1、 An Analysis of Working Capital Management Results Across Industries Greg Filbeck. Schweser Study Program Thomas M. Krueger. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Abstract Firms are able to reduce financing costs and/or increase the funds available for expansion by minimizing the amount of funds tied up
2、 in current assets. We provide insights into the performance of surveyed firms across key components of working capital management by using the CFO magazines annual Working Capital Management Survey. We discover that significant differences exist between industries in working capital measures across
3、 time. In addition. we discover that these measures for working capital change significantly within industries across time. Introduction The importance of efficient working capital management is indisputable. Working capital is the difference between resources in cash or readily convertible into cas
4、h (Current Assets) and organizational commitments for which cash will soon be required (Current Liabilities). The objective of working capital management is to maintain the optimum balance of each of the working capital components. Business viability relies on the ability to effectively manage recei
5、vables. inventory. and payables. Firms are able to reduce financing costs and/or increase the funds available for expansion by minimizing the amount of funds tied up in current assets. Much managerial effort is expended in bringing non-optimal levels of current assets and liabilities back toward opt
6、imal levels. An optimal level would be one in which a balance is achieved between risk and efficiency. A recent example of business attempting to maximize working capital management is the recurrent attention being given to the application of Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma methodologies help compa
7、nies measure and ensure quality in all areas of the enterprise. When used to identify and rectify discrepancies. inefficiencies and erroneous transactions in the financial supply chain. Six Sigma reduces Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). accelerates the payment cycle. improves customer satisfaction and
8、reduces the necessary amount and cost of working capital needs. There appear to be many success stories. including Jennifer Townes (2002) report of a 15 percent decrease in days that sales are outstanding. resulting in an increased cash flow of approximately $2 million at Thibodaux Regional Medical
9、Center. Furthermore. bad debts declined from $3.4 million to $600.000. However. Waxers (2003) study of multiple firms employing Six Sigma finds that it is really a “get rich slow” technique with a rate of return hovering in the 1.2 4.5 percent range. 1 Even in a business using Six Sigma methodology.
10、 an “optimal” level of working capital management needs to be identified. Even in a business using Six Sigma methodology. an “optimal” level of working capital management needs to be identified. Industry factors may impact firm credit policy. inventory management. and bill-paying activities. Some fi
11、rms may be better suited to minimize receivables and inventory. while others maximize payables. Another aspect of “optimal” is the extent to which poor financial results can be tied to sub-optimal performance. Fortunately. these issues are testable with data published by CFO magazine. which claims t
12、o be the source of “tools and information for the financial executive.” and are the subject of this research. In addition to providing mean and variance values for the working capital measures and the overall metric. two issues will be addressed in this research. One research question is. “are firms
13、 within a particular industry clustered together at consistent levels of working capital measures?” For instance. are firms in one industry able to quickly transfer sales into cash. while firms from another industry tend to have high sales levels for the particular level of inventory . The other res
14、earch question is. “does working capital management performance for firms within a given industry change from year-to-year?” The following section presents a brief literature review. Next. the research method is described. including some information about the annual Working Capital Management Survey
15、 published by CFO magazine. Findings are then presented and conclusions are drawn. Related Literature The importance of working capital management is not new to the finance literature. Over twenty years ago. Largay and Stickney (1980) reported that the then-recent bankruptcy of W.T. Grant. a nationw
16、ide chain of department stores. should have been anticipated because the corporation had been running a deficit cash flow from operations for eight of the last ten years of its corporate life. As part of a study of the Fortune 500s financial management practices. Gilbert and Reichert (1995) find tha
17、t accounts receivable management models are used in 59 percent of these firms to improve working capital projects. while inventory management models were used in 60 percent of the companies. More recently. Farragher. Kleiman and Sahu (1999) find that 55 percent of firms in the S&P Industrial index c
18、omplete some form of a cash flow assessment. but did not present insights regarding accounts receivable and inventory management. or the variations of any current asset accounts or liability accounts across industries. Thus. mixed evidence exists concerning the use of working capital management tech
19、niques. Theoretical determination of optimal trade credit limits are the subject of many articles over the years (e.g. Schwartz 1974； Scherr 1996). with scant attention paid to actual accounts receivable management. Across a limited 2 sample. Weinraub and Visscher (1998) observe a tendency of firms
20、with low levels of current ratios to also have low levels of current liabilities. Simultaneously investigating accounts receivable and payable issues. Hill. Sartoris. and Ferguson (1984) find differences in the way payment dates are defined. Payees define the date of payment as the date payment is r
21、eceived. while payors view payment as the postmark date. Additional WCM insight across firms. industries. and time can add to this body of research. Maness and Zietlow (2002. 51. 496) presents two models of value creation that incorporate effective short-term financial management activities. However
22、. these models are generic models and do not consider unique firm or industry influences. Maness and Zietlow discuss industry influences in a short paragraph that includes the observation that. “An industry a company is located in may have more influence on that companys fortunes than overall GNP” (
23、2002. 507). In fact. a careful review of this 627-page textbook finds only sporadic information on actual firm levels of WCM dimensions. virtually nothing on industry factors except for some boxed items with titles such as. “Should a Retailer Offer an In-House Credit Card” (128) and nothing on WCM s
24、tability over time. This research will attempt to fill this void by investigating patterns related to working capital measures within industries and illustrate differences between industries across time. An extensive survey of library and Internet resources provided very few recent reports about wor
25、king capital management. The most relevant set of articles was Weisel and Bradleys (2003) article on cash flow management and one of inventory control as a result of effective supply chain management by Hadley (2004). Research Method The CFO Rankings The first annual CFO Working Capital Survey. a jo
26、int project with REL Consultancy Group. was published in the June 1997 issue of CFO (Mintz and Lezere 1997). REL is a London. England-based management consulting firm specializing in working capital issues for its global list of clients. The original survey reports several working capital benchmarks
27、 for public companies using data for 1996. Each company is ranked against its peers and also against the entire field of 1.000 companies. REL continues to update the original information on an annual basis. REL uses the “cash flow from operations” value located on firm cash flow statements to estima
28、te cash conversion efficiency (CCE). This value indicates how well a company transforms revenues into cash flow. A “days of working capital” (DWC) value is based on the dollar amount in each of the aggregate. equally-weighted receivables. inventory. and payables accounts. The “days of working capital” (DNC) represents the time period between purchase of inventory on acccount from vendor until the sale to the customer. the collection of the receivables. and payment receipt. Thus. it reflects the companys ability to finance its core operations with vendor credit. A detailed
