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May 12-13, 2009. Systems Design: Activity Based Costing. Activity Based Costing. Shortcomings of Simple Job Order Costing What is Activity Based Costing? How is it Superior? How is it Applied? Journal Entries. Shortcomings of Simple Job Order Costing.
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May 12-13, 2009 Systems Design: Activity Based Costing
Activity Based Costing • Shortcomings of Simple Job Order Costing • What is Activity Based Costing? • How is it Superior? • How is it Applied? • Journal Entries
Shortcomings of Simple Job Order Costing • Plant-wide allocation of costs may be a reasonable methodology for single product facilities • Increasingly, companies produce a multitude of products out of the same plant • These different products tend to consume different amounts of overhead • Additionally overhead is increasing as a proportion of overall cost and consequently its allocation becomes more meaningful • In these circumstances, a simple plant wide allocation is not granular enough to capture good product cost information
First-Stage Cost Assignment LaborRelated Pool MachineRelated Pool SetupPool ProductionOrder Pool PartsAdmin. Pool GeneralFactory Pool Second-Stage Allocations $/DLH $/MH $/Setup $/Order $/Part Type $/MH Products Unit-LevelActivity Batch-LevelActivity Product-LevelActivity Facility-LevelActivity Graphic Example ofActivity-Based Costing Various Manufacturing Overhead Costs
What is Activity Based Costing (ABC)? • Activity Based Costing is a methodology for allocating costs based on: • Each of the activities associated with producing a product, and • The level of overhead that each of these require • There are a number of allocation bases for assigning costs to products • We end up with a more accurate understanding of Product Cost • Better basis for manufacturing and pricing decisions
Applying Activity Based Costing • Applying ABC requires: • Detailed understanding of the organization • Overhead departments, functions and activities • Manufacturing departments, functions and activities • Detailed costing for all • Judgment • Selecting which costs to map to which products • What allocation base to use • The impact of these decisions can be material and therefore managers must understand the underlying information to trouble-shoot
Designing an Activity-BasedCosting System • Select a few activities which capture most of the overhead • Group the related activities; eg materials handling • Interview company managers to understand which overhead costs they believe are most costly and most critical to efficient production • Interview marketing and sales people to understand which products are most sensitive to pricing • Establish which cost objects to focus upon in more detail • Design the system from cost-down and product-up • Ensure all costs are captured
Applying Activity-Based Costing • List all Cost Objects; i.e., products to be costed • List all Overhead Departments / Costs • Identify Activity Cost Pools that production of each product requires • E.g., maintaining machines. Other examples? • Establish which overhead costs are consumed for the activity • E.g., Maintenance Mechanics Department • Measure the activity • Calculate the cost • E.g., the overall cost of the Mechanics Department • Select the Allocation Bases and Activity Rate • Simply the POHR, except for each activity • E.g., Cost of Maintenance Mechanics / Estimated hours of machine operation
First-Stage Cost Assignment LaborRelated Pool MachineRelated Pool SetupPool ProductionOrder Pool PartsAdmin. Pool GeneralFactory Pool Graphic Example of Activity-Based Costing Various Manufacturing Overhead Costs • Where cost correlations and overhead support required are similar, it is practical to consolidate the Activity Pools • Information systems are strong and can support extraordinary complexity • However, at a certain point the complexity becomes overly cumbersome interpret
First-Stage Cost Assignment LaborRelated Pool MachineRelated Pool SetupPool ProductionOrder Pool PartsAdmin. Pool GeneralFactory Pool Second-Stage Allocations $/DLH $/MH $/Setup $/Order $/Part Type $/MH Products Unit-LevelActivity Batch-LevelActivity Product-LevelActivity Facility-LevelActivity Graphic Example ofActivity-Based Costing Various Manufacturing Overhead Costs
Using Activity-Based Costing • An electronics manufacture produces Cell Phones and Servers • It uses a DL hours bases Overhead allocation system • What are the product costs of each product? • What are your observations?
Using Activity-Based Costing • Note that Manufacturing Overhead as a percentage of product cost is more than 4 times higher for cell phones!
Computing Activity Rates • The company undertook to implement ABC • Established Cost Objects, Activity Pools, and Rates
Methodology Results- A Comparison • Which methodology is more accurate? Why? • Cell phone costs decreased by 5% under ABC. Why? • What opportunities are there for the company?
Targeting Process Improvements • Activity Based Management • Using ABC output to identify areas of improvement • Reduce costs • Reduce production time, and • Reduce defects / improve quality • Identify high cost areas first • Benchmark against 3rd party data to identify weaknesses • What areas might we take a closer look at in the Electronics Manufacturer example?
ABC – Cost Flows and Journal Entries • Cost flows are the same for ABC as for Job-Order Costing, except ABC has more POHRs • Over and under allocations of Manufacturing Overhead are dealt with through COGS • As with Job-Order Costing
Review • Shortcomings of Simple Job Order Costing • What is Activity Based Costing? • When should it be Applied? • How is it Superior? • Journal Entries
Tutorial • Assignment • Review Problem • Complete Alternative Problem 3-15-B • Submit as homework – May 13th Tutorial