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The inadequacy of traditional volume based product cost systems has become manifest in recent years as a result of increased competition, expanding product mix diversity, and increased manufacturing automation. Activity based costing (ABC) has evolved out of this environment as a system which attempts to better identify, measure, integrate, and communicate the total costs of the production activities. Case study research on ABC systems describes the problems which prompted a cost system revision and the outcomes of the revision. These studies demonstrate that the installation of an ABC system usually does change the calculated product cost numbers by changing the way the overhead and support costs are measured and allocated. The present study sought to investigate the impact of ABC product cost data on managerial decisions. Data were gathered by using a mail case scenario and questionnaire. The case scenario presented competitor information, historical information, and product costs data about a fictitious manufacturing firm who manufactured two products. The three groups of subjects, who differed by the types and amounts of product cost data received, answered questions on selling prices and special order acceptance. The data were analyzed using MANOVA, ANOVA, MANCOVA, and ANCOVA. The results showed a significant difference between subjects who received volume based costing and those who received activity based costing, especially in the subjects' designated selling price of the low complexity/high volume product. The responses to the demographic questions and several voluntary written comments from subjects' indicated that competitor information was a more important factor than product cost data in making selling price decisions. / Ph. D.

Available cost-variance investigation models are reviewed and evaluated in Chapter Three of this study. As shown in the chapter, some models suffer from ignoring the costs and benefits of the investigation. Other models, although meeting the cost-benefit test, fail to capture the essence of the real-world problem. For example, they fail to handle the imprecision (fuzziness) surrounding the investigation decision. They are also based on the unrealistic assumptions of (1) a two-state system, and (2) constant level of accuracy and precision. In addition, the models suffer from the lack of applicability. They require precise numerical inputs to the analysis that are difficult, if not impossible, to attain. This dissertation provides a new cost-variance investigation model that may overcome some of these problems. The new model utilizes the calculus of fuzzy set theory which was introduced by Zadeh in 1965 as a means for dealing with fuzziness. The theory is also intended to reduce the need for precise measures that are difficult to obtain. Consequently, the theory seems to be well suited for handling the investigation problem. (Chapter Two provides a summary of the theory and its applications in the decision making area.) The new model is presented in Chapter Four and extended in Chapter Five. The performance is assumed to be described by·a transformation function, S_t+1 = f(S_t,D_t), where S_t, D_t, and S_t+1 represent the sets of the input states, available decisions, and output states, respectively. The transformation function can be deterministic, stochastic, or fuzzy. Methods are suggested to obtain the optimal decision for the three cases of transformation functions. These methods are based on formulating a fuzzy optimal decision set D_O = {u_{D_O}(d_j)d_j}, where u_{D_O}(d_j) represents the compatibility (i.e., relative merit) of decision d_j with the optimal decision set. The optimal decision is the decision having the highest compatibility with the fuzzy optimal decision set. In addition to allowing for different transformation functions, the new model allows for varying degrees of out-of-controllness. The model also provides for the fuzziness (imprecision) surrounding (1) the states of performance, (2) the net benefits from the investigation, and (3) the probabilities. This is done by employing the basic concept in fuzzy set theory, namely, the membership function concept. The new model was examined (in Chapter Six) for feasibility. First, the model was computerized. Then, it was applied to an actual investigation problem encountered by a manufacturing company. As the application may indicate, the new model can be applied to real-world situations. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research was to determine the utility of cost accounting skills to AAS accounting graduates for employment in selected Virginia manufacturing plants. The population of 480 manufacturing plants employing at least 100 persons in the Commonwealth was surveyed. Of the 303 returns--63.1 percent of the population, 58 were not filled in but usually contained explanations, so these returns could not be coded for computer analyses. Although 49 of these questionnaires were from plants still in operation, there appeared to be little employment opportunity for cost accountants in most of these because the majority had accounting services performed at other locations. The remaining 245 returns--51.0 percent of the population--were employed to resolve the seven research questions. Absolute frequencies, percentage frequencies, and chi square tests of significance were used. Employing the 245 usable responses for this study, the following major conclusions regarding Virginia manufacturing plants were rendered. 1. Cost accounting skills are needed in these plants. 2. Generally intermediate or advanced levels of proficiency in these cost accounting skills are needed. 3. Standard and job order and/or process cost accounting systems are used in over two-thirds of these plants. 4. For non-supervisory accounting positions, these plants prefer to hire trained individuals. 5. For non-supervisory accounting employees, two-year community/junior college accounting programs are the single most preferred source by these plants, with high schools and four-year colleges being the second and third sources respectively. 6. These plants prefer two-year community/junior college accounting graduates trained to fill future openings in non-supervisory accounting positions primarily in plants with computerized cost accounting systems and secondarily in plants without computerized cost accounting systems. Recommendations rendered for Virginia community colleges preparing AAS accounting graduates for accounting positions in Virginia manufacturing plants were as follows: 1. Two-year community college accounting programs to prepare graduates for employment in non-supervisory accounting positions in these plants should be offered. 2. These community colleges should include as a part of these accounting programs all of the 45 cost accounting skills contained in this study. 3. The levels of proficiency in these 45 cost accounting skills contained in this study should be used to aid in determining the degree of training in the various skills. 4. These community colleges should train their accounting graduates in both computerized cost accounting systems and manual cost accounting systems; however, the former type of preparation should be emphasized. 5. These community colleges should include in-depth instruction in standard, job order, and process cost accounting systems in their training of these graduates. 6. Since for non-supervisory accounting positions in these plants higher preferences were shown first for two-year community/ junior college accounting graduates, second for high school graduates who have taken a bookkeeping class, and third for four-year college accounting graduates, educational opportunities for all three groups should continue to be provided in the Commonwealth. / Ed. D.

Tinkamos išlaidų apskaitos sistemos pasirinkimui įtakos turi visa eilė veiksnių ir aplinkybių. Įmonėms, kurių produkcijos gamybai yra priskiriama daug netiesioginių išlaidų, buvo sukurta ABC (Activity-based costing) išlaidų apskaitos sistema, kuri padeda įvertinti veiklą, priimti valdymo sprendimus, kontroliuoti bei mažinti išlaidas, atsisakyti vertės nepridedančių veiklų. Atlikti tyrimai “N” medelyno pavyzdžiu parodė, kad netiesioginės sodmenų gamybos išlaidos paskirstomos miško sėjinukų, sodinukų ir dekoratyvinių sodinukų auginimo išlaidoms pagal tiesioginio darbo užmokesčio sumą. Toks netiesioginių išlaidų paskirstymas sodmenų grupėms iškraipo sodmenų savikainą, nes išanalizavus „N“ medelyno gamybos technologinį procesą, pastebėta, kad skirtingų grupių sodmenys kaupia ne vienodas išlaidas, t.y. jų poreikiai yra skirtingi ir reikalauja skirtingų veiklų. Todėl autorė siūlo medelyno gamybos procesą suskirstyti į tris pagrindinius etapus: produkto sukūrimą (idėją), produkto pagaminimą-išauginimą ir pardavimą, pagal šiuos etapus išskirti veiklas ir kaupti sodmenų auginimo išlaidas. / Choice of appropriate cost accounting system is influenced by a number of factors and circumstances. Companies whose production is attributed to a lot of indirect costs have set up ABC (Activity-Based Costing) cost accounting system, which helps to evaluate performance, make management decisions to control and reduce costs, to refuse activities of value decrease. The studies in nursery 'N' show that the indirect costs of seedlings are allocated to forest seedlings, plants and ornamental plants growing costs under the amount of direct salary. This allocation of indirect costs distorts the cost of seedlings, because the analysis of the nursery "N" production process technology shows that different groups of seedlings accumulate different costs because their needs are different and require different activities. Therefore, the author suggests three basic steps of nursery production process: creation of the product (the idea), production-cultivation and sales, to exclude activities and to collect costs of seedling production.

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.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

This thesis is designed to emphasize and illustrate that marginal costing is a tool of management that can make clear the how, when, why, and wherefor of the price determining affect and its results.

The problem with which this study is concerned is the separation of rehabilitation from production costs in vocational rehabilitation workshops. Within workshops there are those functions and tasks—testing, counseling, and the administration thereof—which clearly are rehabilitative. The costs of these activities, therefore, are solely rehabilitation costs. In the production area of workshop operations, however, where production and rehabilitation efforts are intertwined, two kinds of costs are incurred simultaneously: (l) rehabilitation or training costs and (2) production costs. As yet, no generally accepted procedures exist for separating these joint costs.