Designing Cost Management Systems to Support Business Decision-Making

This book illustrates the importance effective cost management systems inproviding a supportive environment in which reliable and relevant managementinformation can be generated. Such a cost management system is only attainableif the importance of key business, operational and stakeholder requirements arerecognised within the organisational context. In illustrating this importance, thisbook provides several case studies as examples thereof. The first two case studiesfocus on the engineering sector and illustrates the development of a costmanagement system in a water recycling context; and the design of a budgetarysystem in a mining engineering context. The remaining case studies focus on theservices sector, including cost management systems for a digital technologyservices provider and a medical insurance services provider; an alternativeactivity-based costing approach for a public sector services provider; and finallya re-designed value stream for an automotive services provider. Academicresearchers and industry managers in the fields of management accounting andfinancial management, as well as engineering and operations management, willfind value in the experiences described herein.