Integrated Cost Management

To survive and grow, leading-edge companies throughout the world recognize the need for new management accounting systems suited for today's advanced manufacturing technology. Cross-functionality, for instance, has impacted the measurement systems of corporations and is challenging traditional management accounting structures. Accountants must become interdisciplinary to cope with increasing cross-functionality and their organization's need to be increasingly responsive and flexible.

In Integrated Cost Management Sakurai discusses why certain practices have been chosen by each culture and the future implications of these choices, and he points to emerging needs and changes in the field.

Professor Sakurai clarifies the framework of Integrated Cost Management and then explores in each successive chapter critical issues and specific methods related to factory automation and computer integrated manufacturing. He provides a thorough discussion of target costing, overhead management, activity-based management (ABM), investment justification in computer-integrated management (CIM), and a penetrating study of the cost management of software development. Ample bibliographies accompany each chapter and include references to articles by authors from around the world.

Sakurai's overview allows management to perform a critical analysis of Japanese and American practices to gain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in each nation's concepts and techniques. This mutual inspection lays the foundation for a more sophisticated understanding of the true value management accounting holds in every aspect of your company.