Regine Slagmulder

Bio: Regine Slagmulder is an academic researcher from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The author has contributed to research in topics: Product cost management & Cost accounting. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 43 publications receiving 2009 citations. Previous affiliations of Regine Slagmulder include Ghent University & INSEAD.

Interorganizational cost management and relational context

Abstract: Many firms today form alliances with their suppliers and customers that do not fit into the classical dichotomy of hierarchies and markets. The emergence of so-called hybrid relational forms makes the make-or-buy decision more complicated than the neo-classical economic perspective indicates. One outcome of these hybrid relational forms appears to be the development of cost management techniques that cross the organizational boundary between buyers and suppliers and whose objective is to reduce costs through collaborative efforts. This paper explores how firms enact interorganizational cost management during product design and the characteristics of the relational contexts associated with them. It also discusses the implications of such developments for the make-or-buy decision.

Target costing and value engineering

Abstract: What would happen if everyone in your company followed a disciplined approach to cost reduction? Go ahead -- imagine it. What would it look like? How can it be done?The answer -- smart cost management.Effective cost management must start at the design stage. As much as 90-95% of a product's costs are added in the design process. That is why effective cost management programs focus on design and manufacturing. The primary cost management method to control cost during design is a combination of target costing and value engineering.Target Costing Objectives:Identify the cost at which your product must be manufactured at if it is to earn its profit margin at its expected target selling price.Break the target cost down to its component level and have your suppliers find ways to deliver the components they sell you at the set target prices while still making adequate returns.Value Engineering:The connection to function: An organized effort and team based approach to analyze the functions of goods and services that the design stage, and find ways to achieve those functions in a manner that allows the firm to meet its target costs.The result: Added value for your company (development costs on-line with added value for your company; development costs on-line with selling prices) and added value for your customer (higher quality products that meet, possibly even exceed, customer expectations.)

Supply Chain Development for the Lean Enterprise: Interorganizational Cost Management

Abstract: Four questions determine whether a company is using interorganizational cost management.Does your firm set specific cost-reduction objectives for its suppliers?Does your firm help its customers and/or suppliers find ways to achieve their cost-education objectives?Does your firm take into account the profitability of its suppliers when negotiating component pricing with them?Is your firm continuously making its buyer-supplier interfaces more efficient?If the answer to any of these questions is ""no"", your firm risks introducing products that cost too much or are not competitive. The full potential of the supply network can be realized only when the entire supply chain adopts interorganizational cost management practices.Competitive pressure has led many firms to try to increase the efficiency of supplier firms through interorganizational cost management systems, a structured approach to coordinating the activities of firms in a supplier network to reduce the total costs in the network.It is particularly important to lean enterprises for two reasons:Lean enterprises typically outsource more of the added value of their products than their mass producer counterparts. Lean enterprises usually compete more aggressively and must manage costs more effectively.Interorganizational cost management can reduce costs in three ways: through product design, through product manufacture and through cooperative approaches between buyers and suppliers to build smoother interfaces.However, more than just cost management must cross interorganizational boundaries. Suppliers are also a major source of innovation for lean enterprises. Successful supplier networks encourage every firm in the network to innovate and compete more aggressively. Read this book to learn to manage the supply chain to forge competitive advantage while reducing costs.

Developing profitable new products with target costing

Abstract: To survive today, firms must become adept at developing products that deliver the quality and functionality that customers demand while generating the desired profits. To ensure that products are sufficiently profitable when launched, many firms subject them to target costing, a profit management technique. The authors studied the mature, highly effective target costing systems of seven Japanese companies and documented their costing procedures. Although practices differ among these firms, the authors identified an underlying generic approach for implementing target costing systems. A highly disciplined process, effective target costing comprises the following facets that the authors discuss in detail: ? Market-driven costing consists of three companywide tasks ? setting the company's long-term sales and profit objectives, structuring product lines to achieve maximum profitability, and establishing a product's target selling price ? and two steps applicable to new products ? setting a target profit margin consistent with the company's long-term profit objectives and computing the product's allowable cost (by subtracting the target profit margin from the target selling price). ? Product-level target costing comprises setting a reasonably achievable product-level target cost, imposing discipline upon the development process to attain the target cost (whenever feasible), and achieving the cost goal without sacrificing functionality and quality (primarily through value engineering and other engineering-based cost reduction techniques). ? Component-level target costing includes decomposing the product-level target cost to the major functions or subassemblies (e.g., in a car, the engine, transmission, cooling system, air conditioning system, and audio system), setting component-level target costs, and managing suppliers (clearly conveying to them the competitive cost pressures facing the lean enterprise). The cardinal rule of the companies studied is: "Never exceed the target cost." They enforce this rule in three ways ? by offsetting design improvements that result in increased costs with savings elsewhere in the design, by not launching products that exceed the target cost, and by carefully managing the transition to manufacturing in order to achieve the target cost.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Abstract: The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

Benefits, barriers, and bridges to effective supply chain management

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide academics and practitioners a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the benefits, barriers, and bridges to successful collaboration in strategic supply chains. Design/methodology/approach – A triangulation method consisting of a literature review, a cross‐functional mail survey, and 51 in‐depth case analyses was implemented. Senior managers from purchasing, manufacturing, and logistics were targeted in the mail survey. The break down by channel category interviews is as follows: 14 retailers, 13 finished goods assemblers, 12 first‐tier suppliers, three lower‐tier suppliers, and nine service providers. Findings – Customer satisfaction and service is perceived as more enduring than cost savings. All managers recognize technology, information, and measurement systems as major barriers to successful supply chain collaboration. However, the people issues – such as culture, trust, aversion to change, and willingness to collaborate – are more intractable. People are the key bridge to successful collaborative innovation and should therefore not be overlooked as companies invest in supply chain enablers such as technology, information, and measurement systems. Research limitations/implications – The average mail‐survey response rate was relatively low: 23.5 percent. The case study analyses were not consistent in frequency across channel functions. Although the majority of companies interviewed and surveyed were international, all surveys and interviews were managers based in the US. Practical implications – This study provides new insight into understanding the success and hindering factors of supply chain management. The extensive literature review, the cross‐channel analysis, and case studies provide academics and managers a macro picture of the goals, challenges, and strategies for implementing supply chain management. Originality/value – This paper uses triangulation methodology for examining key issues of supply chain management at multiple levels within the supply chain.

An empirical study on the drivers of management control systems' design in new product development

Abstract: New product development has changed significantly over the last decade and management control systems have played an important role in this transformation. This study draws on Galbraith’s concept of uncertainty and investigates the relationship between project uncertainty, product strategy and management control systems. It also explores whether these systems help or, as argued in the innovation literature, hinder product development performance. Results support the relevance of the project uncertainty and product strategy to explain the design of management control systems. They also show that better cost and design information has a positive association with performance, but that time information has a negative eAect. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

“Supply Chain 2.0”: managing supply chains in the era of turbulence

Abstract: Purpose – An underlying principle of supply chain management is to establish control of the end‐to‐end process in order to create a seamless flow of goods. The basic idea is that variability is detrimental to performance as it causes cost in the form of stock‐outs, poor capacity utilisation, and costly buffers. This paper questions this approach and argues that in the light of increasing turbulence a different approach to supply chain management is needed.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports on the authors' work on a Supply Chain Volatility Index and shows how current supply chain practices may no longer fit the context most businesses now operate in – primarily because these practices were developed under assumptions of stability that no longer hold true. The paper illustrates the findings with case study evidence of firms that have had to adjust to various aspects of turbulence.Findings – The paper is able to show that most current supply chain management models emanate from a period of relat...