Activity Based Management

This book explains the power of using ABM to increase the profitability of your business. It provides step-by-step guidance on basic principles, comparisons between traditional methods, definitions of processes, activities and cost-drivers as well as details of data collection techniques and implementation steps. Through the book's numerous detailed examples a logical picture builds up of how to obtain the benefits that ABM can deliver.

This book applies activity-based costing and activity-based management techniques to health care in a very practical guide that offers health care administrators and students 'hands-on' forms, worksheets, report formats, examples of activity-based costing and activity-based management planning and information, and actual case studies.

A practical, applications-rich guide to this new cost management methodology Implementing Activity-Based MANAGEMENT In Daily Operations John Miller's lucid presentation of the principles and practice of activity-based management and activity-based costing makes this book required reading for all managers, accountants, and financial officers. Now generally recognized as a more accurate method of determining the relative profitability of various business activities, ABM has become a valuable new tool for management decision making. Miller, whose experience includes the implementation of ABM at Fortune 500 companies, provides step-by-step guidance to its use and benefits: Overview of ABM, including basic principles, benefits, uses, various approaches, and implementation models Basic techniques of activity/product costing, with comparisons between traditional methods and ABM Activity analysis—how to define processes, activities, cost-drivers, and goals Data gathering for ABM—collection techniques and interviews Examples of real-life implementation plans and situations, drawn from a variety of organizations Ongoing system requirements, planning, and performance measurement Activity-based management and activity-based costing (ABM/ABC) have brought about a sea change in cost management systems. Growing largely out of the work of the Texas-based Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International (CAM-I), ABC has, according to BusinessWeek, introduced "new rules for cost management as investment justification, product costing, the total life-cycle costs of products, and how to define better measures of manufacturing performance." Since it was first introduced in 1985, ABM/ABC has evolved considerably and has been applied in service companies, utilities, telecommunications, and government agencies. The use of activity-based management techniques has resulted in a much more accurate determination of the relative profitability of various business activities and, therefore, more profitable management decisions. This clearly written, example-rich book shows managers, accountants, and financial officers how to put activity-based accounting into practice as quickly and efficiently as possible. This book includes ABM Best Practices identified by CAM-I and the American Productivity and Quality Center in a recently completed land-mark study. Implementing Activity-Based Management in Daily Operations provides step-by-step guidance on how to implement ABM at the level of daily process operations, and demonstrates, through numerous detailed examples, its benefits for cost management. Applications to a variety of organizations are covered, including service companies, government agencies, and process industries. Practical linkages between ABM/ABC and Total Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering are explained and illustrated. Implementing Activity-Based Man-agement in Daily Operations covers all aspects of ABM, from activity/product costing, through activity analysis and data gathering, to on-going system requirements and full integration. It is designed for all members of an organization involved in reaping the significant benefits of this new cost management methodology.

Proven strategy for reducing production and operating costs while increasing profits As the growth of the Internet shifts power to consumers, the pressure on companies to keep prices low will continue to mount. Increasingly corporations are relying on "margin management" and supply chain management as a means of keeping prices low while raising profits. Activity-based costing and management (ABC/M) data is key to succeeding in both these critical management strategies. This book explains how executives can effectively use the information furnished by cutting-edge ABC/M systems. The author, an acknowledged expert in the field, clearly defines the ABC/M system and explains how to use the information it provides for best results. He provides a rational framework for understanding the fifteen key defining characteristics of ABC/M and arms readers with an ABC/M Readiness Assessment test along with extremely user-friendly exhibits.

"We believe the results of this work deliver up some valuable lessons for any company thinking about ABM, about to start ABM, or recovering from a failure with ABM. . . . We hope our views on the pitfalls that impede successful implementation of ABM help the reader and that by book's end, you'll be as convinced as we are that ABM can be a key weapon in today's international business arena."-from the Preface Now revised and expanded, Activity-Based Management covers the tools and techniques needed to implement ABM as smoothly as possible and use it to its maximum potential over the long-term. Along with revealing case studies from companies across industries, this comprehensive resource includes thirty lessons to be learned in three crucial areas: starting off right, developing the pilot, and moving from pilot to mainstream. Instrumental in decreasing or eliminating misallocation and misinformation, activity-based management (ABM) is a discipline that focuses on the management of activities as the route to improving the value received by the customer and the profit achieved by providing this value. While a host of Fortune 500 and other growth companies are using ABM, not all are doing so with maximum results, demonstrating clearly that proper application requires certain tools and techniques. The fundamentals needed for the effective deployment of ABM are presented and explained in this comprehensive resource, now completely revised and updated. Edited by Steve Player and David E. Keys, with cases written by members of Arthur Andersen's Advanced Cost Management Practice, Activity-Based Management defines what kind of organization should employ ABM, why it should be implemented, and how it can link with other improvement initiatives to enhance a company's management performance. Along with straightforward guidelines on ABM do's, Player and Keys offer important details on the don'ts, highlighting thirty lessons to be learned in three crucial areas: getting off to the right start, developing the pilot, and moving from pilot to mainstream. Covering potential pitfalls, as well as what to do to overcome them, the authors pinpoint such problems as unclear objectives, misallocation of costs, inadequate software, and poor project management. For a frontline perspective, Activity-Based Management features revealing case studies from various corporations. Presenting their experiences with ABM and activity-based costing (ABC), these firsthand accounts examine a wide range of topics, including using storyboarding to develop ABM systems, how to use ABM for profitability, using ABM to support reengineering, and using ABC for target-costing, activity-based budgeting, and benchmarking. In addition, the next wave of tools are examined. These include customer profitability, revenue profitability, performance management systems, target costing, and reporting ABC information. Packed with proven strategies and practical tips, this accessible and exhaustive resource is indispensable reading for anyone looking to implement activity-based management smoothly and successfully. Jacket Design: Andrew Liefer.

Having an accurate assessment of company expenditures is a key to staying in business. Activity-based management (ABM) is the only system that offers the tools to correctly assess the outflow involved in a tightly knit supply chain and enables understanding not only of the total cost of ownership (TCO), but also how these costs should be allocated.

It is clear that our environment is changing, and not for the better. Companies cannot ignore environmental issues anymore. Public awareness is growing, legislation is tightening, and demand for ISO 14000 compliance is rising. For many, however, the field of environmental management (including ISO 14000) is full of unfamiliar terms, high learning curves, unproductive approaches, much frustration, and often little action. If environmental management is to become widely accepted and self-motivated in industry, it must connect to the basic motivators for business: increased competitiveness and profitability. Activity-Based Cost And Environmental Management: A Different Approach to the ISO 14000 Compliance demonstrates how environmental assessment and management can be performed based upon familiar principles: cost accounting and cost management. Specifically, this book describes how the well-established Activity-Based Costing and Management principles can be extended with non-monetary environmental dimensions. The result is a single, integrated framework called Activity-Based Cost and Environmental Management that provides the tools and abilities to do both environmental management and cost management in an integrated manner and according to modern management principles. This integration of economic and environmental dimensions based upon familiar cost accounting and management principles makes it easier for decision-makers to not only include the environment in their decision-making, but also to identify, rank and prioritize opportunities for win-win situations where competitiveness is increased and environmental impact reduced at the same time. In this book, the basic concepts of Activity-Based Cost and Environmental Management are described, as well as how to make your own integrated Activity-Based Cost and Environmental Management implementations and how to get the most out of them using uncertainty distributions, Monte Carlo simulations, and sensitivity charts. Among others, the book includes chapters on environmental management and Activity-Based Costing, as well as several real-life case studies from companies for which the authors implemented Activity-Based Cost and Environmental Management systems.

Corporate Accounting The ABCs of ABM Activity-based management (ABM) has already proven extremely valuable to manufacturers in helping them cut waste, improve quality, reduce cycle times, and get their products to market faster. Now revised and expanded, this indispensable resource illustrates how ABM can be applied to all types of organizations-including service groups, government agencies, and nonprofit entities-and any department within them. Using a variety of examples, authors James A. Brimson and John Antos examine a company structure and break down its separate activities to measure each activity's cost/performance effectiveness. Introducing an innovative five-step approach to calculating activity cost, they provide tangible performance criteria linked to time, value, service, quality, flexibility, cost, and performance-to-schedule, and demonstrate how to use activity analysis to ensure that price structure is reflective of total costs. A vital tool for modern times, this is essential reading for CEOs, operations executives, controllers, managers, and others who are seeking a comprehensive, up-to-date guide on activity-based management and its proper implementation.