外文翻译--供应链中的战略成本管理-结构性成本管理

中文 3898 字 本科毕业论文外文翻译 供应链中的战略成本管理 -结构性成本管理 院（系、部） 名 称 ： 财经学院 专 业 名 称： 财务会计教育 学 生 姓 名： 学 生 学 号： 指 导 教 师： 1 Strategic Cost Management in Supply Chains Part 1: Structural Cost Management Accounting Horizons: June 2009, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 201-220. Shannon W. Anderson and Henri C. Dekker Abstract: Strategic cost management is the deliberate alignment of a firm’s resources and associated cost structure with long-term strategy and short-term tactics. Although managers continue to pursue efficiency and effectiveness within the firm increasingly, Improvements are obtained across the value chain: through reconfiguring firm boundaries, relocating resources, reengineering processes, and re-evaluating product and service offerings in relation to customer requirements. In this article, we review strategic cost management, especially structural cost management. Structural cost management employs tools of organizational design, product design, and process design to create a supply chain cost structure that is coherent with firm strategy. Key wards: structural cost management； supply chain； competitive Advantage 1 INTRODUCTION The prevalence in the current business press about acquisitions, restructuring, outsourcing, and off shoring indicates the vigor with which firms are engaged in the modern cost management. There’s a shift from prior internal processes for efficiency and effectiveness, firms are attempt to manage costs throughout the value chain. As the value of purchased materials and services as a share of selling price has increased ,firms find themselves managing complex supply chains, that include global suppliers, contract manufacturers, service centers and so on. Firms should pay attention to the value chain, so that they can obtain the room of development. 2 STRATEGIC COST MANAGEMENT Cost management research has tended to fall into two related streams. The first research stream examine whether and how firms configure accounting data to support value chain analysis ； The second research stream attempt to derive the relationship between a firm’s strategy and cost structure. The focus is on the causal relation between activity levels and the resources that are required. These research streams take as given the firm’s strategy and structure and focus on whether accounting records are capable of reflecting or detecting the economics of the chosen strategy. In this review we take Shank’s broader perspective that much of what constitutes strategic cost management is found in choices about organizational strategy and structure. Following Anderson, we define “strategic cost management” as deliberate decision making aimed at aligning the firm’s cost structure with its strategy and with managing the enactment of the strategy. We focus on interactions across firm boundaries； Specially, the buyer/supplier interface, as a source of competitive advantage that can deliver low cost, as well as high productivity, quality, customer responsiveness, and innovation. Shank posited that two types of cost drivers are the basis for strategic cost management: structural cost drivers that reflect organizational structure, investment decisions, and the operating leverage of the firm and executive cost drivers that reflect the efficiency of executing the strategy. Stated differently, structural cost management may be conceived of as a choice among alternative production functions that use different inputs or combinations there of to meet a particular market demand. Executive cost management is concerned instead with whether, for a given production function, the firm is on the efficient 2 frontier. Structural and executive cost management is connected through improvement activities. For example, cost driver analysis is a catalyst for efficiency improvements of existing processes and for reengineering processes to create a different cost structure. Clearly ,cost management is only a part of long term profit maximization. This paper series will not discuss strategic revenue management； however, we acknowledge interdependencies between costs and revenues associated structural cost management and the executive cost management activities of the sustainability of the strategy. Often the greatest opportunities for strategic cost management cross firm boundaries. Shank advocated cost management across the value chain, and other accounting scholars have called for research on how accounting facilitates modern inter-organizational relationships. 3 STRUCTURAL COST MANAGEMENT IN SUPPLY CHAINS Shank argued that structural cost drivers associated with organizational structure, investment decisions, and the operating leverage of the firm. In supply chain management, structural cost management includes the decision to seek an external supplier, selecting one or more external suppliers, and designing the buyer/supplier relationship. These elements of supply chain management are important determinants of cost structure and are central to managing risk in supply relations. Supplier selection processes are akin to personnel controls within the firm that ensure the fitness between employee skills and job requirements. Designing the buyer/supplier relationship encompasses formal contractual management controls such as specifying authority for supply decisions, performance requirements, and rewards or sanctions for nonperformance, as well as formal and informal controls that reinforce desired cultural norms. Although we focus on structural cost management, many of the cost management decisions discussed in this section relate to balancing the “cost of control” against risks of inter-firm transactions. We review research and contemporary practices associated with sourcing decisions, supplier selection in the sections that follow. 4 SOURCING: MAKE； BUY OR ALLY A core component of structural cost management is the decision to execute activities within the firm or to outsource them to another party. The so-called “make-buy-or-ally” decision considers how and where in the value chain firms draw their organizational boundaries and which activities are conducted inside versus outside the firm. Although the buyer and supplier are separate firms, the supply relationship often includes collaboration in the uncertain realm of product and process design. Transaction cost economics is the most widely used framework for explaining firm boundary and organizational design choices. Production costs are defined by production technology and efficiency. A buyer and supplier’s production costs may differ if they use different technology, operate at different scales, or operate with different efficiency A buyer’s cost accounting records may be one basis for comparing the “make” option with prices of external suppliers. Transaction costs concerns about opportunism associated with firm’s transactions. Examples of transaction costs include costs of activities such as searching for partners, negotiating and writing contracts, monitoring and enforcing contract compliance. Transaction costs are not typically accessible and, in the case of opportunity costs, may not even be included in cost accounting records. Consequently, texts typically warn students to consider strategic factors before making a sourcing decision based only on production costs. This is one area where cost management practices, both measurement and analysis, can be improved to better support structural cost management decisions associated with sourcing.