Ward distribution company has determined its december 31 inventory on a lifo basis at $200,000. information pertaining to that inventory follows: estimated selling price - $204,000estimated cost of disposal - 10,000normal profit margin - 30,000current replacement cost - 180,000ward records losses that result from applying the lower-of-cost-or-market rule. at december 31, the loss that ward should recognize isa. $6,000b. $14,000c. $0d. $20,000

Aproduction line has three machines a, b, and c, with reliabilities of .96, .86, and .85, respectively. the machines are arranged so that if one breaks down, the others must shut down. engineers are weighing two alternative designs for increasing the line’s reliability. plan 1 involves adding an identical backup line, and plan 2 involves providing a backup for each machine. in either case, three machines (a, b, and c) would be used with reliabilities equal to the original three. a. compute overall system reliability under plan 1. (round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.) reliability b. compute overall system reliability under plan 2. (round your intermediate calculations and final answer to 4 decimal places.) reliability c. which plan will provide the higher reliability? plan2plan1