Value chain analysis as a cost-cutting tool. Strategic cost chain analysis. Main activities

2.1 Concept of costs

Each enterprise, a firm, before starting to manufacture products, determines how much profit, what income it can get. The profit of an enterprise, a firm depends on two indicators:

product prices and production costs. The price of products on the market is a consequence of the interaction of supply and demand. Under the influence of the laws of market pricing in conditions of free competition, the price of products cannot be higher or lower at the request of the manufacturer or the buyer, it is automatically equalized. Another thing is the cost of production factors used for production and sales activities, called "production costs". They can increase or decrease depending on the amount of labor or material resources, the level of technology, the organization of production and other factors. Consequently, the manufacturer has a variety of cost-saving levers that can be put into action with skillful leadership. What is meant by production costs, profits and gross income?

V general view production and sales costs (the cost of products, works, services) represent a cost estimate of the products (works, services) used in the production process natural resources, raw materials, materials, fuel, energy, fixed assets, labor resources, as well as other costs for its production and sale.

The costs of production and sales of products include:

costs associated with the direct production of products due to technology and organization of production;

using natural raw materials;

preparation and mastering of production;

improving the technology and organization of production, as well as improving the quality of products, increasing its reliability, durability and other operational properties (non-capital costs);

invention and rationalization, conducting experimental work, manufacturing and testing models and samples, payment of royalties, etc .;

service production process: providing production with raw materials, materials, fuel, energy, tools and other means and objects of labor, maintaining basic production assets in working order, meeting sanitary and hygienic requirements;

ensuring normal working conditions and safety measures;

production management: the maintenance of employees of the management apparatus of the enterprise, firm and their structural units, business trips, maintenance and maintenance of technical means of management, payment for consulting, information and audit services, entertainment expenses related to commercial activities enterprises, firms, etc .;

training and retraining of personnel;

deduction for state and non-state social insurance and pension provision, to the State Employment Fund;

deduction for compulsory health insurance, etc.

The specific composition of costs that can be attributed to production costs are regulated by law in almost all countries. This is due to the peculiarities of the tax system and the need to distinguish between the costs of the firm by the sources of their reimbursement (included in the cost of production and, therefore, reimbursed at the expense of prices for it and reimbursed from the profit remaining at the disposal of the firm after taxes and other mandatory payments).

In Russia, there is a decree on the composition of costs for the production and sale of products (works, services) included in their cost, and on the procedure for forming financial results taken into account when taxing profits.

There are two approaches to cost estimation: accounting and economic. Both accountants and economists agree that the costs of a firm in any given period are equal to the value of the resources used to produce the goods and services sold during that period. In the financial statements of the company, the actual ("explicit") costs are recorded, which represent the monetary costs of paying for the used production resources (raw materials, materials, depreciation, labor, etc.). However, economists, in addition to explicit, take into account and "implicit" costs. Let us explain this with the following example.

Suppose that in the production of products the firm invests the borrowed capital, which it took from the bank; then the costs would also include funds for repayment of the bank interest. Therefore, provided that the attracted capital is invested, it is necessary to exclude implicit costs in the amount of bank interest from the firm's income.

However, even the concept of "implicit costs" does not give a complete picture of the true costs of production. This is because of the many possible options use of resources we make one definite choice, the uniqueness of which is forced by the limited resources.

So, for example, getting carried away by TV, you miss the opportunity to read a book, having entered the institute, we lose the opportunity to receive a salary if we were engaged in this or that job.

Therefore, making this or that production decision and assessing the actual costs, economists regard them as costs of missed (lost) opportunities.

Under the "costs of lost opportunities" understand the costs and loss of income that arise when choosing one of the options for production or sales activities, which means rejection of other possible options.

Analysis of planning and accounting for logistic products on the example of LLC "Logistic"

In general terms, costs are monetary costs associated with spending different types economic resources in the supply of raw materials, materials, components; production ...

By economic elements, the costs are divided into: wages fund, deductions for social needs, depreciation (the share of the cost attributed to the cost of production in the reporting period), material and other costs ...

Logistic concepts of Tolmachevo Catering LLC work

transport logistics consumer goods The main task facing logistics is to reduce costs associated with bringing the material flow from the primary source of raw materials to the final consumer ...

Marketing research for the production and sale of services of the mobile operator "Beeline"

The estimates of any enterprise can be constant and variable. "Beeline" costs for the sale of SIM cards include material costs, labor costs, depreciation and other costs ...

Marketing research of the implementation of digital cameras

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Models of formation of costs in management accounting

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General Competition Strategies

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Optimization of costs in the process of purchasing goods for industrial purposes

3. consideration of cost savings in the procurement process. 1. Theoretical basis reducing costs in the process of purchasing goods 1 ...

Organization and technology of trade in the trade and production communal unitary enterprise "Slutsktorg"

Next, we will analyze the structure of expenses for the sale of goods of the Slutsktorg Municipal Unitary Enterprise for 2007-2008. (table 3.6.1). Table 3.6.1. Analysis of the structure of expenses for the sale of goods of the Slutsktorg Municipal Unitary Enterprise for 2007-2008 ....

Development of a marketing complex for a product

Regardless of how product prices are formed, some general economic criteria are taken into account, which determine the deviation of the price level up or down from the consumer value of the product ...

The role of logistics in enhancing the competitiveness of structures

The first and most important stage of the program is to reduce costs to an effective level. It was important to establish the service process and the corresponding control mechanisms in this way ...

The Role of Marketing in the Pricing Process

Typically, demand determines the maximum price that a company can charge for its product, while the minimum price is set by the costs of the company. The firm seeks to set such a price ...

Price policy enterprise (firm) and its goals

Pricing in various types of markets, setting pricing objectives

Costs are usually divided into two types: fixed and variable. Fixed (overhead) - costs, the size of which does not depend on the usual fluctuations in the volume of output and revenue from turnover. So, the company must pay monthly rent for the premises ...

Ushanov I.G.
Samara State University of Ways of Communication, Samara
The main difference between traditional management accounting and strategic accounting, as you know, is the fact that the former focuses on the consideration of the main processes occurring in the company (such as purchases, production cycles of production of products, relationships with customers), only in that part of them that is carried out directly within the organization. In other words, traditional management accounting covers a set of processes from the moment of making payments to suppliers for the supplied raw materials to receiving payment for the supplied products from customers. From the point of view of the cost approach, within this set of processes, there are several stages of adding value, limited by the internal environment of the enterprise. Value added in this case should be understood as the difference between the total revenue from the sale of manufactured products and the cost of intermediate products obtained at various stages of the end-to-end business process enterprises. The added value includes all internal costs of the organization, incl. cost of raw materials and supplies paid to employees wages, depreciation, rent, and profit. The main goal of the organization, respectively, is to bring the difference between the cost of resources spent on production and the sale of manufactured products to the maximum, i.e. maximizing added value.
However, from the standpoint of strategic management accounting as a system of information support for strategic decision-making, the concept of added value contains a number of disadvantages that limit the possibility of its application in strategic objectives... These disadvantages can be simplified as follows: the area of ​​application of this concept begins too late and ends too early. Carrying out a cost analysis only from the moment of purchasing raw materials does not allow the company to benefit from the relationships between its suppliers and the various supply options between them, and the completion of the cost analysis at the moment of the sale of the product does not allow taking into account the ties with key customer groups. However, from a strategic point of view, accounting and analyzing such opportunities can be extremely useful for the enterprise. Convenient tool within the framework of strategic management accounting, which allows an organization to carry out such an analysis, is the idea of ​​building value chains (value chains or value chains) proposed by Michael Porter as an addition to the concept of added value.
The value chain is one of the methods of strategic analysis used in the value approach. Modeling and analyzing various value chains allows us to identify possible ways to optimize end-to-end business processes, thereby stimulating the development of investment decisions to change them, as well as to determine the return on investment by key client groups and highlight the most attractive client groups or market segments. The main idea of ​​the value chain concept is that the basis of the effectiveness of the organization as a whole in a competitive environment is how effectively the organization, in turn, carries out the actions necessary to develop, produce, market, supply, and also support its products or services. To assess its strategic capabilities, as well as to implement strategic initiatives, an organization must carefully analyze its entire value chain, which means that each individual activity must be considered in the context of what value it creates for the consumer, and what costs are required to create this consumer value.
So, the value chain of an individual enterprise is a set of types economic activity carried out by the enterprise in various areas of operation. The traditional composition of the value chain in this context can be represented as follows (Fig. 1). 1 J 1 Raw materials R&D Production Marketing Distribution Service 1 1 P 1
Rice. 1. The value chain of an individual enterprise
In this perspective, it seems interesting to consider also the approach to building a value chain for internal business processes of an organization proposed by R. Kaplan and D.
Norton in the framework of building a balanced scorecard. Kaplan and Norton point out that each business has a unique set of processes to create value for its customers in order to achieve its target financial indicators, but, nevertheless, a generalized model of creating a value chain can be distinguished, which can be used as a basis by organizations of various profiles.
The chain of internal business processes begins with innovative processes - identifying current and future needs of customers and how to meet them, continues in operational processes - the production and delivery of goods and services to existing customers and ends with after-sales service, that is, offering an after-sales service that also increases the value of goods and services received from the provider. this model is shown in Fig. 2.
Let's consider each of the three main components of this model. Innovation process The value chain of internal business processes includes, first of all, the processes of an organization studying the emerging or latent needs of its customers in order to develop appropriate products and services that can meet these needs. Operational process - The second main process in the overall internal value chain model is the production and delivery of goods and services to the customer. Improving the quality of this particular process is traditionally regarded as one of the most important reserves for increasing the overall efficiency of the company and reducing its costs, however, Kaplan and Norton, within the framework of the balanced scorecard, put it on a par with the two other main processes they identify in terms of the degree of influence on the achievement of strategic goals of the organization. As the third component of the internal value chain in this model, after-sales service is considered, which is designed to increase the value of the offer of goods or services of a given company in the eyes of target buyers.
It should be noted that building the value chain of a separate organization, both in terms of the main activities and in terms of internal business processes, still does not solve the main problem that arises when using the concept of added value in a strategic aspect - accounting, including external “Links” in the value chain that are outside the scope of the company. The key role of the idea of ​​a value chain as a tool for strategic management accounting is precisely in the fact that it, in contrast to the concept of added value, focuses on the processes taking place outside the organization, and each individual organization is considered in the context of the overall chain activities that create value. Thus, the value chain in the strategic aspect should be a single sequence of transformations, starting from raw materials and ending with the sale of the product to the final consumer, and each specific organization should be considered, as shown in Fig. 3 as part of a common circuit.
The value chain shown in Fig. 3, takes into account all the value added by the industry as well as the competitive enterprise of the industry. In addition to this, as already noted, it is necessary to distinguish between the value added contribution generated by certain types of core and supporting activities within the organization. Let us briefly describe each of the presented main types of activity.
Distribution channel value chain Customer value chain Supplier value chain
kov I support Main activity activity Infrastructure of the company
Human Resource Management Technology Development Logistics Supply Inbound deliveries Manufacturing Outbound deliveries
Marketing and Sales _ Fig. 3. Unified value chain of the industry according to M. Porter
Inbound supplies can include such activities as receiving, storing and distributing incoming resources for manufactured products or services provided. Production implies the implementation of basic technological operations within the production cycle. Outbound deliveries involve the distribution of a product by customer groups and include such processes as storage, packaging, loading and unloading, etc. Marketing and sales are activities related to familiarizing consumers with a product or service, expanding sales markets, optimizing distribution channels, etc. , i.e. they reflect all aspects of the organization's marketing activities. Service is intended to maintain or enhance the value of a product or service to a consumer through product preparation, repair, after-sales service, etc. ...
In turn, the supporting activities identified by M. Porter are related, in one way or another, to each of the main activities of the organization.
In further detailing, each of the nine activities of the organization can be concretized even deeper, for example, marketing and sales can be subdivided according to their separate functions: marketing research, product promotion, marketing development new product, etc. The main task of analyzing activities within the value chain, as already noted, is to check the costs and output parameters of each of the listed activities and find ways to improve them. By comparing this data with competitors' data, ways of gaining a competitive advantage are identified. Od-
however, it should not be forgotten that the value chain of any enterprise is included in more wide system, which also includes the value chains of suppliers and consumers. An enterprise can increase its profitability by not only analyzing its value chain and taking steps to optimize it, but also evaluating the mechanisms by which the organization's value creation activities are aligned with the value chains of its suppliers and consumers.
In order to compose a value chain, starting from raw materials and ending with the final consumer, it is necessary to identify strategically important economic activities, and then analyze the behavior of costs in accordance with the accepted sources of differentiation. However, according to experts, at present there are practically no organizations that are able to carry out such an analysis with high efficiency exclusively within their own internal frameworks, since organizations that completely cover the entire value chain with which they work are extremely rare. In the vast majority of cases, in practice, different companies operate at different stages of the value chain, covering only a few “links” of a single chain, which means that, from the point of view of methodology, the process of analyzing value chains begins with an internal analysis of the firm and then turns into an external competitive one. analysis of the system of costs of the industry. It ends with the integration of these two analyzes to define, create, and maintain competitive advantage organizations.
The focus on creating a long-term competitive advantage of the business involves a serious analysis of what benefits the organization brings from existing production and commercial operations in current market segments and how effective its existing production and commercial chains are (i.e., relationships with existing suppliers and customers) ... If the analysis shows that an organization can achieve great success in other market segments or with a different organization of value chains, this company should focus its efforts on the development of this direction and restructure its relationships with suppliers and consumers, or optimize internal processes for implementation. certain types economic activity in accordance with the identified opportunities. It should be noted once again that the implementation of these opportunities can be achieved, among other things, through cooperation with other industry participants.
Thus, the need to take into account, when building a value chain, not only internal factors and types of economic activities of an organization, but also external factors, in particular relationships with suppliers and consumers, in the context of the given strategic guidelines allows us to consider building value chains as an effective tool for strategic management accounting, which allows carry out value added analysis, created by the organization within the value chain of the industry as a whole. Moreover, the very concept of the Porter value chain can be, to a certain extent, opposed to the approaches adopted in traditional management accounting, in particular, the need to focus exclusively on internal factors.
List of sources used
A.T. Strategic management: theory and practice: textbook. manual for universities. M .: Aspect Press, 2002.
Kaplan R., Norton D. Balanced Scorecard. M .: Olymp-Business, 2003.
Nikolaeva O.E., Alekseeva O.V. Strategic management accounting. Ed. 2nd. Moscow: LKI Publishing House, 2008.
Worth K. Strategic management accounting. M .: CJSC "Olymp-Business", 2002.
Shank J. and Govindarajan V. Strategic cost management. Saint Petersburg: Business Micro, 1999.
E.P. Golubkov Strategic planning and the role of marketing in the organization // Marketing in Russia and abroad. 2000. No. 3.
Porter M. Competitive Advantage. New-York: Free Press, 1985.

The concept of the environment and its importance for the successful operation of an enterprise in the international market. Assessment of the international marketing environment on the example of Dallesprom OJSC. Problems arising when entering the international market, taking into account the analysis of the marketing environment.

SWOT analysis of the enterprise as a basis strategic management and the methodology for its implementation. Activities of the Udmurt branch of Sberbank of Russia, its development strategy. Methodology for constructing the analysis matrix. The threat of the emergence of new competitors.

Provides a simple yet effective plan for developing an organization's HR strategy. It uses well-known and uncomplicated strategic models to help you assess both existing and potential human resources.

Analysis of the internal and external environment of the organization, mechanisms for its development. Variables of the internal environment of the organization. Media profile and weighing method for each factor. Model of five forces of competition (according to M. Porter), SWOT-analysis on the example of LLC "Autoservice".

Strategic planning and definition of strategic business units - SHE. Comprehensive analysis situations for each strategic business unit. Establishing marketing objectives for a strategic business unit. Marketing control.

Theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of costs, the concept, essence and composition of costs commercial enterprise... Analysis of the dynamics of distribution costs in terms of total volume and cost items. Influence of prices on changes in turnover retail.

Ways and reserves to reduce costs in trade. Retail trade as a result of the interaction of supply and demand. Concept, types, values ​​of retail trade turnover and its composition. The influence of retail prices on the total amount of goods turnover and on its structure.

Focal point marketing activities is a strategy for developing a production program, in particular programs for the production of new goods. ...

Marketing cycle and its components. The value of situational analysis. Gathering information for conducting a situational analysis. Stages of the situational analysis. The economic goals of the enterprise, especially its internal environment.

Determination of the essence of distribution costs - expressed in monetary form, the costs of living and materialized labor for the systematic delivery and sale of goods to consumers. Significance, tasks and sources of information for the analysis of distribution costs in trade.

Concept, goals, essence of strategic marketing. Formation of the company's competitive advantage. Stages of developing a marketing strategy. Methods for analyzing the external and internal environment of the company. Formulation and development of ways to achieve goals.

General characteristics of LLC Gidrotransmash. Analysis of the macro environment and the immediate environment, consumers, suppliers, competitors, the internal environment of the enterprise. SWOT analysis matrix and global development strategy in modern market conditions.

Competition in international marketing. Concepts that describe the essence of competition: emphasis on the behavior of buyers and sellers; emphasis on the structure of imperfect competition markets. Porter's rhombus is an analysis of competitiveness along the entire distribution chain.

Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses competitors and own enterprise... Determination of the degree of competitiveness, assessment of production capacity, scientific and technical potential of the enterprise. Types and analysis of prices, problems and approaches to their formation.

Assessment of threats and opportunities from the external environment to the firm. Organizational culture store "Delta", its strengths and weaknesses. Types of strategies, SWOT analysis as a method of choice. Recommendations for aggressive offensive strategy.

Calculation of the cost of the PC power supply. Determination of the cost of raw materials and basic materials, purchased components, semi-finished products. Calculation of the basic and additional wages of production workers. General production costs.

The concept of the marketing environment of the enterprise. Swot analysis is one of the widespread methods of joint analysis of the external and internal environment of an enterprise. Swot analysis on the example of the company "Dr. Bormental": macroenvironment, microenvironment, internal environment.

Organizational structure modern company. Organizational structures management. The concept of an internal economic (intraeconomic) mechanism. Allocation of costs associated with management accounting... Reducing the labor intensity of products.

Concept, essence and objects of the method of functional cost analysis. Principles, forms of functional cost analysis and its scope. Implementation of accounting based on the method of functional cost analysis. Saving materials and labor costs.

SWOT analysis in marketing plan enterprises. Methodology for conducting a SWOT analysis. How can you, if you wish, bring the application of SWOT analysis to the point of absurdity. Where can I get information? SWOT analysis - identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise.

Given the multitude of factors affectingdifferences in costs, the company should alwaysknow how its costs relate to costsmain competitors. This requires a countrytagged cost analysis fixing position the company in terms of costs in relation toits closest competitors.

Cost chain concept.Initial analysisa strategic tool for strategic analysiscost is the concept of a cost chain, definingwork, functions and processes thatmust be carried out during the development, productionproduction, marketing, supply and support of theproducts or services. The cost-generating chain begins with the procurement of raw materialsmaterials, continues in the manufacture of parts and assemblies, their assembly, wholesaledistribution and ends retail sale end consumercommercial products or services.

The company's cost chain demonstrates a coherent set of activitiesand the functions performed within it (Figure 4-1). This chain includes profitsbecause the premium to the cost of running a company's value-creating business is usually part of the price (or totalcost) paid by the buyer. Create value beyondthe cost of obtaining it is the fundamental goal of a business.

Value analysis focuses on the relative value position of a firm in relation to its competitors. The primary analytical approach for such analysis is the construction of a value chain for individual actions, showing a picture of the accumulation of value from raw materials to the price of end users. Allocate the main and auxiliary activities of the company (Fig. 8.3).

Rice. 8.3. The main and auxiliary activities of the company in the formation of the value chain

When conducting a cost analysis, costs are estimated for each type of activity (in each link) and compared with similar parameters of the competitor. It should be remembered that differences in prices and costs among competing companies arise, among other things, due to the activities of suppliers or at the stage of delivery of goods to the final consumer. In this regard, when assessing the company's competitiveness in terms of prices and costs, not only the costs of the company itself are taken into account, but also the costs of suppliers and distributors. Ultimately, the manufacturer's value chain enters the system economic activity that starts in the value chain of suppliers and ends in the value chain of consumer companies.

The most difficult stage of cost analysis is obtaining information about the costs and organization of the work of competitors. Baseline data for benchmarking can be information from public annual reports of companies, research materials from consulting companies, and information obtained from conversations with analysts, consumers or suppliers. Comparison of cost information is further complicated by the fact that competing companies often use different cost accounting methods.

For the purposes of value chain analysis, there are three main areas where competing firms may differ (Figure 8.4).

Rice. 8.4. Key links in the value chain

The costs at each link in the chain depend on many factors.

1. The scale of production. Economies of scale are achieved with the growth of the volume of activity.

2.Odisruptiveness and accumulation of experience... Business costs are reduced over time through the accumulation of experience and increased professionalism.

3. Pacquisition of key resources... The costs in the company's value chain depend, among other things, on the costs of acquiring resources.

4.Clink with other links in the value chain... Coordination of activities can reduce total costs.

5. Sharing equipment and resources. Spreading costs across multiple activities provides economies of scale, reduces technology development time, and increases capacity utilization.

6. Company strategy. The level of costs can vary depending on the competitive position and goals of the company.

Cost benefits can be gained by restructuring processes and tasks in three areas.

1. At high costs in the inner part of the chain, you should:

Implement the best industry standards;

Conduct an audit and exclude costly activities;

Move high-cost activities to districts;

Invest in cost-effective technology;

Consider outsourcing of functions as an alternative solution;

Modify products in order to reduce their cost;

Balance internal costs with savings in the front and rear of the chain.

2. In case of problems at the back of the chain, you should:

Backward integration for cost control;

Switching to substitute materials;

Revision of the terms of delivery.

3. In case of problems at the front of the chain, you should:

Use more attractive distribution channels;

Use the front integration option;

Make up for the difference by lowering costs elsewhere in the chain.

When planning corrective actions, it should be borne in mind that, on the one hand, changes in one part of the chain can lead to changes in other links in the chain, and on the other hand, the high cost in one part can be compensated by reducing the cost of other links.