Activity Based Costing: The Key to World Class Performance

Book by Grieco, Peter L., Pilachowski, Mel

Grieco, Peter L.

Pilachowski, Mel

P T Pubns

Accounting results have little to do with the activities that take place on the factory floor, in administrative offices or out in the sales field. The traditional practice of accounting leads to a number of faults which end up weakening American businesses. Two of the most prominent problems are: 
The emphasis on financial measurements diverts us from improvement. Traditional cost systems hinder excellence by hiding the elements of cost. 
Activity Based Costing (ABC) helps your organization search out cost drivers and assign them directly to products and services, so that you know exactly how much each costs. All too often, our businesses are putting time and effort into projects which are losing money because overhead is under-applied. 
Activity Based Costing shows you how to monitor and control activities in order to bring true costs into the open. This attention to the production line will inevitably result in savings to your bottom line. Each chapter focuses on an important facet of this new costing paradigm. You will find out how to: 
Recognize the changes required to make your organization less wasteful and more competitive. Identify the components of Total Cost and cost activities, the foundation of achieving World Class status. Develop the product/service cost equation. Streamline your organization into a World Class agile manufacturing environment. Prepare cost accounting for technology changes. Perform life cycle costing - from development to market satisfaction. Guarantee continuous improvement. Implement Activity Based Costing. 
Companies around the world are discovering that Activity Based Costing is the engine that will drive all future improvement efforts. Read this book to see how they are putting their ideas into action.

Purchasing Performance Measurements is the first in a series of comprehensive guides to critical areas in Purchasing. Read this book to learn how to maintain your competitive edge and to use measurements to continuously improve. Just the facts. 
Purchasing Performance Measurements covers the following: How to implement and why. Traditional accounting practices fail to pinpoint troubles which are eating away at profit margins and providing an opportunity for the competition to capture market share. Traditional accounting practices fail to identify recovery opportunities in a company. They also overlook the real (root) causes of waste as well as cost reduction through the elimination of non-value-added activities or the improvement of value-added activities. Traditional accounting practices favor quick fixes to reduce costs either by reducing labor or by forcing suppliers to cut costs. These actions not only avoid internal issues of waste, continuous improvement, and the identification of true cost drivers and misallocated costs, but can create even more intractable problems via the neglect. 
Avoidance is a big issue here and it reminds us of weeds in our lawns. Cutting them off at the surface only temporarily hides the problem. To eliminate weeds, you need to get at the roots and pull them out of the ground. Only then can you produce a healthier lawn. The same thing applies to our businesses. We need the tools to get at the roots and we need a cost management system that lets us use these tools to their full advantage. 
Just-In-Time, Total Quality Management, Statistical Process Control, Set-Up Reduction, Bar Coding, Team Building and Supplier Certification are a few of these new tools. In our consulting work, we have seen them help put companies back on their feet and on their way to prosperity. But, we have also noticed that the greatest success comes when these tools are used in the context of a total cost system which looks to continuously improve performance by eliminating waste and reducing costs. The principal method whereby this happens is to assign each product its true share of activity costs and not to lump all costs which are not directly traceable into overhead which is then inaccurately allocated to products based on direct labor costs. This is the way we used to do product costing, but it is no longer a viable method. Let's take a look at some manufacturing history to see why. 
The History of Costs in Manufacturing: Business Performance Grid. How to understand the relationship between measurements and Just-In- Time/Total Quality Control A Total Cost Approach. How to gain management's commitment and support. 
Use this book to gain the competitive edge you need to stay ahead of the competition.

Purchasing Performance Measurements: A Roadmap for Excellence (Purchasing Excellence Series)

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

P. T. Publications

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pilachowski, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pilachowski, Mel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pilachowski, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Activity Based Costing: The Key to World Class Performance

Activity Based Costing: The Key to World Class Performance

Purchasing Performance Measurements: A Roadmap for Excellence (Purchasing Excellence Series)