The
activity-based system for inclusion in the Budget, adopted by the European Commission in 1991 at the initiative of Commissioners Kinnock and Schreyer (see European Report 2453) was tested for the preparation of the year 2002 and 2003 Budgets but formally applicable only since the advent of the new financial Regulation, for the preparation of 2004 budget now on appraisal.
You will analyze these results to determine how and why costs reported by the
activity-based system differ from the costs reported by the traditional system, and what this difference means for the Bank's business strategy.
The manufacturing portion of such a program might contain an activity-based improvement system and a kaizen costing system.2 The activity-based system provides the measurement system to capture performance improvements and the kaizen costing system provides the incentives and mechanisms to reduce costs.
Articulation of the two activity-based systems occurs when, periodically, the strategic costing system is refreshed to reflect the latest values of the updated standards from the operational improvement system.
ABC can be used to evaluate EDI because an
activity-based system assigns costs to specific products based on the products' use of activities.
Whereas, in an
activity-based system, in addition to a direct labor pool, you might have many other pools.
An
activity-based system can paint a picture of product costs radically different from data generated by traditional systems.
Activity-based systems: Measuring the costs of resource usage.
An Empirical Study of
Activity-Based Systems in Ireland, The Irish Accounting Review, 11(1), 55-61.
Activity-based systems are founded upon the principle that activities consume resources and products consume activities.
When
activity-based systems are designed that purport to achieve both objectives, maximalist systems usually evolve.