Activity-Based Management: Key to True Business Efficiency

Both ABC and ABM are management tools that help in managing operational activities to improve the performance of a business entity or an entire organization. Implementing ABM can lead to substantial benefits, helping organizations to adjust processes and improve resource management effectively. This management method has proved its value in reducing wastage, improving the (process) quality, shortening of lead times and introducing new products faster. Reducing the time spent between value-added activities reduces cost of idle time. The value chain is a linked set of value-creating activities leading from raw material sources to the ultimate end use of the goods or services produced. Value chain analysis is an ongoing process in which activities are constantly being classified, eliminated and improved.

Resource Intensive

It is usually not possible to eliminate these activities but it is often possible to minimise them. Complaints handling is not value adding as it results from failure to meet the service standards expected (and so is already included in the price paid). ABM analyzes the costs of employees, equipment, facilities, distribution, overhead, and other factors in business to determine and allocate activity costs. Activity-based costing establishes relationships between overhead costs and activities so that costs can be more precisely allocated to products, services, or customer segments.

  • ABC information is extremely helpful in the strategic analysis of areas such as process and plant layout redesign, pricing, customer values, sourcing, evaluation of competitive position, and product strategy.
  • It aims to increase profits by reducing the cost of the activities that it already performs.
  • Understanding what influences costs is essential for sound financial decision-making.
  • Primary activities contribute directly to the providing of the final product or service.
  • In addition, ABM emphasizes the importance of understanding the costs of individual activities and how they contribute to the overall cost of the organization’s products or services.

Analisis Biaya Produksi dengan Pendekatan ABC (Activity Based Costing) di PT Guna Kemas Indah

Optimizing activities ensures faster delivery times, higher quality products, and better overall customer experiences. By identifying and addressing inefficiencies, ABM helps streamline processes and reduce waste. By looking at all of these different activities, management can decide what parts of production or what activities need to be improved. Businesses need to calculate the cost of each activity by involving all the direct and indirect costs related to the activity.

  • The goal of ABM is to minimize or eliminate non-value-added activities while optimizing value-added ones.
  • Through these improvements, the company can reduce its production costs, increase the value of its products, and allocate resources to more valuable activities.
  • This technique involves visualizing a process to identify areas where improvements can be made, such as eliminating bottlenecks or reducing cycle time.
  • The benefits of ABM (and ABC) are greatest in organisations that have high indirect costs.
  • ABM assists management through detailed activity analysis, which helps them make effective decisions.
  • Activity-based management (ABM) is a procedure used by businesses to analyze the profitability of every segment of their company, enabling them to identify problem areas and areas of particular strength.

Executional cost drivers relate to daily operations, such as workforce efficiency or equipment maintenance. Activity-based costing can be considered an offshoot of activity-based management. Understanding the Activity-Based Management (ABM) technique involves looking at specific processes to optimize organizational efficiency. This strategy allocates costs to activities based on their actual consumption of resources, offering valuable insights for strategic decision-making.

Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management:

By implementing ABM, organizations can better understand their cost structure and make more informed decisions about allocating resources. This can lead to increased efficiency, improved profitability, and better customer satisfaction. ABM is commonly used in manufacturing, healthcare, and service industries but can be applied to any organization that wants to improve its operations. By regularly revisiting activity costs and performance metrics, companies maintain a dynamic approach to process optimization.

activity-based management

#6 – Cost-Benefit Analysis

activity-based management

Considering the benefits of ABM, companies should adopt the following measures to ensure success. Finally, eliminate non-profitable actions and allocate resources to maximize profitability. By adopting such strategies, companies can ensure effective ABM implementation and maximize benefits. ABM implementation provides several benefits, and it is essential to remember some pivotal details.

Cost Driver Categorization

Understanding what influences costs is essential for sound financial decision-making. Categorizing these drivers helps pinpoint cost variations and develop strategies to manage them. «Activity-based management (ABM) can be defined as the entire set of actions that can be taken on a better informed basis using ABC information. The aim is to achieve the same level of output with lower costs.» In Hometown, there are several providers of electricity, and domestic consumers can easily switch from one provider to another.One of the providers of electricity is First Electric. The company recently had an aggressive advertising campaign and increased its customer base from 30,000 users to 40,000. Many business improvement projects activity-based management may require considerable capital expenditure, and it will be necessary therefore to do a cost benefit analysis to establish whether it is worthwhile going ahead.

By mastering ABM, businesses can position themselves for success in an increasingly competitive landscape. Activity-based management is defined as 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. ABM includes cost driver analysis, activity analysis, and performance measurement, drawing on ABC as its major source of data. Activity-based costing is defined as a methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost objects.

Activity-based costing

It might be argued for example that setting up the machines is a non-value added activity, as customers do not value it. Instead, Kaplan and Cooper suggest discussing how efficient an activity currently is, and therefore how much opportunity there is for improvement. In ABM however, it is recognised that the cost of a particular activity may depend on something other than volume of output.

ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING

ABM implementation is not only restricted to cost analysis but also helps identify process inefficiencies for better utilization of resources. It identifies tasks that slow down work processes and helps guide decision-making processes towards higher productivity levels. Additionally, ABM analysis can prioritize activities that impact critical success factors, leading to enhanced performance metrics such as robustness and reliability. Notably, ABM is not a one-time implementation, but rather an ongoing process that organizations must constantly be engaged in to derive maximum benefits. With the right tools, resources, and processes, ABM can support organizations as they strive to achieve their strategic objectives and optimize their operations.

In other or­ganisations such as government departments, hospitals, universities, colleges, fast-food restaurants, utilities one may find a large number of non-value added activities. Exhibit 17.4 compares the characteristics of functional-based and activity-based management. ABM models also provide information about cost incurred on the various activities, so it is easier to monitor how much the costs of an activity have been cut by a particular project. Some organisations may try to define only high-level activities to keep the number of activities defined to less than 30, while other organisations may define much more detailed activity lists. In addition to improving profitability and the overall financial strength of a company, the results of an ABM analysis can help that company produce more accurate budgets and long-term financial forecasts. Dismissing the approach may result in losing an edge and failing to exploit strategic opportunities fully.

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