Search results

One of the most important aspects of managerial accounting is the accumulation of costs in the manufacturing process. This data is of value to the manager owing to the information it provides him for planning, control, and decision making. The purpose of this paper is to describe the different costing systems, compare them, and show how they affect the accumulation of costs for product costing, as well as decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a service‐costing framework for logistics companies that are providing land transportation via trucks.

Several costing methodologies are combined around activity‐based costing and process modeling and a framework is developed. The developed framework is applied to a logistics company to track its service costs.

After the case study is completed, it is concluded that the proposed framework can be very useful for the company in determining their true service costs. Moreover, the service costs of the company become more apparent to them. Results of the costing information were also found very useful to initiate effective process improvement plans.

In order to execute the model effectively companies need to keep a record of the relevant costing data systematically, otherwise it is not possible to get satisfactory results.

One of the main difficulties for land transportation companies is to determine and evaluate the true costs of their operations. The proposed framework and case study can be useful for companies in developing their costing systems.

The proposed framework presents how different costing approaches can be integrated to provide effective costing solutions. In the literature it is not possible to find many case studies for the application of modern costing approaches for logistics companies. The present paper fills a gap in the literature by presenting a case study for costing logistics services via modern costing approaches.

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

Despite appearing in the literature over 10 years ago as a potentially exciting cost management technique, there is still limited agreement about the nature of target costing. The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics of target costing, and to test whether these characteristics were adopted in three European companies that used target costing.

This paper draws on case study data, collected at three manufacturing companies (consumer electronics, machinery, and transportation equipment).

The paper identifies eight characteristics of target costing, based on the early Japanese case descriptions. These characteristics are related to the way a target is set and how progress towards that target is measured. The findings of the case studies confirm these characteristics. However, some differences were found regarding the interpretation of the strict rule that “the target cost cannot be exceeded at product launch”.

The results indicate that future research on the adoption of target costing cannot be disconnected from its characteristics. Further studies might investigate whether degree of openness to suppliers, leadership position, time pressure and position in the supply chain can explain the noted differences in characteristics among companies.

The characteristics identified in this paper provide an aid to researchers and managers considering target costing. Detailed case descriptions provide best practices examples for other companies.

This study is the first empirical paper concerned with describing the typical characteristics of target costing. By exploring the characteristics, we hope to inspire others to further explore this interesting phenomenon.

Traditional costing systems suffer from a number of problems because of the way in which they allocate overheads: product costs have arbitrary components; managers lack information about what causes costs to be incurred; and it becomes impossible to know which of several product lines is the most profitable. Describes a case study in which activity‐based costing and process mapping were applied in combination in an engineering firm, where it was found that it was necessary to specify a method of process‐based costing.

To provide an overview of research published in the management accounting literature on methods for cost management in new product development, such as a target costing, life cycle costing, component commonality, and modular design.

The structured literature search covered papers about 15 different cost management methods published in 40 journals in the period 1990–2013.

The search yielded a sample of 113 different papers. Many contained information about more than one method, and this yielded 149 references to specific methods. The number of references varied strongly per cost management method and per journal. Target costing has received by far the most attention in the publications in our sample; modular design, component commonality, and life cycle costing were ranked second and joint third. Most references were published in Management Science; Management Accounting Research; and Accounting, Organizations and Society. The results were strongly influenced by Management Science and Decision Science, because cost management methods with an engineering background were published above average in these two journals (design for manufacturing, component commonality, modular design, and product platforms) while other topics were published below average in these two journals.

The scope of this review is accounting research. Future work could review the research on cost management methods in new product development published outside accounting.

The paper centers on methods for cost management, which complements reviews that focused on theoretical constructs of management accounting information and its use.

Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

This chapter presents a new approach to teach process costing that uses worksheets to create the information necessary to account for costs. The approach employs a five-column, five-row worksheet that presents weighted-average and FIFO costs per equivalent unit simultaneously. Then, the goal of process costing, accounting for costs, is formally presented in a manner to emphasize its importance. As a result, students are better able to compare and contrast the two process-costing methods.

The problem that original design manufacturing (ODM) companies encounter with the request for quotation (RFQ) process is that there is no effective and efficient methodology for them to formulate accurate and profitable RFQs. The purpose of this paper is to present a quality function deployment (QFD)‐, concurrent engineering (CE)‐, and target costing‐based methodology for ODM companies to formulate accurate and profitable RFQs.

From eight Taiwan electronics ODM companies, 15 people are interviewed to understand their current methods for formulating RFQs and the problems of these methods. Based on the interview results, it was decided to make use of the merits of QFD, CE, and target costing by integrating them into the proposed methodology.

A case study is presented to illustrate a successful application of the proposed methodology in a case company. The case study shows integrating QFD, CE, and target costing into the proposed methodology allows the authors to effectively and efficiently formulate an accurate and profitable RFQ for the case company.

The interview sample quantity of this study is limited to eight Taiwan electronics companies, which is insufficient to represent all ODM companies in various industries. For the future research, it is suggested researchers collect more samples from different industries in order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in ODM companies from different industries.

This paper aims to integrate QFD, CE, and target costing to come up with a systematic ten‐step approach that can accurately formulate the three parts of an RFQ: the product specifications proposal, the product price quotation, and the product development schedule. By adopting this methodology, ODM companies can provide accurate and profitable RFQs to ODM customers, thus increasing their chances of obtaining ODM business.