安达信咨询方法与工具资料库BGDER2.DOCVIP

- PAGE 4 - FILENAME BKGDER2.DOC Cost Management Overview/Benefits ABC ABM Activity-based management is a useful but sometimes overlooked cost management tool that allows companies to determine not only accurate costs but also the costs of alternative actions. While more traditional cost management utilizes activity-based costing, which answers the question “What do things cost?,” activity-based management (ABM) answers the question “What causes cost to occur?” Utilizing this technique allows a company to determine the costs of alternative actions such as rearranging equipment to produce things more quickly (time-based competition), purchasing more expensive but higher quality materials to reduce lost sales to disappointed customers (total quality management) or comparing different ways of reengineering a business process. U.S. organizations have been pioneers in developing ABM, in part because the diversity in products, services, and people is much greater in this country. Direct Services Provided Arthur Andersen’s direct cost management services include the following: Profitability analysis - Products, Customers, Channels Benchmarking of cost management practices Economic value analysis Value chain analysis Cost reduction using activity-based management Process cost analysis Target costing/Profit planning Transfer pricing analysis Implementing standard cost systems Activity-based budgeting Indirect Services Provided Cost management often works in tandem with other management initiatives, integrating with the other services offered by Business Consulting. Indirectly, cost management supports the following: reengineering of the finance function development of performance measurement systems reengineering using activity-based analysis implementation of improvement programs (TQM, JIT) value engineering Entry Point/Target Buyer CFO; Controller Manufacturing Telecom Utilities Services Healthcare Insurance Grocery (ECR) Engagement Size While some pilot jobs are p