An activity-based conceptual model for evaluating process cost information

To date, Activity-based costing frameworks have been designed principally to support strategic decision making with respect to product and customer decisions. This present research extends current activity-based concepts by developing a conceptual model for directly evaluating process cost information in support of continuous process improvement initiatives. This model provides a comprehensive architecture by which managers can (1) define the networks of activities that comprise business processes, (2) identify the cross-functional resource costs ot existing processes and (3) simulate the costs of alternative process configurations in support of operational decision making. The architecture supports both the costing of existing processes using current organizational resource levels and the simulation of alternative process designs using cost driver relationships. Cost driver relationships link activity resource costs to the product and process related cost attributes associated with a given experimental scenario. A unique aspect of the resource cost modeling feature of this methodology is that it considers non-linear or step function capacity profiles in determining the actual impact on resource spending of alternative process configurations.