{"product_id":"activity-based-costing-introducing-process-thinking-into-cost-management-von-patrick-zeuner","title":"Activity-based Costing","description":"\u003cp\u003eSeminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Controlling, grade: 1,3, University of Applied Sciences Wildau (WIT Wildau), course: Managerial Accounting, language: English, abstract: Activity-based costing first gained publicity in the early 1980s. It was developed as a logical\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ealternative to traditional cost management systems that tended to produce insufficient results\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhen it came to allocating costs. Harvard Business School Professor Robert S. Kaplan was an\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eearly advocate of the ABC system.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDue to a changing business world and strong competition, the cost structure in many\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecompanies changed, while facing an increased price pressure. When profit margins are\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edecreasing, companies are focusing not only on external but also internal opportunities to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eimprove their cost structures and to make hidden costs transparent. This lead to the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eintroduction of Activity-based costing (ABC) as a new approach of process thinking to make\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe internal organization more flexible to react to changes in the production process and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eallocation of costs as well as to deal with overcapacities. This paper will focus on the ABC tool, which is aiming at transparency, efficiency increase and improvement of the given cost calculation systems. The ABC method enables management to optimize the enterprise with detailed information for\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea thorough decision making process. ABC is a method for developing cost estimates, based on the activities used within the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eproduction process per cost object. To develop a cost estimate the most important activities\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewithin the production cycle ¿ the cost drivers - need to be identified. The activity must be\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edefinable and measured in units, e.g. number of man hours. After all activities for producing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe product are known, a cost estimate is prepared for each activity. These individual cost\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eestimates contain all labour, materials and equipment costs, including overhead, for each\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eactivity. Each complete individual estimate is added to the others to obtain an overall\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eestimate. To gain sufficient cost estimates, data must be collected and verified to make ABC a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efunctional and precise tool. This chapter leads through the necessary steps to implement the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eABC approach and its methodology.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9783656202486\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003eIntroducing process thinking into cost management\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Libri","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9783656202486","offer_id":39446038020189,"sku":"9783656202486","price":17.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/6cfcb8e5-1ae1-4e54-b42f-72b102739e86.jpg?v=1777960343","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/en\/products\/activity-based-costing-introducing-process-thinking-into-cost-management-von-patrick-zeuner","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}