Chapter 4 - Advanced costing methods Flashcards
Give some reasons for the development of ABC.
- Size/proportion of overheads
- Modern manufacturing
- complexity/diversity
What are the stages of traditional costing (absorption costing)
Stage 1: Assigning costs using measures of service usage
Stage 2: Absorbing costs using a measure of volume
What are the stages of ABC
Stage 1: Identify the organisation’s major activities.
Stage 2: Identify cost drivers for each activity.
Stage 3: Calculate a cost driver rate (CDR) for each activity.
Stage 4: Absorb activity costs into products
Stage 5: Calculate the full production cost/unit and profit/(loss) (if required)
What are some advantages of ABC?
An understanding of what drives costs should improve cost control.
More accurate cost per unit = better pricing, cost control and decision making
What are some disadvantages of ABC?
- Cost and time involved
- Limited benefit if production o/h are minimal or mainly driven by level of production
- difficult to identify cost pools and drivers
What are the main drivers for introducing ABC in the public sector?
- Public responsibility
- Public accountability
- Resource allocation within organizations
- Helping managers to manage
What does ABC allow for public responsibility?
Allows a better understanding of what is driving overhead costs, allowing tighter control
What is total quality management?
a management technique which seeks to ensure that goods are produced, and services supplied, of the highest quality.
What are some fundamental features of TQM?
- prevention of errors
- importance of total quality in the design of systems and products
- real participation of all employees
What is Just-in-time?
a pull-based system of production, pulling work through the system in response to customer demand.
Goods only produced when needed, eliminating large stocks
What are some key characteristics of JIT?
-High quality
- Speed
- reliability
- Flexibility
- low costs
What are some key features of companies operating JIT and TQM?
- high level of automation
- high levels of o/h and low levels of direct labour costs
- customised products produced in small batches
What is throughput accounting?
aims to make the best use of a scarce resource.
What is throughput accounting based on?
- the only totally variable cost in the short-term is the purchase cost of raw materials that are bought from external suppliers
- Direct labour not variable in the short term
Throughput is effectively the same as what?
contribution
What is the calculation for throughput?
sales revenue - direct material cost
What is the aim of throughput?
to maximise this measure of profitability, whilst simultaneously reducing operating expenses and inventory.
How is the goal of throughput achieved?
by determining what factors prevent the throughput from being higher.
What is the constraint called in throughput accounting?
a bottleneck
What are the steps in the theory of constraints?
Step 1: Identify the system’s bottlenecks
Step 2: Identify how to exploit the bottlenecks
Step 3: Subordinate everything else to the decision in Step 2
Step 4: Elevate the system’s bottlenecks
Step 5: If in previous steps, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1
What is the throughput (return) per factory hour?
Throughput per unit/ product’s time on the bottleneck resource