Barriers to successful implementation of ABC for continuous improvement: a case study
Waeytens, Dominique Bruggeman, Werner
Waeytens, Dominique
Bruggeman, Werner
Citations
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Publication Type
Journal article
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
1994
Journal
International Journal of Production Economics
Book
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
36
Publication Begin page
39
Publication End page
52
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
Continuous improvement is the process of gradually working toward the achievement and sustainment of competitive advantage. Activity-based costing (ABC) has been suggested as an appropriate tool for guiding and directing the process of improvement through the use of activity based management (ABM). Several case studies have been described demonstrating the use of ABC and ABM in this process of continuous improvement. However, not much has been said about unsuccessful implementations of ABC and ABM. It is believed that much can be learned by analyzing cases in which the use of ABC failed or turned out to be ineffective. Therefore, a case study that is a description of a company in which the ABC information could not be used in a way to yield continuous improvement is presented. The barriers to a successful implementation of ABC for continuous improvement in this company are analyzed.