Estimating the unit times of activities.
Having calculated the cost per time unit of supplying resources to the business’s activities, managers next determine the time it takes to carry out one unit of each kind of activity. These numbers can be obtained through interviews with employees or by direct observation. There is no need to conduct surveys, although in large organizations, surveying employees may help. It is important to stress, though, that the question is not about the percentage of time an employee spends doing an activity (say, processing orders) but how long it takes to complete one unit of that activity (the time required to process one order). Once again, precision is not critical; rough accuracy is sufficient. In the case of our example, let’s suppose that managers determine that it takes 8 minutes to process an order, 44 minutes to handle an inquiry, and 50 minutes to perform a credit check.
Deriving cost-driver rates.
The cost-driver rates can now be calculated by multiplying the two input variables we have just estimated. For our customer service department, we obtain cost-driver rates of $6.40 (8 multiplied by $0.80) for processing customer orders, $35.20 (44 by $0.80) for handling inquiries, and $40 (50 by $0.80) for performing credit checks. Once you have calculated these standard rates, you can apply them in real time to assign costs to individual customers as transactions occur. The standard cost rates can also be used in discussions with customers about the pricing of new business.
Note that these rates are lower than those estimated using traditional ABC methods (see again the exhibit “Doing ABC the Traditional Way”). The reason for this difference becomes obvious when we recalculate the quarterly cost of performing the customer service activities. In the exhibit “The Impact of Practical Capacity,” time-driven ABC analysis reveals that only 83% of the practical capacity (578,600 of the 700,000 minutes) of the resources supplied during the quarter has been used for productive work, and hence, only about 83% of the total expenses of $560,000 were assigned to customers or products during this period. This takes care of the technical drawback of traditional ABC systems we mentioned earlier—the fact that surveyed employees respond as if their practical capacity were always fully utilized.
The Impact of Practical Capacity
In the case of our customer service department, the traditional ABC survey produced a work distribution of 70%, 10%, and 20% of the employees’ time performing the department’s three activities. But while that distribution did reflect how workers spent their productive time, the fact that their total productive time was significantly less than their practical capacity of 32 hours per worker per week was completely ignored. The calculation of resource costs per time unit forces the company to incorporate estimates of the practical capacities of its resources, allowing the ABC cost drivers to provide more accurate signals about the cost and the underlying efficiency of its processes.
Analyzing and reporting costs.
Time-driven ABC enables managers to report their costs on an ongoing basis in a way that reveals both the costs of a business’s activities as well as the time spent on them. In our customer service department example, a time-driven ABC report would look like the exhibit “ABC, the Time-Driven Way.”
ABC, the Time-Driven Way
Note that the report highlights the difference between capacity supplied (both quantity and cost) and the capacity used. Managers can review the cost of the unused capacity and contemplate actions to determine whether and how to reduce the costs of supplying unused resources in subsequent periods; they can then monitor those actions over time. In some cases, the information can save companies that are considering expansion from making unnecessary new investments in capacity. For example, the vice president of operations at Lewis-Goetz, a hose and belt fabricator based in Pittsburgh, saw from his time-driven ABC model that one of his plants was operating at only 27% of capacity. Rather than attempt to downsize the plant, he decided to maintain the capacity for a large contract he expected to win later that year, for which he otherwise would have created new capacity.
Updating the model.
Managers can easily update their time-driven ABC models to reflect changes in operating conditions. To add more activities for a department, they don’t have to reinterview personnel; they can simply estimate the unit time required for each new activity.
Managers can also easily update the cost-driver rates. Two factors can cause these rates to change. First, changes in the prices of resources supplied affect the cost per time unit of supplying capacity. For example, if employees receive an 8% compensation increase, the resource cost rate in our example increases from $0.80 per supplied minute to $0.864 per minute. If new machines are substituted or added to a process, the resource cost rate is modified to reflect the change in operating expense associated with introducing the new equipment.
The second factor that can cause a change in the activity cost-driver rate is a shift in the efficiency of the activity. Quality programs, continuous improvement efforts, reengineering, or the introduction of new technology can enable the same activity to be done in less time or with fewer resources. When permanent, sustainable improvements in a process have been made, the ABC analyst recalculates the unit time estimates (and therefore the demands on resources) to reflect the process improvements. For example, if the customer service department gets a new database system, the reps may be able to perform a standard credit check in 20 minutes rather than 50 minutes. To accommodate the improvement, just change the unit time estimate to 20 minutes, and the new cost-driver rate automatically becomes $16 per credit check (down from $40). Of course, you then have to add back in the cost impact of purchasing the new database system by updating the cost per time unit estimate, so the final figure may be somewhat higher than $16.
By updating the ABC model on the basis of events rather than on the calendar (once a quarter or annually), you get a much more accurate reflection of current conditions. Any time analysts learn about a significant shift in the costs of resources supplied or the practical capacity of those resources, or about a change in the resources required to perform the activity, they update the resource cost per time unit, or resource cost rate, estimates. And any time they learn of a significant and permanent shift in the efficiency with which an activity is performed, they update the unit time estimate.
Time Equations to Capture Complexity
So far, we have relied on an important simplifying assumption that all orders or transactions of a particular type are the same and require the same amount of time to process. But time-driven ABC does not demand this simplification. It can accommodate the complexity of real-world operations by incorporating time equations, a new feature that enables the model to reflect how order and activity characteristics cause processing times to vary. Time equations greatly simplify the estimating process and produce a far more accurate cost model than would be possible using traditional ABC techniques.
The key insight is that although transactions can easily become complicated, managers can usually identify what makes them complicated. The variables that affect most such activities can often be precisely specified and are typically already recorded in a company’s information systems. To take an example, let’s assume a manager is looking at the process of packaging a chemical for shipment. In this situation, complexity arises from the potential need for special packaging and the additional demands of air as opposed to ground transportation.
Let’s say that if the chemical is already packaged in a way that meets standard requirements, it should take 0.5 minutes to prepare it for shipment. If the item requires a new package, however, the manager estimates, either from experience or from making several observations, that an additional 6.5 minutes will be required to supply the new packaging. And if the item is to be shipped by air, he or she knows (or can quickly determine) that it will take about 2 minutes to put the package in an air-worthy container.
This information allows the manager to estimate the time required for the packaging process:
Packaging Time = 0.5 + 6.5 [if special packaging required] + 2.0 [if shipping by air]
Many companies’ ERP systems already store data on order, packaging, distribution method, and other characteristics. These order- and transaction-specific data enable the particular time demands for any given order to be quickly determined using a calculation like the one above.
Thanks to this extension, the time-driven approach to ABC can capture the complexities of business far more simply than the traditional ABC system could, which might well have had to account for varying transaction times by treating each variant of the process as a distinct activity. Consider the case of Hunter Corporation (not its real name), a large, multinational distributor of scientific products, whose 27 facilities process more than one million orders each month to distribute up to 300,000 different product SKUs to 25,000 customers. Its old ABC model required that employees in its inside sales department (the salespeople handling phone and Internet orders rather than dealing with customers face-to-face) estimate each month the percentage of their time that they spend on three activities: customer setup, order entry, and order expediting.
With the time-driven approach, Hunter’s ABC team of analysts was able to group the three activities into a single departmental pro
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تقدير الزمن وحدة الأنشطة.وبعد حساب التكلفة لكل وحدة زمنية لتوفير الموارد اللازمة لأنشطة الأعمال، مدراء القادم تحديد الوقت الذي يستغرقه القيام بوحدة واحدة لكل نوع من النشاط. يمكن الحصول على هذه الأرقام من خلال إجراء مقابلات مع الموظفين أو عن طريق الملاحظة المباشرة. ليس هناك حاجة إجراء دراسات استقصائية، على الرغم من أن المسح الموظفين في المنظمات الكبيرة، قد يساعد. من المهم أن نؤكد، على الرغم من أن السؤال ليس حول النسبة المئوية للوقت الذي يقضيه موظف القيام بنشاط (القول، تجهيز أوامر) ولكن كم الوقت المستغرق لإكمال وحدة واحدة من هذا النشاط (الوقت اللازم لمعالجة أمر واحد). مرة أخرى، الدقة ليست حرجة؛ دقة الخام غير كافية. في حالة المثال، لنفترض أن المديرين تحديد أن يستغرق 8 دقائق لمعالجة أمر، 44 دقيقة للتعامل مع تحقيق، والتحقق من 50 دقيقة لأداء ائتمان.الناشئة معدلات التكلفة--السائق.يمكن حساب معدلات التكلفة--السائق الآن بضرب اثنين متغيرات الإدخال وقد قدرنا فقط. لإدارة خدمة العملاء، نحصل على معدلات التكلفة-سائق $6.40 (8 مضروباً 0.80 دولار) لتجهيز طلبات العملاء، 35.20 دولار (44 من 0.80 دولار) للتعامل مع الاستفسارات، والتحقق من مبلغ 40 (50 من 0.80 دولار) لأداء الائتمان. حالما تقوم بحساب هذه المعدلات القياسية، يمكنك تطبيقها في الوقت الحقيقي لتعيين التكاليف للعملاء الأفراد كما تحدث المعاملات. يمكن أيضا استخدام معدلات التكاليف القياسية في المناقشات مع العملاء حول تسعير الأعمال الجديدة.Note that these rates are lower than those estimated using traditional ABC methods (see again the exhibit “Doing ABC the Traditional Way”). The reason for this difference becomes obvious when we recalculate the quarterly cost of performing the customer service activities. In the exhibit “The Impact of Practical Capacity,” time-driven ABC analysis reveals that only 83% of the practical capacity (578,600 of the 700,000 minutes) of the resources supplied during the quarter has been used for productive work, and hence, only about 83% of the total expenses of $560,000 were assigned to customers or products during this period. This takes care of the technical drawback of traditional ABC systems we mentioned earlier—the fact that surveyed employees respond as if their practical capacity were always fully utilized.The Impact of Practical CapacityIn the case of our customer service department, the traditional ABC survey produced a work distribution of 70%, 10%, and 20% of the employees’ time performing the department’s three activities. But while that distribution did reflect how workers spent their productive time, the fact that their total productive time was significantly less than their practical capacity of 32 hours per worker per week was completely ignored. The calculation of resource costs per time unit forces the company to incorporate estimates of the practical capacities of its resources, allowing the ABC cost drivers to provide more accurate signals about the cost and the underlying efficiency of its processes.Analyzing and reporting costs.Time-driven ABC enables managers to report their costs on an ongoing basis in a way that reveals both the costs of a business’s activities as well as the time spent on them. In our customer service department example, a time-driven ABC report would look like the exhibit “ABC, the Time-Driven Way.”ABC, the Time-Driven WayNote that the report highlights the difference between capacity supplied (both quantity and cost) and the capacity used. Managers can review the cost of the unused capacity and contemplate actions to determine whether and how to reduce the costs of supplying unused resources in subsequent periods; they can then monitor those actions over time. In some cases, the information can save companies that are considering expansion from making unnecessary new investments in capacity. For example, the vice president of operations at Lewis-Goetz, a hose and belt fabricator based in Pittsburgh, saw from his time-driven ABC model that one of his plants was operating at only 27% of capacity. Rather than attempt to downsize the plant, he decided to maintain the capacity for a large contract he expected to win later that year, for which he otherwise would have created new capacity.Updating the model.Managers can easily update their time-driven ABC models to reflect changes in operating conditions. To add more activities for a department, they don’t have to reinterview personnel; they can simply estimate the unit time required for each new activity.المديرون أيضا بسهولة تحديث معدلات التكلفة--السائق. اثنين من العوامل يمكن أن تسبب هذه المعدلات تغيير. أولاً، تؤثر التغييرات في أسعار الموارد المتوفرة على التكلفة لكل وحدة زمنية لتوفير القدرات. على سبيل المثال، إذا تلقي الموظفين زيادة تعويض 8%، تكلفة المورد معدل لدينا مثال على زيادات من 0.80 دولار للدقيقة الواحدة التي تم توفيرها إلى 0.864 دولار للدقيقة الواحدة. إذا كان يتم استبدال آلات جديدة أو إضافة إلى عملية، يتم تعديل معدل تكلفة المورد لتعكس التغيير في التشغيل المصروفات المرتبطة بإدخال المعدات الجديدة.العامل الثاني الذي يمكن أن يؤدي إلى تغيير في سعر التكلفة-سائق النشاط تحول في كفاءة هذا النشاط. يمكن تمكين برامج نوعية، وجهود التحسين المستمر، وإعادة هندسة، أو الأخذ بالتكنولوجيا الجديدة نفس النشاط القيام بذلك في وقت أقل، أو بموارد أقل. عندما أدخلت تحسينات دائمة ومستدامة في عملية، محلل سي يعيد حساب تقديرات الوقت وحدة (وبالتالي الطلب على الموارد) ليعكس التحسينات العملية. على سبيل المثال، إذا كان يحصل بقسم خدمة العملاء على نظام جديد لقاعدة بيانات، قد يكون مندوبي قادرة على إجراء فحص ائتمان قياسية في 20 دقيقة بدلاً من 50 دقيقة. لاستيعاب التحسين، مجرد تغيير التقدير مرة وحدة لمدة 20 دقيقة، وسعر التكلفة-برنامج التشغيل الجديد تلقائياً يصبح 16 دولار للتحقق من الائتمان (انخفضت من 40 دولاراً). وبطبيعة الحال، ثم لديك لإضافة مرة أخرى في أثر تكلفة شراء النظام الجديد لقاعدة البيانات قبل تحديث التكلفة لكل مرة وحدة تقدير، حيث أن الرقم النهائي قد يكون أكبر إلى حد ما من 16 دولار.عن طريق تحديث نموذج ABC استناداً إلى الأحداث بدلاً من التركيز على التقويم (مرة ربع أو سنوياً)، يمكنك الحصول على انعكاس أكثر دقة بكثير من الأوضاع الراهنة. أي وقت تعلم المحللون حول تحول كبير في تكاليف الموارد المتوفرة أو القدرات العملية لتلك الموارد، أو تغيير في الموارد المطلوبة لتنفيذ النشاط، أنهم تحديث مورد تكلفة تقديرات وحدة زمنية، أو معدل تكلفة المورد،. وأي وقت يتعلمون تحولاً كبيرا ودائما في الكفاءة التي يتم تنفيذ هذا نشاط، تحديث تقدير الوقت وحدة.المعادلات الزمنية لالتقاط التعقيدحتى الآن، لقد اعتمدنا على افتراض تبسيط مهمة أن جميع أوامر أو المعاملات من نوع خاص هي نفسها وتتطلب نفس المقدار من الوقت للعملية. ولكن ABC يحركها وقت الطلب لا هذا التبسيط. تتسع لتعقيد عمليات العالم الحقيقي بإدراج معادلات الوقت، ميزة جديدة تمكن النموذجي لتعكس كيف تسبب خصائص النظام ونشاط أوقات المعالجة تختلف. المعادلات الزمنية إلى حد كبير تبسيط عملية تقدير وإنتاج نموذج تكلفة أكثر دقة بكثير مما هو ممكن باستخدام التقنيات التقليدية لأية بي سي.الفكرة الرئيسية أنه على الرغم من أن يمكن بسهولة أن تصبح المعاملات المعقدة، مديري يمكن عادة تحديد ما يجعلها معقدة. المتغيرات التي تؤثر على معظم هذه الأنشطة كثيرا ما يمكن تحديدها تحديداً، وهي عادة المسجلة بالفعل في نظم المعلومات للشركة. على أن تتخذ على سبيل مثال، لنفترض مدير يبحث في عملية التعبئة والتغليف مادة كيميائية للشحن. في هذه الحالة، ينشأ التعقيد من الحاجة المحتملة إلى التعبئة الخاصة ومتطلبات إضافية من الهواء بدلاً من النقل البري.دعونا نقول أنه إذا كان الفعل حزم الكيميائية على نحو يفي بالمتطلبات القياسية، ينبغي أن يستغرق دقائق 0.5 إعدادها للشحن. إذا كان العنصر يتطلب حزمة جديدة، بيد من الخبرة أو من صنع عدة ملاحظات، التي سوف تكون على دقائق إضافية 6.5 تقديرات المدير، المطلوبة لتزويد العبوة الجديدة. وإذا كان العنصر هو أن يتم شحنها عن طريق الجو، يعلم أنه أو أنها (أو يمكن أن تحدد بسرعة) أنه سيستغرق حوالي 2 دقيقة لوضع الحزمة في حاوية رانبى.وتسمح هذه المعلومات المدير تقدير الوقت اللازم لعملية التعبئة والتغليف:وقت التغليف = 2.0 + 0.5 + 6.5 [إذا لزم الأمر التعبئة الخاصة] [في حالة الشحن الجوي]نظم تخطيط موارد المؤسسات العديد من الشركات فعلا تخزين البيانات في النظام والتعبئة والتغليف وطريقة التوزيع والخصائص الأخرى. تمكين هذه البيانات الخاصة بالنظام والحركة مطالب وقت معين لأي ترتيب معين يتحدد بسرعة باستخدام عملية حسابية مثل واحد أعلاه.Thanks to this extension, the time-driven approach to ABC can capture the complexities of business far more simply than the traditional ABC system could, which might well have had to account for varying transaction times by treating each variant of the process as a distinct activity. Consider the case of Hunter Corporation (not its real name), a large, multinational distributor of scientific products, whose 27 facilities process more than one million orders each month to distribute up to 300,000 different product SKUs to 25,000 customers. Its old ABC model required that employees in its inside sales department (the salespeople handling phone and Internet orders rather than dealing with customers face-to-face) estimate each month the percentage of their time that they spend on three activities: customer setup, order entry, and order expediting.With the time-driven approach, Hunter’s ABC team of analysts was able to group the three activities into a single departmental pro
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