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Strategic Cost Management in Supply Chains
Part 1: Structural Cost Management
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; su pply cha in; 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 ; T he 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 perspect ive that much of what constitutes strategic cost management is found in choices about organizational strategy and structure. Following Anderson, we define “strategic cost ma
nagement” 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 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 managem
ent activities of the sustainability of the strategy. Often the greatest o pportunities 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 th
e “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 di ffer 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 enf
orcing 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.
5 INTERDEPENDENCE IN SUPPLY CHAINS
Although we discuss the sourcing decision as a logical “starting point” in supply chain management, in reality this element of structural cost management is intertwined with other elements of strategic cost management. For example, in TCE theory, sourcing decisions are posited to reflect the minimization of anti cipated exchange hazards. The potential transaction partners are important predictors of exchange hazards. However, in complex supply chains in which many suppliers contribute to the completed product, product architecture is also a key determinant of sourcing decisions. The “partnership” strategies in supply chains depend critically on using criteria other than price in supplier selection. Thus, structural cost management decisions associated with sourcing are intertwined with structural cost management practices in supplier selection .
6 THE SUPPLY CHAINS AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADV ANTAGE
TCE, with its underlying performance risk and relational risk, focuses on potential downsides of cooperation. Another school of thought, the resource-based view  RBV of the firm, focuses on the upside of cooperation. The RBV implicates inter-firm cooperation in the realization of strategic advantage, with firm boundaries resulting from managers’ dynamic search for opportunities to deploy valuable, scarce, inimitable resources to obtain abnormal returns. The basis for exchange in alliances can be financial, technological, physical, or managerial resources. Studies applying the RBV to explain firm boundaries emphasize the inimitable value of collaborative partnerships.
While the perspectives of TCE and risk management differ from the RBV, both assume that firm choices are motivated by the goal of maximizing long-run performance. Whereas TCE focuses on minimizing transaction costs at a given time, the RBV emphasizes the illiquidity and immobility of valuable resources. This approach admits the possibility that transacting with external parties dynamically changes the resources and capabilities that will be available in future periods. Together these frameworks point to important areas for growth in management accounting, Specifically, TCE and risk management indicate the importance of measuring risk in supply relationships and formally integrating risk assessments into the make, buy, or ally decision. The RBV indicates the importanc e of the emerging area of accounting for human capital and other firm capabilities and intangible assets whose value changes through exchange with strategic supply partners.
resources翻译7 TRENDS IN SUPPLY CHAIN GROWTH
Recent years have shown tremendous growth in the use of the ally mode across different industries. In manufacturing, over the past 50 years the value of purchased materials and services has grown from 20 percent to 56 percent of the selling price of finished goods. AMR Researchfind
that the typical U.S. manufacturer manages over 30 contract relationships. In 2006, the worldwide market for supply chain management software, growing at an annual rate of 8.6 percent, topped $6 billion. The global IT outsourcing market was expected to grow to almost triple that size. Growth in use of collaboration is found in firms of different sizes and from different industries. for instance, report that almost 80percent of small to large Dutch firms are involved in enduring forms of interfirm cooperation,typically managing multiple partners at the same time. The largest proportion constituted outsourcing relations, a frequency that appears to follow from its potential to generate cost reductions and increased flexibility, including the opportunity to convert fixed costs into variable costs and to benefit from economies of scale and scope.In sum, sourcing decisions are critical to structural cost management in supply chains; how-ever, there is little evidence that cost accountants have extended their expertise to include all relevant costs. Moreover, although risk management is becoming more common and supply chain risk is foremost among the risks that firms seek to control,accountants are p
rimarily involved with controlling and mitigating risk.
8 SUPPLIER SELECTION
The search process of finding a supply partner is itself costly, entailing as it does identifying alternatives, evaluating supplier capabilities, and managing the final selection process. Although TCE suggests that supplier selection is a cost-minimizing choice, the RBV identifies a broader set of decision criteria. In particular, selecting suppliers with capabilities and resources that match the buyer’s needs is critical to supply chain performance and coordination. Key capabilities that have been shown to directly impact performance include inventory management, production planning and control, cash flow requirements, and product/service quality. Das and Teng defined financial resources, technological, physical, and managerial resources as the basis for alliance activity. Prior s tudies find that the criteria used for supplier selection typically reflect the specific resources and competencies that are desired in potential partners. Examples include competitive pricing, supplier reliability, service support, and capabilities that may have a long-term contribution to buyers’ competitive advantage. The selection criteria can include “hard,” quantitative measures of performance; however, frequently they are complemented with “soft” measures that capture qualitative aspects of the desired relationship with the supplier.
The success of buyer/supplier relation-ships characterized as “partnerships” is related to the buyer’s use of criteria other than price in selecting suppliers. As in the decision to outsource, the recognition of risks can be essential in supplier selection processes. Relational risks, performance risks, and their associated costs are avoided when suppliers are selected based on evidence of trustworthiness and competence. Accordingly, the selection process and selection criteria should reflect both the type of supplier resources and competencies needed, and the anticipated risks of the relationship. These factors also link the sourcing decision and supplier.
CONCLUSION
Increasingly, business strategy focuses on reexamining the b oundaries of the firm—on establishing appropriate boundaries, identifying supply chain partners with whom to co-design efficient,effective products and processes, and managing transactions with these partners to deliver profit s to all value chain participants.
Article source：
2009 Accounting Horizons V ol.23.

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