Traditional cost-accounting approaches have served manufacturers well over a long period, but due to the changing nature of the modern manufacturing environment shortcomings have resulted and are no longer regarded as suitable (Gagne & Discenza 1993: 68). Similarly, Monden and Lee (1993: 22) state that many practitioners and academicians have questioned the effectiveness of standard cost systems, which have been used as the primary cost control measure for the last several decades. Cooper and Slagmulder (1997: 2) point out that in contrast to the conventional cost management techniques, target costing adopts a feed-forward approach. The objective of target costing is to design costs out of products, and not to find ways of eliminating costs after the products enter production. Few firms can afford to ignore such a powerful mechanism to increase profits in today’s highly competitive environment.

This thesis investigates manufacturing costs in the company, which produces electrical assemblies for the special transportation vehicles. The analysis focuses on one particular large-scale long-term project for a foreign customer. The teoretical part presents the overview of the cost management methods and techniques, the emphasis is on the product costing methods. The practical part analyzes the data obtained from the company's ERP system and compares it with prices in the contract and in the initial offer. The aim is to assess whether the planned costs and profits of the initial calculation has been achieved. In case there is found a difference between an expected and an observed value, the reason for this difference is investigated, and steps to achieve the initially desired results are recommended.

The thesis deals with the theme of controlling of development costs in the company Škoda Auto. The work is divided into two main parts. The beginning of this work is focused on theoretical determination of definition of controlling, basic structure, reporting, then issue of cost management and activation of intangible assets is defined. The practical part of the thesis describes the company Škoda Auto and the location of controlling department inside the company. At the end of the work there are analysis of the development cost, conditions for activating and proposal for optimizing methodology to activate the development cost.

This Master´s thesis is focused on Multi-machine efficiency in specific chosen production company With using company´s data to determine how it is reflected in the costs and how this fact affects in standartization and labor costs. By using analysis of current state of multi-machine operation and costs.

The costs of information technology (IT) in large multinational companies (MNCs) often constitute a significant portion of the company’s total yearly turnover. IT departments are on one hand expected to return value to business, but are on the other hand often prone to cost reductions. Thus, it is not unusual that IT management chooses to focus on cost cutting rather than cost control in order to meet the company’s financial targets. Understanding cost drivers in IT is not always evident, making it difficult for managers to know what performance indicators that should be tracked. This study addresses the issue of cost control and performance measurement in IT departments, in the form of a case study carried out at the IT department of a large Swedish MNC in the telecommunications industry. The case company is divided into two parts: Enterprise and Engineering, where Enterprise provides the organization with IT in form of printers, personal computers, applications, IT support and communication services through network infrastructure and voice. Engineering provides research and development units with software development infrastructure and testing environments for products. The testing environments comprise of both software testing through simulations and hardware testing in physical labs. By carrying out interviews with managers and key people responsible for large budget items, 130 cost drivers were identified. After reducing recurring cost drivers and merging similar ones, the cost drivers were filtered according to quantifyability. In a second step, performance indicators were developed using the SMART model and then scored with respect to cost impact and ease of implementation. This resulted in a recommendation of 49 performance indicators to be tracked across the entire IT department. A sample of recommended performance indicators is total cost of wages / number of employees, number of virtualized servers / total number of servers and amount of video related traffic / total capacity of bandwidth. The ambition of this study is to provide a holistic way of controlling cost drivers through prioritized performance indicators. Even though this case is specific to an IT department, the approach in this research may well be applied in other departments and industries. / Kostnaderna för informationsteknologi (IT) i stora multinationella företag utgör ofta en betydande del av företagets totala årliga omsättning. Samtidigt som IT-organisationer förväntas leverera värde till företaget, utsätts de även för kostnadsnedskärningar. Därför är det inte ovanligt att IT-ledningen väljer att fokusera på kostnadsbesparingar, snarare än kostnadskontroll, för att nå bolagets finansiella mål. Det är inte alltid enkelt att förstå vad som driver kostnader i en IT-organisation, vilket försvårar besluten om vilka nyckeltal som IT-ledningen bör styra efter. Denna studie tar upp frågan om kostnadskontroll och prestationsmätning i IT-organisationer i form av en fallstudie, som genomförts på IT-avdelningen på ett stort svenskt multinationellt bolag i telekommunikationsbranschen. Organisationen kan delas in i Enterprise och Engineering, där Enterprise tillhandahåller IT i form av skrivare, persondatorer, applikationer, IT support och kommunikationstjänster genom nätinfrastruktur och taltjänster. Engineering tillhandahåller infrastruktur för mjukvaruutveckling och en miljö för testning av produkter för forsknings- och utvecklingsenheter. Testmiljön består av både mjukvarutestning i form av simuleringar samt tester av hårdvara i fysiska laboratorier. Med utgångspunkt i intervjuer med chefer och andra nyckelpersoner ansvariga för stora budgetposter, identifierades 130 kostnadsdrivare inom IT-avdelningen. Efter reduktion av återkommande kostnadsdrivare och sammanslagning av liknande drivare, filtrerades kostnadsdrivarna med aveseende på kvantifierbarhet. Kostnadsdrivare som var kvantifierbara översattes sedan till nyckeltal med hjälp av SMART-modellen. I efterföljande steg  poängsattes nyckeltalen med avseende på kostnadseffekt och möjligheten för implementering. Detta resulterade i en rekommendation av 49 nyckeltal för effektiv kostnadskontroll i hela organisationen. Ett urval av rekommenderade nyckeltal är totala lönekostnaden / antal anställda, antal virtualiserade servrar / totala antalet servrar samt mängden videorelaterad datatrafik / totala bandbreddskapaciteten. Ambitionen med denna studie är att på ett ett holistiskt sätt kontrollera kostnadsdrivare, genom prioritering av nyckeltal. Även om denna fallstudie specifikt riktar sig mot IT-avdelningar, anser författarna att tillvägagångssättet även kan tillämpas på andra avdelningar och branscher.

No description available.

The objective of this research is to investigate the food security, food diversity and coping strategies used to access food in households in the Eastern Cape rural village of Timane in Idutywa, Eastern Cape, South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was used in which a Coping Strategy Index questionnaire designed by Maxwell and Caldwell (2008) and a HDD questionnaire was used to gather data interviewing respondents. This study was conducted in the rural community of Timane which was divided into geographical groups from which household were randomly chosen. A total of 60 adults representing 60 selected households were interviewed to provide information on household dietary diversity. Data was collected on the socio-biographic and HHD parameters of households. Data was analyzed and presented as correlation, percentages, means and SDs. Up to 72% of household received state grants and the Spearman’s correlation between number of children and HDD score was r = 0.38 while that between number of adults in households and HDD score was r = -0.93. Food security in the Timane community largely depends on state grants and HDD increases moderately with the increase in children and decreases with the increase in adults per household. The majority of the households (72%) received state grants as a source of income within which old-age pensions constitute 28% and child grants 38%. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient between the number of children in households of respondents and CSI was 0.78 (P < 001) while that between the number of adults in households and CSIS was 0.2 (P < 001). Household in the rural community of Timane community were found to be food insecure and this gets severe with the increase in the number of children in households. / Life & Consumer Sciences / M.A. (Human Ecology)

Frente à necessidade de conhecimento dos custos hospitalares, enfermeiros gestores dos Centros de Material e Esterilização (CMEs) têm intensificado a busca por informações úteis e balizadoras de forma a instrumentalizá-los no gerenciamento de custos dessas unidades. Conhecer e implementar o gerenciamento de custos baseado em atividades constitui em alternativa para se adquirir informações precisas e confiáveis. Este estudo exploratório descritivo na modalidade de estudo de caso tem como objetivo a aplicação do Custeio Baseado em Atividades para o gerenciamento de custos em um Centro de Material e Esterilização de um hospital de ensino de capacidade extra, localizado na região noroeste do Estado de São Paulo. A coleta de dados ocorreu durante o ano de 2006 utilizando as técnicas de análise documental, observação direta não participante, grupo focal e questionário. A aplicação do ABC possibilitou o conhecimento dos custos do ciclo/carga de desinfecção química R$ 13,15 e física R$ 27,49 e esterilização por vapor saturado sob pressão R$ 68,30 e por vapor de Baixa Temperatura e Formaldeído Gasoso R$ 555,77. As informações geradas pelo ABC oportunizaram a compreensão do processo gerador de custos e forneceram base para a mensuração de desempenho e melhorias de processos do CME / Due to the need of knowing the hospital costs, sterile processing department (SPD) manager nurses have intensified the search for useful and landmark information attempting to instrumentalize these costs into the cost management of these facilities. Knowing and implementing the cost management based on activities establishes an alternative to acquire accurate and reliable information. This descriptive, exploratory study on the case study modality was undertaken aiming at implementing the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) to the cost management in a Sterile Processing Center (SPD) of a major teaching hospital, located on the Northwestern of São Paulo State. Data were collected throughout 2006. Documentary research techniques, non participant closed observation, and focus group technique were used. The ABC implementation allowed the knowledge of both chemical and physical disinfection cycle/load activity-based costing (R$ 13,15) and (R$ 27,49), respectively; as well as the sterilization by steam under pressure cost (autoclave) (R$ 68,30) and low temperature steam and gaseous formaldehyde Sterilization (LTSF) (R$ 555,77). The information provided by the ABC method have optimized the overall understanding of the cost driver process and laid the foundation to the measurement of performance and improvement in the SPD processes

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana_Rosa_Silveira_Mulazzani.pdf: 748166 bytes, checksum: 43d13700200c82d0689a0d2b35d30460 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-21 / This is a analysis between the relationship of the needs of proposed asset measurement standards, especially the calculation of the qualified assets cost and the tools provided by the concept of TCO Total Cost of Ownership. The main goal is to demonstrate the uses of TCO as a measurement tool for cost carrying of assets. The main challenge in implementing the concept of cost of ownership is calculate its value since to do so, it must apply costing methodologies, i.e. cost assessment methodologies and the consequent approach of values ratios. This survey is a conceptual essay, based on bibliographic search, being formulated example indicative of TCO on asset metrics fetching contributory related tools. The goal were did based on a illustration of the TCO concept applied for two qualified assets (table wine industry) by the costing of purchase, production, logistics and commercialization of the process to make table wines, using ABC (Activity Based Costing) as a medium to costs allocation. / Este trabalho parte das rela????es existentes entre as necessidades de mensura????o de ativos preconizadas nas normas internacionais de contabilidade, especialmente o c??lculo do custo de carregamento de ativos e os artefatos disponibilizados pelo conceito de Custo Total de Propriedade (TCO) sigla consagrada do ingl??s Total Cost of Ownership. O objetivo geral ?? mostrar a aplica????o do conceito de TCO, como artefato de mensura????o de ativos, na apura????o de custo de carregamento Um desafio importante na aplica????o do conceito de custo de propriedade est?? em se calcular o valor dele, dado que para consegui-lo h?? que se aplicarem metodologias de custeio, ou seja, metodologias de apura????o de custos e a consequente abordagem de rateio de valores. Esta pesquisa configura-se como um ensaio conceitual, fundamentado em pesquisa bibliogr??fica, sendo formulado exemplo indicativo de aplica????o do conceito de TCO ??s mensura????es de ativos buscando artefatos contributivos das mensura????es necess??rias. O objetivo foi alcan??ado atrav??s da ilustra????o do conceito de TCO aplicado a dois ativos qualificados (vinhos finos), identificando o custo de comprar, produzir, armazenar e comercializar vinhos finos, usando o custeio ABC (Activity Based Costing) como meio de aloca????o de custos.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciano_Tadeu_Lucci_De_Biasi.pdf: 775515 bytes, checksum: dd6d434b1493df3e8d028427981188a6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-09-16 / The present paper studied the level of disclosure of the asset abandonment provision by analyzing the financial report of three companies in the oil and gas industry Petrobr??s, Chevron and British Petroleum. The financial reports have been prepared according to three different accounting standards: Brazilian (CPC), the international (IFRS) and North American (USGAAP). The aim of this study was to suggest a framework to increase the quality of disclosure of the items that comprise the measurement of asset retirement obligation provision to provide a decrease in information asymmetry related to the provision of abandonment of assets. The research methodology was qualitative approach with the application of descriptive research method in the form of case study. This research examined the financial statements of the years 2006-2011 of Petrobr??s, filed at the Comiss??o de Valores Imobili??rios and at the Securities and Exchange Commission Securities, of Chevron and British Petroleum, both also filed at the Securities Exchange Commission, in order to verify compliance the level of disclosure that the accounting standards IFRS, USGAAP and CPC recommend. This study verified those companies have reached the minimum level of disclosure required, but Petrobr??s (CVM) that demonstrated the reconciliation of the allowance for asset retirement only for 2010 fiscal year. On the other hand British Petroleum was the only one to provide details such as discount rate, expected cash outflow for the abandonment of the asset and the period of the economic cycle of the assets. This study also concluded there are significant discrepancies in the way information regard asset retirement obligation is disclosed among those financial reports. Thus, the structure of disclosure suggested in this work can be useful to standardize the disclosure of the information regard asset retirement obligation with the possibility of improving the quality of the accounting information and by reducing information asymmetry / O presente trabalho estudou o n??vel de evidencia????o da provis??o de abandono de ativo de tr??s empresas do setor de petr??leo e g??s, Petrobr??s, Chevron e British Petroleum, elaboradas com base em tr??s padr??es cont??beis diferentes, o brasileiro (CPC), o internacional (IFRS) e o norte americano (USGAAP). O objetivo dessa pesquisa foi o de sugerir uma estrutura de evidencia????o com o intuito de incrementar a qualidade da divulga????o dos itens que comp??em a mensura????o dessa provis??o para proporcionar uma redu????o na assimetria da informa????o referente ?? provis??o de abandono de ativo. A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada foi a abordagem qualitativa com a aplica????o de m??todo de pesquisa descritiva na forma de estudo de caso. Essa pesquisa analisou as demonstra????es financeiras entre os anos de 2006 a 2011 da Petrobr??s, apresentadas na Comiss??o de Valores Mobili??rios e na Securities Exchange Commission, da Chevron e da British Petroleum, ambas tamb??m apresentadas na Securities Exchange Commission, com o intuito de verificar a ader??ncia do n??vel de evidencia????o perante os padr??es cont??beis IFRS, USGAAP e CPC. O estudo verificou que as empresas atingiram o n??vel m??nimo da evidencia????o exigido, exceto a Petrobr??s (CVM), que demonstrou a concilia????o da conta de provis??o para abandono de ativos somente a partir de 2010. J?? a British Petroleum foi a ??nica a apresentar detalhes como taxa de desconto utilizada, e sa??da de caixa esperada para o abandono dos ativos e o prazo do ciclo econ??mico dos ativos. Esse estudo concluiu tamb??m que h?? importantes discrep??ncias na forma de apresenta????o. Logo, a estrutura de evidencia????o sugerida nesse trabalho pode ser ??til para padronizar a forma de apresenta????o dessas informa????es com a possibilidade de melhoria na qualidade da informa????o cont??bil e da redu????o da assimetria da informa????o