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Chapter 3: The Outsourcing of the enterprise activities
and the cost analysis

3.7. Analysis and management of the processes through the Activity Based Costing

The activity based costig a finalized accounting method to the obtaining of the information of cost can be considered based on the activities considered useful to the decisional ends in the management of the processes.
In fact such system would have to supply a support to the analysis of the inner processes through the explicitness of the determining factors, allowing the understanding of the way in which the resources they come consumed in the course of entire the single process.
In the development of the business activities the determining ones of bottom are placed of turn out to you economic, competiti to you and social of the enterprise, company of manifacturing production or company of services is it.
It is considered, in fact, that they are just the various activities that characterize the system company to establish a indissolubile tie between this last and external atmosphere and that they are to the origin of the consumptions, of human, technological resources, material and of know-how, that they determine the business costs.
The development of the activities is, in other words, the reason for which a corporate structure supports of the costs.
In order to obtain and to support a competitive advantage an enterprise must comprise the entire system of distribution of the value, not only that part of chain of which ago part.
The cost is shaped as expression of the value of several the factors employs to you or uses you in the processes and the productive combinations.
The moment of the employment of the resource is represented just from the development of the activity to which it participates. The competitive advantage is understood, therefore, as drift from the several activities, connected distinguibili but, than an enterprise it carries out in order to plan, to produce, to sell, to distribute the own products, that is from its chain of the value.
The activity defined as with of tasks or sets in action elementary, puttinges in action from a company, that it allows the transformation of input predefined in output, which, tying itself between together of activity with common purposes, gives life to the processes.
The obtainable information through the study of the activities and the processes come gradually disaggregate until when it is not thought to have caught up a level of sufficient analiticità to explain in the more opportune way the operation of the company.
The activities to take in consideration, those that in meaningful way can influence the choices of the management, are the support activities are the main activities, in how much all make part of the chain of the value of the company.
In fact, the definition of the activities is independent from the specific organizations, without to forget that to second of the dimension of the company, the activities could be carried out every from operating specialize to you, or from operating generic that of it they carry out more than one. In any case the activities must be carried out in all the companies are of small that of great dimensions; that that it will change will be only the degree of specialization and decisional responsibility.
Once the business activities characterized, become necessary one they aggregation with the directional accounting.
For the determination of the costs he is not sufficient to only analyze the activities, but it is necessary also to identify the transactions carried out from the enterprise that involve a consumption of resources; transactions that are to the base of the indirect costs, whose allocation places as main problem to which making forehead in order to obtain a correct calculation of the product costs.
Some authors as Miller and Vollmman 24 have analyzed the increase of the indirect costs (overhead costs) in relation to the transactions that must be carried out from the enterprises and that, naturally, consume resources.
The authors put in prominence like, in order to control the overhead costs, are necessary to construct a model in which the forces can be put in evidence that are some to the origin. Only controlling the transactions, that is those activities that regard the exchanges of materials, information necessary in order to manage the production, the so-called "hidden factory", are succeeded to control, therefore to reduce the indirect costs.
As an example always the same authors have identified some classes of transactions like:

The increase of the volume of such transactions, on one side determines the increase of the indirect costs and from the other it involves benefits in terms of efficiency, flexibility and competitiveness of the operations.
The possibility of control and cost reduction generates them of production passes therefore through the control of the "political transactions" that generate them opportunely operating externalization of the not ottimizzabili business processes to the inside of the same company.
The activity based costing can to be a valid instrument for the search of those activity that they constitute interferences, disturbing the processes and not adding value. Characterizing activity the added value or not strategic, it's not possible to slim the processes and to render them more fast, snelli and efficient.
Through, therefore, a careful analysis of the activities and the resources consumed is possible to put in action a process of reingegnerization 25 of the organizational structure and to operate in an optical of outsourcing in order reducing lessened the activities that do not bring value.


 


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