Journal of Accounting and Finance Vol. 17(5) 2017 17
direct materials, and materials requisitions is difficult to understand because they are not able to apply this
terminology to a real-life scenario. In order to improve comprehension of these concepts, this simulation
lets students complete a small scale building project within the classroom and calculate costs of their
building.
At the beginning of this project, students are divided into groups to model a manufacturing facility.
Once groups are assigned, each group is required to choose one student in their group to be the designated
student supervisor. The supervisors assemble at the front of the room to get their production assignments
from factory management. Each supervisor receives a packet that contains the following: Supervisor
Handout, Materials Requisition Form, Time Report Sheet, Overhead Application Sheet, Job Cost Sheet,
and blueprints for their construction project. Sample forms are provided in Appendices A - E.
Each group supervisor chooses a Materials Handler within their group, and assigns assembly jobs
based on the information in their Supervisor Handout. The Materials Handler fills out the Materials
Requisition Form for the number of items needed to manufacture their building and calculates the total
cost of these materials. The supervisor reviews this form and if the materials requisition form is filled out
correctly, the Materials Handler comes up to the front of the room to receive materials for construction
from the Materials Inventory warehouse manager, a.k.a. the instructor. Each group then works through
the blueprints to understand how the building will be manufactured. As Direct Labor employees begin
construction, group supervisors start monitoring their time, with one minute equivalent to 100 hours of
Direct Labor construction time. Once they have completed the manufacturing process, students in the
group work together to determine the cost of the building their group has manufactured. Student
supervisors are responsible for ensuring that each student participates and Job Cost calculations, including
Direct Materials, Direct Labor, and Applied Manufacturing Overhead, are agreed upon by all group
members before a project is deemed complete. Once the Materials Handlers job is complete and
construction has started, their position converts to Quality Control Inspector, where they must examine
and approve all finished products.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND SIMULATION IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Objectives
The Job-Order Costing/Manufacturing Costing simulation provides three specific learning objectives.
The first objective illustrates a simulated manufacturing environment using a building project. Requiring
students to work in groups to construct a building and complete source documents related to this project
reinforces concepts such as direct labor, direct materials and indirect costs.
The second learning objective is to enhance student comprehension of the application of job-order
costing. During the construction process, students are required to be aware of the costs of their job. They
must complete a materials requisition sheet for their building materials, keep a time sheet to record direct
labor hours, and complete a job cost sheet to calculate the final cost of their building. These steps
reinforce to students how source documents are used to determine the final cost of a job or product.
Finally, students gain awareness of the impact of various components of the manufacturing process
on total job cost. Through group and class discussion toward the end of the simulation, students realize
that assigning direct labor hours as a cost driver not only influences the direct labor cost associated with
the job, but also the overhead applied to the project. This allows the students to understand why efficient
use of labor time is important for cost control.
Implementation Guidance
Background
The current version of the project has been developed as a result of many other trials. This project
originally began as a key chain building project where students manufactured key chains during class.
This experience led us to realize that there was value in having different groups complete different types
of products. So, we developed a simulation where students manufactured small crafts (i.e., wooden
airplanes, pinwheels, sail boats, etc.). This version of the project was not ideal either because it cost a