外文翻譯--建筑公司的成本管理和生產(chǎn)控制

1、<p>　　中文5380字，3000單詞，17500英文字符</p><p>　　出處：Marchesan P R C, Formoso C T. Cost management and production control for construction companies[C]//9Th Annual Conference Of The International Group For Lean C

2、onstruction, Singapore. 2001.</p><p>　　本科生畢業(yè)設計（論文）</p><p><b>　　外文文獻原稿和譯文</b></p><p>　　姓 名： </p><p>　　專 業(yè)：

3、 會計學 </p><p>　　班 級： </p><p>　　學 號： </p><p>　　指導教師： &

4、lt;/p><p><b>　　外文文獻原稿和譯文</b></p><p><b>　　原　　稿</b></p><p>　　COST MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION</p><p>　　CONTROL FOR CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES</p>&l

5、t;p>　　Marchesan, P.R.C.; Formoso, C. T.</p><p><b>　　ABSTRACT</b></p><p>　　Construction, like other industries, has been experiencing profound changes involving both the business e

6、nvironment and internal organization. In this context, new cost management information that provides better understanding and helps managing increasingly turbulent and complex production processes is needed. Activity-bas

7、ed costing (ABC) has been suggested as the leading contender method to replace traditional cost accounting systems, due to its capability to make the processes and activities </p><p>　　This paper reports the

8、 main results of a research project which aimed to develop a cost accounting system capable of providing useful information to manage production processes in construction and devise a model that integrates this system to

9、 the Production Planning and Control process, based on the new operations management paradigm and on the ABC ideas. The study involved three case studies, a series of interviews with construction managers and the develop

10、ment of prototype software. </p><p>　　The main conclusions of this research work are that the cost information provided by the proposed management accounting system (a) makes the production processes more tr

11、ansparent; (b) helps to identify production inefficiencies; (c) encourages managers to introduce corrective actions; and (d) allows the evaluation of corrective actions to be undertaken. The study also indicated that the

12、 proposed model has contributed to establish systematic procedures for production control concerned not only wi</p><p>　　KEY WORDS：Cost management, activity-based costing, lean construction, production contr

13、ol. </p><p>　　1. INTRODUCTION </p><p>　　Over the last decades, many industrial sectors have been experiencing profound changes involving both the business environment and the internal organisati

14、on. This process has been so deep and radical as to suggest that a new operations management paradigm has emerged (Bartezzaghi, 1999; Koskela, 2000). In this new competitive and turbulent environment, effective cost mana

15、gement information has become extremely important to drive improvement efforts (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987). </p><p>　　However, besides the environmental, managerial and technological changes occurred in the

16、 last thirty years, the existing traditional cost management systems are very similar to the ones that have been used since the mid Twenties (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987). In the face of all these changes, traditional cos

17、t account information has become mostly irrelevant and even dangerous for managerial purposes (Ploss, 1990). According to Johnson & Kaplan (1987), traditional management accounting information ten</p><p>

18、;　　The failings of the traditional management accounting systems have three important consequences. Firstly, these systems cannot provide accurate product cost. Costs are distributed to products in a simplistic and arbit

19、rary way that usually does not represent the real demand imposed by each product on the company's resources (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987). Secondly, traditional management accounting systems fail to stimulate decision

20、s that can affect the overall production result. Managers are sometimes</p><p>　　Particularly in the construction industry, the inadequacy of cost accounting systems has resulted in the dissociation between

21、the cost management and the Production Planning and Control processes. In general, construction cost control consists basically of monitoring actual performance against cost estimates and identifying variances. According

22、 to Ballard (2000), the traditional control methods based on the detection of variances appears to assume that the causes of deviation will be apparent an</p><p>　　Since the Eighties, some alternatives for t

23、raditional cost accounting systems have been developed, aiming to regain the managerial relevance of cost information. One of these alternatives is the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method, which has been suggested as the

24、 leading contender to replace traditional cost accounting methods due to its capability to make the processes and activities performed in an organisation transparent and observable. Over the past decades, ABC has helped

25、many manufacturin</p><p>　　2. BACKGROUND FOR THE RESEARCH </p><p>　　Construction cost control systems has been the subject of a myriad of studies. Despite their relevance in terms of both improv

26、ing the cost estimate structure and integrating cost and schedule, they have hardly contributed to the integration of cost management and production control systems. Besides the fact that construction cost control system

27、s have not changed much since the Seventies, cost management and productioncontrol are still treated independently, as separated systems. </p><p>　　From a managerial point-of-view, the effort to develop, imp

28、lement and operate a cost system is justifiable only when the cost information provides effective support for decision making (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987; Krieger, 1997). </p><p>　　Activity-Based Costing has

29、 been increasingly adopted in many industrial and service firms as a method to improve cost management in complex production systems. Despite some similarities to the cost centre method or other traditional costing metho

30、ds (Horngren & Foster, 1990), the underlying philosophy of ABC is considerably different. ABC is a costing system that is based on the idea that activities consume resources and product /services consume activities.

31、</p><p>　　The method is basically a two-stage approach for allocating indirect costs to products based on cost drivers of various levels. In the first stage, resource costs (labour, equipment and power) are

32、assigned to those activities performed in the organisation. During the second stage, activities costs are assigned to the cost objects based on selected cost drivers (e.g., machine set-up, quality inspection and material

33、 handling activities), which express a causal relation between the activity demand </p><p>　　However, the main contribution of ABC to the operations management area is the process view incorporated by the me

34、thod. The information produced by ABC cost systems can increase process transparency, providing guidance to identify non-valueadding activities and take the necessary corrective actions (Kaplan & Cooper, 1995). </

35、p><p>　　Notwithstanding the benefits of its application, ABC presents some drawbacks when compared to traditional cost systems. Perhaps, the most important one is the larger amount of data usually needed in ABC

36、 systems. Indeed, according to some authors (Krieger, 1997; Cokins, 1999), the excessive level of detail is a major cause of unsuccessful ABC implementations. This problem can be even worse when one considers unstable an

37、d complex production processes, such as those observed in the construction ind</p><p>　　Despite its wide utilisation in manufacturing companies and its capability to increase the transparency of production p

38、rocesses, ABC has been poorly discussed in the construction literature. The few existing studies usually restrict the discussion of ABC concepts to academic applications (Maxwell et al., 1998). Therefore, there is a clea

39、r need to discuss the use of ABC concepts and principles in the construction environment. As other manufacturing concepts and practices transferred to constructi</p><p>　　3. AN APPLICATION OF ACTIVITY-BASED

40、CONCEPT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY </p><p>　　This paper suggests an integrated model of cost management and production control for construction companies, which is strongly based on concepts related to pro

41、duction planning and control proposed by Laufer & Tucker (1987) and Ballard & Howell (1998). In this model, four subprocesses are identified: the preparation, the production planning and control process itself, t

42、he evaluation process and, finally, the cost management system. </p><p>　　The information generated by the cost system is introduced into two different control cycles (figure 1) - one is continuous and the o

43、ther is intermittent. The first is a continuous feedback for long and medium term planning. The aim is to encourage a process of continuous improvement to happen, enabling the managers to identify and correct problems in

44、 real time. In the intermittent cycle, cost information is used in the planning evaluation process, aiming to improve the production planning and c</p><p>　　Figure 1: An Integrated model for cost management

45、and production control in construction companies.</p><p>　　ABC was chosen as the conceptual basis of the proposed system for its capability to provide a better understanding about the processes and the activ

46、ities performed, as well as for its affinity with the new operations management ideas. </p><p>　　There are two basic groups of resources that are involved in production: those that perform the work - named p

47、roduction resources -and those that are the object of work typically materials. Production resources are those that can add value to the products. Considering that the cost management of materials is an issue much discus

48、sed in literature, this paper focuses on the application of ABC to the management of production resources. </p><p>　　Construction production processes tend to be extremely variable. This variability involves

49、 not only that caused by manual labour, but also the variability of the process configuration itself. In such a context, the use of a classical ABC structure would demand too many activities, overburdening the cost syste

50、m. </p><p>　　For that reason, a different cost allocation structure was proposed. As shown in figure 2, activities were decomposed into tasks and operations. Resources are consumed by operations and the oper

51、ations are demanded by different tasks. Differently from typical ABC structures, a restricted set of operations is employed to describe and analyse any construction production process. However, in practice, some resource

52、s, such as employees or subcontractors, are typically assigned to tasks. For such reso</p><p>　　Figure 2: Cost Allocation Model - adapted from ABC</p><p>　　One of the main challenges in the appl

53、ication of the proposed cost allocation model is the definition of an adequate set of operations. Firstly, the conceptual difference between process and operation must be observed (Shingo, 1988). Briefly, process refers

54、to the material flow and operations refers to the human and the equipment flow. The cost system presented in this work is focused on the operations axis, i.e. the subjects that perform the work. </p><p>　　Se

55、condly, the existence of different process types should be recognised (Shingo, 1988). Despite the fact that any process - essential, contributory or preparation, and post-adjustment (figure 3) -consists of the same categ

56、ories of activities -waiting, inspection, moving and processing -the nature and the purpose of an operation differ considerably in each of those process types. </p><p>　　Figure 3: Classification of processes

57、 (adapted from Shingo (1988)).</p><p>　　In this study, essential processes were defined as those that add a permanent component or prefabricate a permanent component to the owner-specified facility (Pregenze

58、r et al., 1999). Clearly, the definition of what is essential or contributory could be different depending on who classifies the process: owner, contractor, subcontractor or layman. Preparation, post-adjustment and contr

59、ibutory tasks are necessary for the execution of essential activities, but do not directly add a permanent compon</p><p>　　The following set of operations was defined for the proposed cost system: </p>

60、<p>　　· Processing: a conversion operation that intersects an essential process. It is a conversion activity that adds a permanent component or prefabricates a permanent component of the owner specified facil

61、ity, e.g. pouring concrete on slabs, bricklaying, electrical wire installation. Only processing may add value to the final product from the owner point of view; </p><p>　　· Pre-processing: a conversion

62、operation that intersects a contributory process, which is a prerequisite of an essential process. Pre-processing operations are considered to be non-value adding, because it does not add a permanent component to the fin

63、al product, e.g., formwork construction, and scaffolding assembling; </p><p>　　· Post-processing: also a conversion process that intersects a contributory process, which, in this case, is subsequent to

64、an essential process, e.g. formwork and scaffolding disassembling; </p><p>　　· Moving: an operation in which any material is moved. This operation may belong to either essential or contributory processe

65、s; </p><p>　　· Cleaning: an operation dedicated to remove rubbish and waste materials from workstations or from construction sites. It belongs to preparation and post-adjustment processes; </p>&

66、lt;p>　　· Adjustments and corrections: a conversion operation related to both the correction of defects (rework) and the adjustments required by the different production methods; </p><p>　　· Trav

67、elling: an operation in which a workman travels from one point to another. This operation does not belong to any process, i.e., it does not intersect any material flow; </p><p>　　· Waiting: it correspon

68、ds to those idle times caused by inclement weather, production disruptions or physiological needs. Like travelling, it does not belong to any process. </p><p>　　This set of eight operations has been specific

69、ally proposed for this study, considering its objectives and the resources available. In other studies, a different set could be suggested, depending on the cost-benefit analysis of data collection and processing. </p

70、><p>　　3.1 DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS </p><p>　　Despite the fact that it is possible to collect data on site, the perception of managers and employees was used in this study to evaluate the intens

71、ity which each operation is demanded by each different task. This decision was made due to the difficulty of incorporating objective methods, such as work sampling and work study, in small and medium sized construction c

72、ompanies as systematic procedures for measuring the time spent performing each operation. Moreover, the relative short duration of s</p><p>　　According to Drucker (1995), it is necessary to rely on assessmen

73、t and judgement rather than on direct measurement when objective measures are nearly impossible to obtain. Furthermore, perception has been successfully used with such purpose in several cases of ABC implementation (Brim

74、son, 1991). Although the use of perception is a limitation of this study, objective measures might be used when the processes are reasonably stable and the proper resources are available. In such situations, objecti</

75、p><p>　　In general terms, the procedure adopted in this study consisted of measuring the total amount of resources spent in each task (total man-hour) and then determining the intensity that each task demanded

76、from each operation. The time demanded by each operation was evaluated by the managers and the foremen through the assignment of an index (0 to 10) which express the relative intensity of each operation. </p><

77、p>　　To illustrate the data gathering and analysis process, consider the example provided in table 1. The table represents a daily register of the tasks performed in a construction site. Each line in the table correspo

78、nds to a specific task, defined as a unique combination of an action (e.g. casting, assembling or digging) to be performed on a physical element (e.g. beams, columns, windows or pipes), located in a zone (e.g. a building

79、, a level, an apartment, or a room). For each task, the total cost </p><p>　　Table 1: Cost System Input Data – Example</p><p>　　The second step consists of distributing the task cost among the s

80、et of operations considered. For every tasks an intensity index is assigned to each operation based on the perception of managers and employees. Accordingly to the assigned index, a share of the task cost is allocated to

81、 each operation </p><p>　　Finally, the cost assignment to cost objects depends on how these are defined. A cost object might be defined as an element, as a zone, or as a combination of both element and zone.

82、 Once defined the cost object, the costs of all those tasks that match the cost object definition are summed up to determine its total cost. </p><p>　　CONCLUSIONS </p><p>　　This paper reports th

83、e main results of a research project which investigated the application of ABC concepts to improve process transparency in construction cost control. A cost allocation model was suggested aiming to translate and adapt th

84、e method for the construction industry context. The need to integrate the cost management information in the production planning and control process was also stressed. Three case studies were carried out, in which the pr

85、oposed cost system was successfully imp</p><p>　　The main contributions of this paper are presented below: </p><p>　　· The proposed cost system has demonstrated the capability of providing

86、relevant information for production management. Its implementation has increased production processes transparency, making visible important aspects usually neglected by traditional cost systems. The cost information enc

87、ouraged discussion and reflection about the way production process are managed and performed. In this way, it helped to identify production inefficiencies, as well as to evaluate the corrective actions that w</p>

88、<p>　　· the adoption of ABC concepts in the construction industry demands the translation and adaptation of such concepts in order to create a manageable cost system. The cost allocation model suggested in this

89、 paper uses "operations" as the main unit for process analysis. Instead of hundreds of activities, a restricted set of operations, which incorporates the flow and value views by differentiating the value adding

90、 from the non-value adding operations, is employed to describe and analyse any product</p><p>　　· the integration of cost information in the production planning and control process is essential so that

91、systematic procedures for production control concerned not only with time but also with costs can be established. </p><p>　　REFERENCES </p><p>　　Brimson, J. A. (1991) "Activity Accounting:

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