Review Exercise 5-24. Discuss the key issues facing Laurent and why you might suggest they choose to investigate implementing an ABC system.
1. What is Laurent's Competitive Strategy?
2. What are the implications of the marketing initiatives undertaken by Laurent?
3. Is increased product variety an argument to consider ABC?
4. How difficult might it be to convince management?
Role of Activity-Based Costing in Implementing
Strategy Laurent Products is a manufacturer of plastic
packaging products with plants located throughout Europe and
customers worldwide. During the past 10 years Laurent Products has
successfully developed a line of packaging materials and a unique
bagging system that present an important opportunity to increase
the productivity of checkout counters in grocery stores. The
plastic bags manufactured by Laurent are produced in several sizes
and different plastic film colors and may have attractive
multicolor printed designs on one or both sides to meet the
specification of a particular grocery store. The advantages
provided by the Laurent bagging system include the lower cost of
bags and labor at the checkout counter as well as improved customer
service. The system has contributed to significant growth in
Laurent’s sales in recent years.
Laurent’s success in the grocery chain market has attracted an
increasing number of competitors into the market. While the company
has been very successful in bringing out a series of new product
types with innovative labor-saving features for the grocery stores,
Laurent’s competitors have eventually been able to develop quite
similar products. The result has been increased competition with a
substantial reduction in Laurent’s prices.
As a result of the increased competition in the grocery chain
market, Laurent is planning to begin to focus on the small
independent grocery stores that purchase bags from large wholesale
distributors. The potential sales for this wholesaler segment is
about the same size as the grocery chain market but includes a much
larger number of independent store customers.
Page 163Investments in manufacturing equipment in recent years have
been to support two principal objectives: to increase capacity and
to reduce costs. The cost reduction initiatives principally
concerned material costs and reduced processing times. Over the
years, Laurent has chosen to invest in machines that are similar to
existing equipment in order to capitalize on the fact that the
process is relatively simple and that products can, with relatively
few exceptions, be processed on any machine in the plant. The only
major restriction is the number of colors that a machine can
accommodate on a single pass. Future investment proposals now being
considered are based on this rationale.
Answer to the Question No. 1.
Due to the increased competition in the grocery chain market, Laurent is planning to begin to focus on the small independent grocery stores that purchase bags from large wholesale distributors. The potential sales for this wholesaler segment is about the same size as the grocery chain market but includes a much larger number of independent store customers.
Answer to the Question No. 2.
The implications of the marketing initiatives undertaken by Laurent are include the lower cost of bags and labor at the checkout counter as well as improved customer service. The system has contributed to significant growth in Laurent’s sales in recent years.
Answer to the Question No. 3.
The activity-based costing (ABC) system is a method of accounting you can use to find the total cost of activities necessary to make a product. The ABC system assigns costs to each activity that goes into production. Thus in case of increase in number of products, it is better to understand the costing of each product separately under ABC system.
Answer to the Question No. 4.
It is sometimes difficult to convince the management due to their habitual nature to use traditional system of costing.
No one is in ease to opt for new system of working instead of old one which was in use by them for the same task.
There are difficulties hindering the application of ABC system in companies such as the difficulty of the division of business undertaken by the company to the activities of clear and specific, the lack of scientific qualifications and professional capable of implementing ABC system.
Review Exercise 5-24. Discuss the key issues facing Laurent and why you might suggest they choose...
Review Exercise 5-24. Discuss the key issues facing Laurent and why you might suggest they choose to investigate implementing an ABC system. 1. What is Laurent's Competitive Strategy? 2. What are the implications of the marketing initiatives undertaken by Laurent? 3. Is increased product variety an argument to consider ABC? 4. How difficult might it be to convince management? Role of Activity-Based Costing in Implementing Strategy Laurent Products is a manufacturer of plastic packaging products with plants located throughout Europe...
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