تالار تخصصی حسابداری

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Value Chain and Supply Chain Analysis and Key Success Factors
Customers demand much more than just a fair price; they expect quality products (goods or services) delivered in a timely way. These multiple factors drive how a customer experiences a product and the value or usefulness a customer derives from the product. How then does a company go about creating this value?
Value chain is the sequence of business functions in which customer usefulness is added to products. Exhibit 1-2 shows six primary business functions: research and development, design, production, marketing, distribution, and customer service. We illustrate these business functions using Sony Corporation’s television division.

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 Production—Procuring, transporting and storing (also called inbound logistics),coordinating, and assembling (also called operations) resources to produce a product or deliver a service. Production of a Sony television set includes the procurement and assembly of the electronic parts, the cabinet, and the

Marketing (including sales)—Promoting and selling products or services to customers or prospective customers. Sony markets its televisions at trade shows, via advertisements in newspapers and magazines, on the Internet, and through its sales force.

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Distribution—Processing orders and shipping products or services to customers (also called outbound logistics). Distribution for Sony includes shipping to retail outlets, catalog vendors, direct sales via the Internet, and other channels through which customers purchase televisions.

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 At different times and in different industries, one or more of these functions is more critical than others. For example, a company developing an innovative new product or operating in the pharmaceutical industry, where innovation is the key to profitability, will emphasize R&D and design of products and processes. A company in the consumer goods industry will focus on marketing, distribution, and customer service to build its brand. Exhibit 1-2 depicts the usual order in which different business-function activities physically occur. Do not, however, interpret Exhibit 1-2 as implying that managers should proceed sequentially through the value chain when planning and managing their activities.

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Companies gain (in terms of cost, quality, and the speed with which new products are developed) if two or more of the individual business functions of the value chain work concurrently as a team. For example, inputs into design decisions by production, marketing, distribution, and customer service managers often lead to design choices that reduce total costs of the company. Managers track the costs incurred in each value-chain category. Their goal is to reduce costs and to improve efficiency. Management accounting information helps managers make cost-benefit tradeoffs. For example, is it cheaper to buy products from outside vendors or to do manufacturing in-house? How does investing resources in design and manufacturing reduce costs of marketing and customer service?

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Supply-Chain Analysis
The parts of the value chain associated with producing and delivering a product or service—production and distribution—is referred to as the supply chain. Supply chain describes the flow of goods, services, and information from the initial sources of materials and services to the delivery of products to consumers, regardless of whether those activities occur in the same organization or in other organizations. Consider Coke and Pepsi, for example; many companies play a role in bringing these products to consumers. Exhibit 1-3 presents an overview of the supply chain. Cost management emphasizes integrating and coordinating activities across all companies in the supply chain, to improve performance and reduce costs.
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 Both the Coca-Cola Company and Pepsi Bottling Group require their suppliers (such as plastic and aluminum companies and sugar refiners) to frequently deliver small quantities of materials directly to the production floor to reduce
materials-handling costs. Similarly, to reduce inventory levels in the supply chain,Wal-Mart is asking its suppliers, such as Coca-Cola, to be responsible for and to manage inventory at both the Coca-Cola warehouse and Wal-Mart.
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Key Success Factors
Customers want companies to use the value chain and supply chain to deliver ever improving levels of performance regarding several (or even all) of the following:
_ Cost and efficiency—Companies face continuous pressure to reduce the cost of the products they sell. To calculate and manage the cost of products, managers must first understand the tasks or activities (such as setting up machines or distributing products) that cause costs to arise. They must also monitor the marketplace to determine prices that customers are willing to pay for products or services.
Management accounting information helps managers calculate a target cost for a product by subtracting the operating income per unit of product that the company desires to earn from the “target price.” To achieve the target cost, managers eliminate some activities (such as rework) and reduce the costs of performing activities in all value-chain functions—from initial R&D to customer service.
Increased global competition places ever-increasing pressure on companies to lower costs. Many U.S. companies have cut costs by outsourcing some of their business functions. Nike, for example, has moved its manufacturing operations to China and Mexico. Microsoft and IBM are increasingly doing their software development in Spain, eastern Europe, and India.
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_ Quality—Customers expect high levels of quality. Total quality management (TQM) aims to improve operations throughout the value chain and to deliver products and services that exceed customer expectations. Using TQM, companies design products or services to meet the needs and wants of customers and make these products with zero (or very few) defects and waste, and minimal inventories. Managers use management accounting information to evaluate the costs and revenue benefits of TQM initiatives.
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_ Time—Time has many dimensions. New-product development time is the time it takes for new products to be created and brought to market. The increasing pace of technological innovation has led to shorter product life cycles and more rapid introduction of new products. To make product and design decisions, managers need to understand the costs and benefits of a product over its life cycle.
Customer-response time describes the speed at which an organization responds to customer requests. To increase customer satisfaction, organizations need to reduce delivery time and reliably meet promised delivery dates. The primary cause of delays is bottlenecks that occur when the work to be performed on a machine, for example, exceeds available capacity. To deliver the product on time, managers need
to increase the capacity of the machine to produce more output. Management accounting information helps managers quantify the costs and benefits of relieving bottleneck constraints.
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_ Innovation—A constant flow of innovative products or services is the basis for ongoing
company success. Managers rely on management accounting information to evaluate alternative investment and R&D decisions.