Cost Accounting Adelaide Brighton Cement - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Questions: 1. Discuss various approaches to performance evaluation and control in various types of organisations. 2. Devise and evaluate simple indicators of performance. 3. Critically evaluate the uses of managerial accounting information for strategic decision making in various business contexts. Answers: Introduction Companys name: The name of the organisation selected to fit the purpose of this report is Adelaide Brighton Cement. Establishment year: The organisation has initiated its journey on 12th December 1982, in which 30 guests have been invited in the opening. Vision and mission: The vision of Adelaide Brighton Cement is to become the highly preferred provider of cement and other mineral products for the staffs of the organisation along with immediate families (Adelaidebrighton.com.au 2017). The mission of Adelaide Brighton Cement is to become the highly preferred provider of cement and other mineral products and in accomplishing financial security and well-being by providing a group of pertinent, competitively priced savings and lending services. Managerial highlights: The managerial highlights of Adelaide Brighton Cement have been represented below in the form of a figure. Figure 1: Managerial highlights of Adelaide Brighton Cement for 2015 and 2016 (Source: Adelaidebrighton.com.au 2017) From the above figure, it is inherent that the net revenue of the organisation has declined in 2016 due to increase in amortisation, depreciation and impairments. Due to this, there is fall in overall net income of the organisation. As a result, the earnings per share have declined in 2016, which has resulted in less distribution of dividend in the same year. Products focused: Adelaide Brighton Cement is a manufacturer of Australia of lime, cement and dry blended products. The distribution and manufacturing facilities of the organisation are in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Fyansford and the Northern Territory. Line function and staff function: In case of Adelaide Brighton Cement, there is installation of a new management team that has helped in redefining the philosophy of the organisation along with a staff policy and customer care. The organisation has reorganised the structures of management and personnel and it has undertaken an intensive management training system along with new recruitment approaches and initiation of staff induction (Bebbington and Larrinaga 2014). In addition, an excellence program has been designed for motivating as well as rewarding staffs along with training in merchandise knowledge to increase the sophistication of the manufacturing sales force. This has helped in increasing the satisfaction level of the customers. Value chain of Adelaide Brighton Cement: The three major value development functions associated with delivering the promises of the organisation are described as follows: In-bound logistics: As Adelaide Brighton Cement is primarily a manufacturer, it produces the products that it sells (Bebbington, Unerman and O'Dwyer 2014). In addition, it controls the network of distribution of its products. Within this function, two important activities are evident that contribute to the firm, which include logistics and procurement. The products of the organisation are transferred directly to the regional or national centre of distribution, in which quality certification is carried out for transporting directly to the stores. Along with this, Adelaide Brighton Cement is involved in owning and operating each truck and centres of distribution associated with the network of distribution. This has placed the organisation in a favourable position in preventing strikes of the workers along with enabling higher control to assure the shipment punctuality (Burritt and Schaltegger 2014). Operations: The operations of Adelaide Brighton Cement are engaged in two major activities, which assure the convenience of the customers and value including quality assessment and inventory management. When the stock arrives at the retail store and placed on display, the constant checks are made in detecting and removing defective products. In addition, minimum presentation level (MPL) is present for each stock keeping unit (SKU). The technology related to sophisticated point of sale helps in tracking the number of SKUs sold for a certain product. If the level of stock goes down the MPL, an order of re-stocking has been dispatched to the centre of distribution (Carmona, Ezzamel and Gutirrez 2016). Finally, the organisation utilises a program of advanced forecasting in anticipating future changes in demand because of environmental factors like economic trends or seasonal changes. Sales and marketing: Organisational dynamism is the primary activity involved in raising sales along with enabling the organisation to compete effectively. Adelaide Brighton Cement holds weekly specials for increasing short-term sales of particular products, in which there is minimisation of the item prices by a greater percent (Christ and Burritt 2015). The sales catalogues are distributed for supplementing this initiative to provide information to the customers. In addition, there is appointment of a special market research team that would help in identifying the changing tastes and preferences of the customers in the market. Process of planning in Adelaide Brighton Cement for three issues: Types of business strategies adopted: The following are the two types of business strategies that Adelaide Brighton Cement has adopted to compete in the Australian manufacturing sector: Growth strategy: In the words of Collier (2015), a growth strategy encompasses the initiation of new products or including new features to the current products. This is necessary for keeping up with the existing level of competition. Adelaide Brighton Cement has adopted a growth strategy in order to find new market for launching its products. For instance, it might discover with the help of market research that the industrial workers like its products. Hence, in addition to selling products in the stores, it packages the same in bigger containers for plant and factory workers. Product differentiation strategy: It has been observed that the organisations often use the strategy of product differentiation when competitive supremacy is obtained like superior quality products or services (Drury 2013). In case of Adelaide Brighton Cement, it has set apart from the rivals with its superior engineering design. With the help of this strategy, the organisation has been able to develop brand loyalty by attracting new customers as well as retaining the existing ones. Positioning of the organisation among other existing competitors and potential rivals: As commented by Fleischman and Parker (2017), market segmentation concentrates on division of a market into segments or groups within diverse wants and needs. The customers within a particular segment of market are identical to each other in terms of wants and needs and varying from the customers in the other segments of the market. The organisations and customers are involved in buying as well as using the products provided in the organisation at any time of the year. Since these products are used at any point of time in a period, the customers might not devote additional time on selecting and contrasting the product quality of the organisation, as these products are easily substitutable (Fullerton, Kennedy and Widener 2013). In addition, with the growing popularity of the online business over the years, Adelaide Brighton Cement has focused on the online B2C market. Finally, the organisation has positioned itself in order to attract the growing market of China. Information needed for manufacturing and/ or selling budgeting: As commented by Holzhacker, Krishnan and Mahlendorf (2015), a manufacturer develops a budget for tracking along with recording the expenditures of a specific product. In order to prepare manufacturing or selling budget, Adelaide Brighton Cement needs the following information: Direct material budget: This budget would take into account the raw materials required for each product, the budgeted initial and closing inventory, costs of raw materials and the number of units to be manufactured. Direct labour budget: This budget calculates the number of labour hours need by multiplying the number of units to be produced through the projected number of hours needed to produce each unit. The overall number of hours required could be multiplied afterwards by the projected hourly labour cost to determine the overall budgeted labour cost (Lavia Lpez and Hiebl 2014). Overhead budget: The budget of overhead divides overhead cost into variable and fixed overheads. The units manufactured are multiplied the variable overhead and then the fixed overhead is added. This overall projected overhead could be utilised to estimate the future production costs. Process of controlling in Adelaide Brighton Cement for three issues: Way of monitoring the manufacturing and/ or selling plans: As pointed out by Moorthy and Yacob (2013), the monitoring and assessment of progress form the basis for continual improvement in a manufacturing organisation. With the help of monitoring, the accuracy of inputs and estimations from the evaluation utilised to ser the strategic direction could be identified. In addition, it is necessary to assure that there is implementation of plan in an effective fashion for aligning productivity and profitability with the predetermined targets after accounting for changes in pasture growth, prices of the market and variable costs (Nielsen, Mitchell and Nrreklit 2015). Ways of implementing balanced scorecard in the performance management system of Adelaide Brighton Cement: The following ways could be adopted on the part of Adelaide Brighton Cement in its performance management system for implementing the balanced scorecard: Firstly, the organisation needs to form a core group comprising of senior executives from each department to be developed with managing director as chairperson and strategy officer as project manager for preparing the detailed plan. Secondly, the firm needs to finalise a strategy map along with placing the same into the perspectives of balanced scorecard for forming the cause-effect association among these strategies. Thirdly, Adelaide Brighton Cement needs to translate the strategy into operational language in the form of strategic measures or key measures of performance for effective interpretation of the employees and executives. Fourthly, the organisation needs to carry out critical evaluation of the current processes and sub-processes, expected output along with identifying the measures of potential performance. After that, these measures need to be evaluated for assessing the impact or association with knowledge performance management in balanced scorecard approach. Fifthly, after the preparation of the departmental balanced scorecards, the individual scorecards of the executives in every department are to be developed with individual activities. Sixthly, gap analysis needs to be conducted, in which various gaps could be evaluated like gap over standard, gap over internal best performance, gap over benchmark, gap over customer needs along with stretching the target around these gaps. Finally, the organisation needs to review the implementation process so that corrective actions could be taken, if any discrepancy is found. Two situations in which decision-making is presented in Adelaide Brighton Cement: The two situations in which decision-making are presented in the organisation are discussed briefly as follows: The organisation produces products directly and hence, it undertakes make decision. In order to make products, it includes expenditures associated with the purchase and maintenance of product equipment and the cost of materials of production. Additional costs include the extra labour needed to produce items and storage needs (Rieckhof, Bergmann and Guenther 2015). Adelaide Brighton Cement is involved in making global expansion. In order to expand globally, the organisation conducts adequate market research and uses the local knowledge to know about the foreign market trends along with changes in the tastes and preferences of the customers (Smith 2017). Summary of interested findings and any recommendation/ prediction: Three significant points of discussion in the report: The major three significant discussion points identified from the report are described as follows: Adelaide Brighton Cement controls the network of distribution of its products. Within this function, two important activities are evident that contribute to the firm, which include logistics and procurement. With the help of monitoring, the accuracy of inputs and estimations from the evaluation utilised to ser the strategic direction could be identified. The organisation produces products directly and hence, it undertakes make decision. In order to make products, it includes expenditures associated with the purchase and maintenance of product equipment and the cost of materials of production. Recommendation or forecast of Adelaide Brighton Cement: The following recommendations could be extremely beneficial for Adelaide Brighton Cement: The organisation needs to modify its product lines in the Australian market in order to cope up with the falling demand and declining revenues. It needs to find new suppliers in the market for obtaining basic raw materials at cheaper cost while ensuring superior quality. The organisation needs to penetrate deeper into the emerging Asian markets like China, as the potential for success is increasing in these markets. References: Adelaidebrighton.com.au. (2017).Adelaide Brighton Cement. [online] Adelaide Brighton Cement. Available at: https://www.adelaidebrighton.com.au/ [Accessed 11 Sep. 2017]. Bebbington, J. and Larrinaga, C., 2014. Accounting and sustainable development: An exploration.Accounting, Organizations and Society,39(6), pp.395-413. Bebbington, J., Unerman, J. and O'Dwyer, B. eds., 2014.Sustainability accounting and accountability. 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