Final answer:
The question requires calculating the budgeted labor cost for producing engines previously built by Pohlman. Using the limited information provided and standard assumptions, such as a learning curve, an estimate can be formulated. However, precise calculation cannot be provided without more specific details regarding learning rates or time taken for subsequent units.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question requires us to calculate the budgeted labor cost for producing an engine that has been built previously by Pohlman, with the understanding that the first unit took 500 hours. It is not provided the exact number of hours it would take to build subsequent units, but in manufacturing, there is typically a learning curve, which means that each subsequent unit should take less time to produce than the one before. Given that the information regarding the learning rate or curve isn't provided, we have to make an assumption or refer to standard learning curves to estimate.
For instance, if we assume a learning rate of 90% (a common assumption in cost accounting, referring to the unit theory of learning), the second unit would take 90% of the time of the first one, and so on. However, without more specific details, we cannot give a precise calculation for the labor cost. Let's assume for the sake of providing an estimated answer and learning purposes that subsequent engines would take an average of the first and the sixteenth unit in terms of hours. With this very rough estimate and knowing the cost of labor is $24 per hour, we could provide an average and then multiply by 16 to get the total labor cost for 16 engines.
If we take the data provided for other manufacturing contexts in the information, it suggests a labor cost of $24 per hour. Even though this cost was mentioned in a different context, we'll use this as a baseline for our calculations. Hence, the budgeted labor cost for one engine can be calculated with the formula: Budgeted Labor Cost = Estimated Hours x Labor Cost per Hour.