5. Limitations of ABC and Factors that may impede its Introduction
Although the TCS has been presented with significant inaccuracies in the proper allocation of their product costs, ABC model also has some limitations that can obstruct the success of an organisation.
At the outset, any organisation requires details and analyses while adopting ABC system as an ongoing system. Due to the rapidly-changing technological environment, the ABC models are proactively required to be updated in order to escape from obsolete and irrelevant information. However, the cost of updating that information is very expensive (Langfield-Smith, Thorne, Smith, & Hilton, 2015). If the ABC system is meant for activity management and product costing purposes, then the level of complexity will escalate significantly because such costing system entailed a vast analysis of costs and activities (Weygandt, Paul, & Donald, 2015).
Moreover, the average costs are usually meant for the cost per unit of product based on ABC system.
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Initially, the managers usually lose their confidence whether the benefits of ABC system can really outweigh the costs, e.g., this may not be applicable for small businesses where the costs can exceed its benefits. In addition, some managers may be unaware about ABC system and does not know how such system can increase the success of an organisation, e.g., some managers may not be curious to know about current trends happening in the new costing system. Moreover, the organisation may be reluctant to accept changes amongst managers and employees, e.g., some employees may resist changes in an organisation due to the inability to handle new technologies. Ultimately, concerns may still raise when trying to consider the massive resource requirements to implement ABC, e.g., small firms often require large capital funds when investing in a IT system for ABC
What are the symptoms of cost system failure? The system assigns overheads only based on “normal volume, which usually are labor and materials. This lead to distortions cost in the calculation of products cost, and many indirect and support cost, which are not used by products in normal volumes base, are included. Therefore, the system provided inaccurate information, as Sinclair recalled: “we didn’t even know our costs.”
Abby identified substance used in larger amounts over longer periods, persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control, spend considerable time in activities to obtain the substance, recurrent failure to fulfill major role obligations, continued use despite having recurrent problems, recurrent use in situations in which it is physically hazardous, tolerance, and withdrawal. The identified criteria have been present in excess of 12 months.
Cost-plus pricing, it the industry pricing standard, and is a method to determine a price of the product by finding the cost per unit and then including a mark-up
The Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc a company where their headquarters is based in the United States , also doing business internationally with facilities in Europe, Asia and South America. They are a manufacturing company what produced well known products to individuals and industries. This company is experiencing a great deal of trouble with their internal Payable Audit System (PAS) and how it would purchase goods; receive goods and pays for them. They are challenged with the redundancy and the lack of productivity to their system. They were finding ways to lower costs and eliminating steps in how these processes are getting accomplished. They decided that they needed to change their system and the way they did things at their business. There are some people, their roles and departments that will be closely involved with the process of this project. Some of these important roles will come from Ted Anderson director of disbursements, Peter Shaw the user project manager and Linda Watkins project director for the Payable Audit System (PAS). In addition, the Steering Group and the IS management department will have some important roles to the project too. Finally, there will be several major problems with the development of the project and how the one person would deal with these issues.
...takes to set up information in the system. The level of understanding would improve through partaking or getting involved and henceforth could be adapted easily. All the bits and pieces of the project would rapidly increase or grow as per the workflow process. At the end, the overall CPOE system should be able to compare the manual method with the new electronic system and tell which is best and accurate to use and also tell how much time and money will be saved when using either system. At the end of the project the team should be able to come together and discuss whether or not the project met all of the company’s needs such as if it is reliable, efficient, safe and secure and also does it save time and money. Then, if the system has more advantages than disadvantages and it is worth all of the team’s time and effort it would be best to continue with the project.
Do a further analysis of production costs to improve efficiencies. If all else fails, either increase prices to the point where the contribution margin is positive, or drop the customer. 3. What is the difference between a'smart' and a Managerial Implications and Analysis Limitations Managerial Implications: What are the benefits of Moving from a traditional cost accounting system to ABC can reveal hidden costs and hidden profits on the basis of the identified activities (i.e. customers, orders, etc. ). Treating overhead costs as "fixed" can cause an unfair and highly misleading distribution of overhead costs, which are in fact variable.
"College Accounting Coach." Process Costing-Definitions And Features(Part1) « Process Costing « Cost Accounting «. Feb. 2007. Web
Others feel that ABC would be more widespread in industry if it were marketed better by the cost accounting profession itself [1]. As the dust has settled, ABC has turned out to be less a revolutionary technique than a useful refinement to proven systems. The costs of products and services must be accurate, or management can be misled. Decisions... ...
(Target costing is “a structured approach for determining the cost at which a proposed product with specified functionality and quality must be produced to generate a desired level of profitability at its anticipated selling price.”) In order to properly achieve target costing a company must complete the following steps; determine a market price point for the proposed product, calculate the target cost by subtracting the desired profit from the target price, reiterate the product design to achieve target cost, and finally revise the market price following the redesigned product and current market conditions. This mistake in the implementation of target costing led to missed opportunities to reduce costs through the redesign of product components and tooling. The missed cost reduction opportunities resulted from the hasty decision making in the design phase, Billings accepted early component designs without additional cost reducing
...pplied. Cost estimation and analysis could ultimately determine major decisions in both the business and political worlds today, and play a crucial role even in our day to day lives. Through activity based costing one is able to see what areas need improvement and also whether or not a business will be successful after considering all the factors. These tools are very powerful in drawing wise conclusions from cost analysis and can be a priceless tool to have even in the field of engineering.
Making business decisions involves choosing between alternative courses of action. Many factors affect business decisions, yet analysis typically focuses on finding the alternative that offers the highest return on investment or the greatest reduction in costs. Some decisions are based on little more than an intuitive understanding of the situation because available information is too limited to allow a more systematic analysis. In other cases, intangible factors such as convenience, prestige, and environmental considerations are more important than strictly quantitative factors. In all situations, managers can reach a sounder decision if they identify the consequences of alternative choices in financial terms. This unit
Ackoff identifies five assumptions commonly made by designers of management information systems (MIS). With these assumptions, Ackoff argues that these assumptions are in most cases not justified cases, and often lead to major deficiencies in the resulting systems, i.e. "Management Misinformation Systems." To overcome these assumptions and the deficiencies which result from them, Ackoff recommends that management information system should be imbedded in a management control system.
The type of management system chosen also depends on and must be suited to the external environment to allow them to be successful. A...
In any organizations management would have to contend with any unavoidable changes that might take place. New machines, equipment, unstable business environment etc. can bring these changes. Successful implementation of the product therefore depends on the ability of the management to deal with the changes and resolve any emerging conflicts there from.
One main apprehension that they have against Information System is the high investment cost. In addition to this there is the high maintenance and upgrade costs associated with the deployment of new IT systems. In fact they prefer to outsource the heavy IT department expenditures to other companies having IT as their core activities. In return they expected to receive a full solution pack to meet their requirements and they are ready to pay these IT services as an operating cost. At the same time the risks associated with IS are being shifted to the other