business  Measuring expected costs to actual costs, understanding the reasons for any variation  Understanding what drives costs and managing these factors down  Product line profitability  How do my costs vary with pallet size, type, etc.

 Customer profitability  What is the cost of that demanding customer?

 Input into pricing model  How much should I bid?

 Am I competitive?

 Accuracy of accounting data  Particularly regarding inventory valuation

What you measure is what you get… 2

Concepts for Discussion

 An overview on costing methodology that is typically used in the pallet business  Complexity – how far should you take your costing model?

 Allocating overhead  Products  Customers  Activity based costing  CEO/CFO versus CPA

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Variable Costs Semi-Variable Costs Fixed Costs Direct Costs Indirect Costs

Terminology

Costs that vary directly with the number of units produced (e.g. nails, direct labor, repair boards) Costs that vary indirectly, or in steps, with the number of units produced (e.g. forklift capacity, truck fleet, number of maintenance or accounting personnel, utilities) Costs that typically do not vary with the number of units produced. Rent, leases, leadership team (e.g., President) Costs that can be directly attributed to a product (e.g. wood, nails, assembly labor) Costs that are incurred in the production process but are not directly attributable to the product (e.g. materials handling, saw and cut-up)

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Standard Cost Accounting

  While almost all differ, most pallet companies use some variation of the Standard Cost Accounting methodology to measure and manage their businesses Simple Example – Company produces new pallets  To make each pallet, the company needed to purchase $2 of pre-cut wood, $0.30 in nails and pay two workers $0.35 each to assemble the pallets. Total variable direct cost for each pallet is $3  The fixed indirect costs are $30,000 per month for an office manager, accountant, a forklift driver, a truck driver, insurance, utilities, fuel, maintenance, leased equipment and rent  Any price above $3 is a contribution to cover these fixed costs. If the market price for these pallets is $6, then each pallet sold contributes $3 to cover fixed costs. Contribution margin is 50%.

 At $6, the company would need to sell 10,000 pallets per month to breakeven and start making a profit

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Standard Cost Accounting

 Simple Example (Continued)  If the company was producing and sold 30,000 pallets/month and the fixed costs were still $30,000/month, then each pallet could be said to incur overhead of $1 ($30,000/30,000 units)  Adding overhead to the variable costs of $3 per pallet produced a full cost of $4 per pallet  Beware – As volume grows, your fixed costs need to be re allocated. For example:  If the company ramped up volume to 60,000 pallets in one month, then the overhead per pallet would decrease to $0.50 ($30,000/60,000 units)  Adding this to the variable costs of $3 per pallet produces a full cost of $3.50 per pallet  Economies of scale

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Standard Cost Works in the Pallet Business

 Advantages  We still pay a large percentage of our workers on a piece rate so labor is easily calculated  Higher variable and semi variable costs as compared to overhead  Low tech equipment doesn’t call for increased sophistication  Relatively few product lines or defined production areas  Areas to watch  Changes in the level of “full cost” of inventory can create swings in profitability that are sometimes difficult to explain or understand  An increase in inventory can "absorb" costs of production and increase profits, while a decrease in inventory level will decrease profits  Given the seasonality of our business, we see variation in profitability and cash flow throughout the year  Cost models need to evolve as your business becomes more complex

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In Reality, Your Costing Model Can Be Much More Complex

 Potential cost components of a final assembled pallet to be put in inventory  Purchased Raw Materials • Wood (whether new or recycled) • • Plates Nails  Inbound Transportation (Your Fleet or 3P)  Materials Handling (Sort and Movement)  Materials Development (Saw and Dismantling Operations) • Labor • Saw blades and other materials  Assembly Labor  Maintenance  Plant Materials and Services (e.g., utilities, safety equipment, etc.)  Sales and office personnel?

 Outbound transportation?

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Wood Costs

 Example – How much does a repair board for a GMA cost?

 Simple Method  Average price of a teardown/machine/odd size pallet is $0.50

 Yield is 7 usable deck boards and 2 usable stringers per teardown pallet  Pay $0.22 in labor for tear down  Therefore my cost per board is ~$0.08 per board  More complex method  Build in a portion of inbound transportation  Build in a portion of forklift time for unloading and handling teardown pallets  Build in a portion of maintenance time and materials for the tear down machines  ETC.

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Allocating Overhead to Product Lines

   Allocating overhead across one product line is relatively straightforward The reality is that many pallet companies have several product lines (e.g. new, remanufactured, recycled, and services) and often many SKUs within that product line, particularly in custom or remanufactured Estimates need to be made to properly allocate your costs and build them into your cost model  Maintenance – What processes/product lines consume time?  Materials handling – Where is forklift time being consumed?

 Rent – How much floor space is devoted to each product line?

 Utilities – Which processes and products are energy intensive?

 Management time – What processes/product lines consume time?

 Others…

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Activity Based Costing

      A common methodology for allocating indirect costs or overhead to product lines is called Activity Based Costing - assigning costs to products based on the activities they require Activities are regular actions performed inside a company. Example – “Maintenance Personnel repairing pallet dismantler" 100% of each employee's time can be assigned to the different activities performed inside a company Activity Based Analysis (ABA) - Using surveys and time logs to track how employees spend their time Time should be tracked according to product line and by customer so that a percentage of the salaries and associated resources can be assigned to each product or customer Your company can use the resulting activity cost data to determine where to focus their operational improvement efforts or improve their pricing for particular customers or product lines

Do all your product lines make money?

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Allocating Overhead to Customers

    It is a simple assumption to allocate overhead to customers based on the products and volumes which they purchase In being responsive to customer needs, we often take extra steps with certain customers to ensure their satisfaction Key question – are you earning a service premium to cover the additional steps?

Customer related cost variation  Transportation Costs  Investment/Trailer Depreciation  Management intensity

We should know the profitability of at least the top 20% of our customers 20% of our customers often give us 80% of our revenues/profits Once you have a methodology – getting to 100% is easy 12

Consider the Following Example

CUSTOMER A CUSTOMER B

 Buys 5 loads of B grade pallets per week, one load a day, M-F, in the morning same dock time  $4.15 per pallet  5 miles from your plant, in a van drop and hook 1 drop trailer  Issues a blanket PO at the beginning of the year  Never calls unless you miss a shipment  You can set your watch to their payment reliability  Buys 5 loads of B grade pallets per week, orders are inconsistent and often last minute (2 on M, 1 Emergency on Wed evening, 2 Friday – next week looks different)  $4.25 per pallet  40 miles from your plant, flatbed, live unload with sporadic wait times  Issues separate POs for each load  Pay late, constant re-faxing of invoices

Which Customer is More Profitable?

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Takeaways

     One Size Does Not Fit All  The right method is one that allows you to understand your costs and make intelligent business decisions  Cost accounting can be as simple or complex depending on your needs and the scope of your operations  Consistency Always challenge your typical assumptions as your business changes Work with a CPA to determine compliance with GAAP Know where you make your money Do you know?

Use data do guide decisions and improve your return on investment  What you measure is what you get

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Questions???

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