Activity based management : improving processes and profitability / Brian Plowman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Plowman, Brian.

Series:

Routledge Revivals Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Activity-based costing.

Management.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT, USA : Gower, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This title was first published in 2001: This book explains the power of using ABM to increase the profitability of your business. It provides step-by-step guidance on basic principles, comparisons between traditional methods, definitions of processes, activities and cost-drivers as well as details of data collection techniques and implementation steps. Through the book's numerous detailed examples a logical picture builds up of how to obtain the benefits that ABM can deliver.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title

Copyright

Contents

List of figures and tables

Foreword

1 Introduction

Customers

The twenty-first century is electronic

The missing dimension

Can all customers be kings?

Activity Based Management

Key points

Part I The Context

2 Historical perspective

The first serious questions

New costing approaches gather pace

3 What is ABM?

Costing and profitability

Process improvement

4 Frameworks for measurement and improvement

The Balanced Scorecard

The Business Excellence Model

Shareholder Value Added

Positioning and capability

5 The ABM framework

Traditional resource accounting

ABM versus traditional treatments of costs

Part II ABM in Practice

6 The ABM flow of costs

Resources

Functions

Activities and drivers

Products, channels and customers

Infrastructure and sustaining costs

Product and customer profitability

Attribute analysis

Processes and process improvement

Embedding the model

7 The basic principles of building models

The flow of costs in the model

The general ledger

Categories of costs and activities

Assigning costs from the general ledger

Understanding cost drivers

Cost driver variability

Activity data

Assigning costs from the ledger to activities

Reassigning internal service department costs to other departments

Reassigning IT department costs to other departments

Using unit costs for analysis

8 Undertaking an ABM project

Objectives of the project

Key steps

Areas of potential difficulty

Software

Team resources

Use of consultants

Embedding and refreshing

Using ABM outputs for performance improvement.

Using ABM for commercial decision support

9 Integrating improvement approaches

ABM and Business Process Re-engineering

ABM and Value Based Management

ABM and Customer Relationship Management

Part III Case Studies

10 How ABM made a difference: lessons from case studies

A manufacturing company: distortions caused by costing using Overhead Recovery Rates

A manufacturing company: understanding overheads makes a real difference to product costs

A printing company: tunnelling deeper uncovers the real drivers of cost

A finance company: breaking out one-off costs from recurring costs

A trading company: the costs of different customer relationships vary

A fast-moving consumer goods company: activity data can highlight process failures

A retail chain company: a flawed internal charging mechanism can have severe consequences

A merchant bank: proper costing and charging for central support or shared services removes the angst in the relationship with business divisions

A Head Office function: activity and value-for-money analysis create enhanced effectiveness

An IT services division: achieving a proper basis for costing and charging IT services

A utility company: selling off the IT services function meant understanding the dynamics of the new business

A courier company: the devil is in the detail, which is only known by the people doing the work

A manufacturing and technical services company: a simple pricing mechanism masks complex and costly customer relationships

A wholesale and distribution company: treating major costs as fixed masked the real differences in customer profitability

A manufacturing company: an increasing number and changing mix of distributors eroded profitability.

A bakery company: when margins are small, detailed analysis is required to unravel the complexities of many different products going to many different customers

A university: the real costs of 'products' and 'customers' remained invisible in the conventional management information system

An airline company: seeing costs from different business perspectives helps optimize corporate performance

A power generation equipment manufacturing company: a focus on profitability rather than volume highlighted process failures and better market opportunities

A merchanting company: customer profitability analysis exposed poor performance measures that were eroding profits

A global manufacturer and supplier of orthopaedic implants and surgical instrumentation: when the profitable segments are found, enhancing service levels helps to retain customers

A specialist distribution company: uncovering the complexity of having many suppliers of many products going to many customers

An advertising directory company: better information to support product costing, customer profitability, benchmarking and process improvement

A high street retailing company: subtle changes can make dramatic improvements

An electricity supply company: uncovering the true impact on profitability of the behaviour of millions of customers

Part IV Conclusions

11 Pulling it all together

ABM comes of age

ABM brings a different perspective

Making ABM happen

ABM does make a difference

Appendix: Glossary of terms

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-351-80852-4

0-566-08949-1

OCLC:

55663812