What is the incremental cost incurred if the company increases production?

Incremental costs are the costs linked with the production of one extra unit, and it considers only those costs that tend to change with the outcomes of a particular decision. In contrast, the remaining costs are deemed irrelevant. In simple words, it is defined as an additional cost incurred by the company due to the corresponding changes in cost associated with the production, replacing machinery or equipment or adding a new product, etc.

Table of contents

• Incremental Cost Definition
  • Example
  • Allocation of Incremental Costs
  • Incremental Costs vs. Margin Costs
  • Conclusion
  • Recommended Articles

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Source: Incremental Costs (wallstreetmojo.com)

Example

Let’s take an example to understand this better:

Assuming a manufacturing company, ABC Ltd. has a production unit where the cost incurred in making 100 units of a product X is ₹ 2,000. The company wants to add another product, ‘Y,’ for which it incurs some cost in terms of salary to the additional labor force, raw materials, and assuming that there was no machinery, equipment, etc., added.

Let’s suppose now, after adding the new product line, it can produce 200 units at  ₹ 3500, so here the incremental cost is ₹ 1,500

Like in the above example, it is evident that the per-unit cost of manufacturing the products has decreased from ₹ 20 to  ₹ 17.5 after introducing the new product line. However, this may not be true in all cases. Identifying such costs is very important for companies as it helps them decide whether the additional cost is in their best interest.

It is not necessary that such costs can only be variable. EvenFixed Cost refers to the cost or expense that is not affected by any decrease or increase in the number of units produced or sold over a short-term horizon. It is the type of cost which is not dependent on the business activity.read more fixed costsFixed CostsFixed Cost refers to the cost or expense that is not affected by any decrease or increase in the number of units produced or sold over a short-term horizon. It is the type of cost which is not dependent on the business activity.read more can contribute to the incremental cost, for example, if there is a requirement for new machinery for adding the new product line ‘Y.’

Allocation of Incremental Costs

The basic method of allocation of incremental cost is to assign a primary user and the additional or incremental user of the total cost.

If we look at our above example, the primary user is product ‘X’ which was already being manufactured at the plant and utilizing the machinery and equipment. The new product only added some extra cost to define ‘X’ as the primary user and ‘Y’ as the incremental user.

In the absence of any new product or any additional unit, the total cost that ABC Ltd. incurred while manufacturing only ‘X’ is ₹2,000, so we’ll allocate this costAllocate This CostCost Allocation is the procedure of recognizing & assigning costs to different cost objects like a product, department, program, customer, etc., as per the cost driver serving as the base for this process. read more to X,

The additional cost of ₹ 1,500, incurred only to introduce the new product, will be allocated to ‘Y.’

This allocation can even change in the future course of business of ABC Ltd. when supposedly, if it chooses to drop product ‘X,’ then product ‘Y’ or any other product might become the primary user of the cost.

Incremental costs are also associated with the changes in the product’s pricing. Let’s suppose if the overall cost per unit of a product is also increasing by incurring such cost, then the company would want to change the price of the product to maintain or increase the profit. It might work in or against the favor of the company. Such companies are said to have diseconomies of scaleDiseconomies Of ScaleDiseconomies of scale is a state that generally occurs when an enterprise expands in size. The average operating cost increases due to inefficiency in the system, employee incoordination, administration & management issues, and delayed decisions.read more, i.e., they have already reached the maximum limit of production volume.

But if the per-unit cost or average cost is decreasing by incurring the incremental cost, the company might be able to reduce the price of the product and enjoy selling more units. Such companies are said to have economies of scale, whereby there is some scope available to optimize the utility of production.

Considering that the price of each unit of product ‘X’ is ₹ 25, the profit initially was

Net Profit = ₹ 500

Also, considering after introducing the new product line, the price for both ‘X’ and ‘Y’ is kept at ₹ 25, the profit here will be:

• Net Profit =(200 X 25) – (200 X 17.5)
• Net Profit = ₹ 1500

To increase the sales to gain more market share, the company can leverage the lower cost per unit of the product to lower the price from ₹ 25 and sell more units at a lower price.

Incremental Costs vs. Margin Costs

Incremental costs are also referred to as marginal costsMarginal CostsMarginal cost formula helps in calculating the value of increase or decrease of the total production cost of the company during the period under consideration if there is a change in output by one extra unit. It is calculated by dividing the change in the costs by the change in quantity.read more, but there are some basic differences between them.

• Incremental costs are mostly associated with choices or decisions and therefore include only those additional costs caused due to the decision made; for example, it does not consider the cost of machinery or equipment which was already there in the production unit, which is also referred to as sunk cost because these costs will remain regardless of any decision.
• On the other hand, Marginal cost specifically takes into account the increase in cost for producing one additional unit. It is often used to optimize production, while the incremental cost is not an optimization tool.

Conclusion

Companies can broadly use the incremental cost to analyze the following:

• Whether to produce the new product lineProduct LineProduct Line refers to the collection of related products that are marketed under a single brand, which may be the flagship brand for the concerned company. Typically, companies extend their product offerings by adding new variants to the existing products with the expectation that the existing consumers will buy products from the brands that they are already purchasing.read more in the house or to outsource it
• Whether to accept a one-off high volume order from the customer or business partner
• Whether to allocate the available resources to optimize their utilization
• Whether to change the price of a product

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Incremental Costs. Here we discuss its definition, allocation of Incremental costs, and also an example to understand this in a better manner. You can learn more about it from the following articles –

What is incremental price increase?

What are examples of incremental costs?

What incremental manufacturing cost will Martinez incur if it increases production from 10000 to 10001 units?

Which cost is also known as incremental cost?