Activity-Based Management

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.Während die Abteilungserfolgsrechnung - eine Form der Kostenrechnung - sich auf die verschiedenen Aktivitäten eines Unternehmens im Geschäftsprozeß bezieht, geht Geschäftsprozeßmanagement einen Schritt weiter. Es gibt dem Management die Mittel an die Hand, unabhängige Aktivitäten in Geschäftsprozessen zu isolieren und zeigt gleichzeitig auf, wie Kosten und Leistung jeder einzelnen Aktivität gemessen und verwaltet werden können. So werden greifbare Erfolgsmaßstäbe aufgestellt und in Beziehung gesetzt zu Zeit, Wert, Qualtität der Dienstleistung, Flexibilität, Kosten und Ergebnisplanung. Mit Hilfe des Geschäftsprozeßmanagements sind Manager in der Lage, Problembereiche zu erkennen, ein höheres Leistungsniveau aufzustellen, Wettbewerbsvorteile zu erzielen und einen Prozeß kontinuierlicher Ergebnisverbesserung in Gang zu setzen.(y05/99) Activity-Based Management and Enterprise Excellence.

The Changing Service Environment.

Activities, Activity Management, and Cost Management.

Why Activities?

Activity Analysis.

Activities of an Enterprise.

Activity Cost.

Calculating an Activity Cost.

Tracing Activity Cost.

Activity Service Cost.

Activity-Based Budgeting.

Activity Management-A Process Approach.

Appendix.

Glossary.

Index. JAMES A. BRIMSON is President of Activity Based Management-International, Inc., an international confederation of consulting, training, and software companies that specialize in activity-based management. He is the author of Activity Accounting: An Activity-Based Costing Approach (Wiley), coauthor of Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting (Wiley), and coeditor of Cost Management for Today's Advanced Manufacturing, The CAM-I Conceptual Design.

JOHN ANTOS is a management consultant specializing in activity-based management. He teaches activity-based management, activity-based budgeting, finance and accounting for non-financial executives, modern cost accounting, as well as other financial courses. He is the coauthor of Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting (Wiley). Activity-Based Management for Service Industries, Government Entities, and Nonprofit Organizations Activity-based management has already proven extremely valuable to manufacturers in helping them to cut waste, improve quality, reduce cycle times, and get their products to market faster. The team that had the first bestselling title on activity-based costing, now looks at activity-based management. Now, Activity-Based Management demonstrates how this innovative form of managerial accounting-which provides an organization with the tools to isolate the separate activities within its business processes and measure the cost and performance of each activity-can be applied to service groups, government agencies, and nonprofit entities. This new management technique will enable organizations to pinpoint problem areas, achieve excellence, and set in motion a process of continuous improvement. This groundbreaking book examines why traditional managerial accounting methods have become obsolete in a new age of advanced technology and information systems. It discusses why they can only treat the symptoms rather than the root causes of problems and why they are incapable of measuring and making visible the actual costs of providing a service-a key to eliminating wasteful activities. Activity-Based Management argues that activities-the basic components of an organization and the building blocks for analyzing costs-must be the backbone of any contemporary managerial system. It reveals how activity management highlights those resources that drive costs, focuses corporate strategy, supports continuous improvement, enhances decision support systems, and ensures that plans are transmitted to a level at which effective remedial actions can be taken. The book introduces a five-step approach to calculating activity cost. It identifies the way an organization uses its resources to accomplish its objectives by eventually pinpointing the actual cost per activity. Armed with this information, readers are ready for the next stage-activity-based budgeting. Here, the book lays out a step-by-step process that helps organizations plan and control their expected activities/business processes in order to derive a cost-effective budget that will meet projected workloads and strategic goals. Readers discover the many advantages of activity-based budgeting over the traditional techniques, including its ability to empower workers, improve business processes on an ongoing basis, and support excellence. The final chapter of Activity-Based Management showcases the value of activity management and budgeting in a number of settings, including insurance, banking, government agencies, hospitals, and a variety of other service organizations. In case after case, readers learn how ABM is already helping organizations to minimize costs, improve quality, and meet their strategic objectives. A vital new tool for modern times, Activity-Based Management is essential reading for CEOs, vice presidents, operations executives, controllers, anyone who budgets, and managers in service organizations, as well as support functions in manufacturing companies. 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.