Subject category:
Finance, Accounting and Control
Published by:
Harvard Business Publishing
Version: 21 April 1998
Length: 21 pages
Data source: Field research
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Abstract
A company making data communication devices has adopted a Total Quality philosophy for working with suppliers, employees, and customers. The finance group finds its existing cost system has become obsolete because of a shift from manual to automatic production technologies. As part of its improvement activities, the group develops an activity-based costing system to replace the obsolete standard costing system. The new system is being used to value inventory for financial reporting, provide monthly feedback on operational efficiencies, and inform product managers about the cost and profitability of their products. It is also being used for target costing, influencing decisions made by product design and development engineers so that future generations of products can be produced at lower cost. The case enables discussion about how well a single system functions for these diverse roles, and to compare this company's target costing approach with those used by Japanese companies, such as Nissan, Komatsu, and Olympus.
About
Abstract
A company making data communication devices has adopted a Total Quality philosophy for working with suppliers, employees, and customers. The finance group finds its existing cost system has become obsolete because of a shift from manual to automatic production technologies. As part of its improvement activities, the group develops an activity-based costing system to replace the obsolete standard costing system. The new system is being used to value inventory for financial reporting, provide monthly feedback on operational efficiencies, and inform product managers about the cost and profitability of their products. It is also being used for target costing, influencing decisions made by product design and development engineers so that future generations of products can be produced at lower cost. The case enables discussion about how well a single system functions for these diverse roles, and to compare this company's target costing approach with those used by Japanese companies, such as Nissan, Komatsu, and Olympus.

