The seminar covers 8 main areas:

1. Activity-based costing – activities drive resources, resources drive costs
2. Customer Profitability Analysis – always emphasise the customer!
3. Target Costing (TC) – aim straight at the customer
4. Total Life Cycle Costing (TLCC) – ALL costs must be recovered
5. Throughput Accounting (TA) – profit taken only when profit is made!
6. Value Chain Analysis (VCA) – activities that are discrete yet unified
7. Strategic analytical models – Where are we, and where should we go?
8. Corporate performance management – tracking success

The approach taken in the seminar will be practical as well as conceptual, qualitative and quantitative, and strategic more than tactical. The intention is that you’ll be able to apply conceptual principles to practical situations at your workplace. The seminar will incorporate various solved examples and case studies with step-by-step guidelines at appropriate intervals so that you get an opportunity to integrate practice and theory with ample chance to discuss various issues aired during the seminar. We want you to be able to apply your new knowledge from Day 1 back at work!

You’ll gain an insight of:

• Modern cost accounting techniques, such as activity-based product and customer profitability models, and how they can assist your organisation to make important cost-based decisions;
• Target costing - how to do it, what your benefits are, and ways your organisation can float its costs and close ‘cost gaps’;
• Total Life Cycle Costing (TLCC) and how to make all your product or service costs transparent so you can plan, monitor and control them over time.
• Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Throughput Accounting (TA) and ways you can reduce your inventory (other than just-in- time) and maximise your efficiency and your profit levels.
• Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and 5 powerful ways it can give your organisation competitive advantage.
• The application of mainstream business strategic models and how to analyse your organisation’s position and uncover a future product-market action-line.
• How your organisation can track its strategic progress.

Is this the course for you? Click here and take our little test to find out...

• CFOs, controllers, directors, or managers of finance.
• Cost and management accounting professionals.
• Accounting managers, financial planners, internal auditors, plant managers and systems analysts.
• Past attendees of Tony Surridge’s ‘Cost Planning and Control – Methods and Techniques’ seminar.
• For those managers, executives or personnel promoted or recruited to the area of cost and management accounting needing to gain knowledge of the work involved.

Topic 1: Activity-based costing – activities drive resources, resources drive costs

Value-chain analysis – the idea of sequential activities.
The theory of Activity-Based-Costing (ABC).
Definition of ‘process’ as used in ABC – the 5 characteristics of a modern process.
Traditional versus ABC – a focus on ‘what’ rather than ‘where’.
The 8 steps of ABC – a simple process for loading product costs.
Activity, resource, drivers, consumption rates – and all that!
What drives the cost drivers? – How to decide the basis of resource usage.
8 benefits of ABC – what it tells management.
Problems with ABC – know its pitfalls.
Using ABC as a forecasting tool – the use of Activity Based Budgeting (ABB).
Re-engineering for Activity Based Management (ABM).

Topic 2: Customer Profitability Analysis – always, always emphasise the customer!

Concept of Profit Profitability Analysis (PPA) – an internal focus.
Concept of Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA) – an external orientation.
Integrating the two models as a Direct Product Profitability’ model – forming an analytical ‘box’.
World Class Manufacturing (WCM) and customer empowerment – the 4 vital competitive needs.
Conventional treatments of ‘after-production’ costs – the dangerous implications for management.
Developing the CPA model.
Sources of data required for CPA.
Applications for CPA:
- customer-mix decision
- throughput capacity decision
Other decisions related to CPA:
- customer continuance
- product continuance
- selection of down-stream intermediaries
- down-stream ‘do’ or ‘outsource’.
 

Topic 3: Target Costing (TC) – aim straight at the customer

Traditional cost-based pricing strategies – But where is the customer?
Target costing defined.
Short-run implications of target costing – one-off contract and annual budget round.
Strategic implications of target costing – particularly new product development.
Concept of ‘floating costs’.
6 powerful ways to reduce costs – sometimes there is a need to achieve the ‘impossible’!
Target costing … lean manufacturing … Theory of Constraints TOC) – A nice fit!
Limiting factor defined.
Application of ‘limiting factor analysis’ as an integral part of target costing – don’t forget the Theory of Constraints.
The part played by market research in the target costing model – the customer drives the model.
The need for competitor surveying.
Developing standards using target costing and ‘limiting factor analysis‘.
 

Topic 4 : Total Life Cycle Costing (TLCC) – ALL costs must be recovered

Traditional approaches to product costs – and their obvious out-datedness.
Definition and aim of TLCC – it makes sense.
Concept of total-life-cycle analysis – ‘cradle-to-grave’ – even beyond!
Informational needs of TLCC – the 4 main stages.
Developing a powerful TLCC model – making sure that nothing is left out.
Integrating – TLCC + ABC + target costing – for competitive advantage.
7 important benefits of TLCC.
 

Topic 5: Throughput Accounting (TA) – profit taken only when profit made

Traditional profitability assessment – uncovering its weaknesses.
Theory Of Constraints (TOC) – revisited.
Point at which profit is accredited – an essential principle.
3 vital steps in managing the bottleneck constraint – it’s the bottleneck that limits profit.
2 essential measures of throughput efficiency – tracking the performance of throughput management.
5 powerful benefits of TA.
 

Topic 6: Value Chain Analysis (VCA) – activities that are discrete yet unified

Concept of value chain – another look.
5 important applications for value chain analysis – internal and external uses.
“Push” and “Pull” value chains – the impact of e-business ‘supply-chain management’.
3 levels of process development – drilling down.
Activity-based cost analysis – 4 vital aspects.
Rationale of value-chain analysis – 6 strong benefits.
 

Topic 7: Strategic analytical models – Where are we, and where should we go?

PESTEL analysis – keep in touch with the ‘uncontrollables’.
SWOT and TOWS – “what” and “how”.
Stakeholder analysis – the 3 vital dimensions.
Strategic Group Analysis (SGA) – ‘it’s cold outside!’
Ansoff’s ‘Product-Market Growth Vector Matrix’ – 4 pathways is not enough, 7 is better.
Directional Policy Matrix - also a neat way of quantifying your SWOTs!
Gap analysis – the proactive continuous approach.
Marketing Mix analysis – 4 P’s is old-hat, add another 3.
7-S analysis – an internal self-check.
 

Topic 8: Corporate performance management – tracking success

Hierarchy of objectives – from ”vision” to “action”.
Critical Success Factors (CSFs) – resources, capability and competence.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – keeping your eye on the ball.
Balanced scorecard – Generation 2.
the 5 vital non-financial performance indicators.