在20世紀(jì)80年代后期，信息管理系統(tǒng)的廣泛應(yīng)用，使得實(shí)業(yè)界普遍感到產(chǎn)品成本處處與現(xiàn)實(shí)脫節(jié)，成本扭曲普遍存在，且扭曲程度令人吃驚。

Much modern manufacturing relies on highly automated,expensive manufacturing plants–so much so that some companies do not separately identify the cost of labour because there is so little used.Instead,factory labour is simply regarded as a fixed overhead and added in to the fixed costs of running the factory,its machinery,and the sophisticated information technology system which coordinates production.

具體表現(xiàn)為現(xiàn)代制造企業(yè)大多采用了高度自動(dòng)化機(jī)械設(shè)備，以至于人工成本在產(chǎn)品成本中的比重越來越小，甚至有些企業(yè)已經(jīng)把人工成本歸類為固定制造費(fèi)用，作為期間費(fèi)用的一部分進(jìn)行成本核算，這與傳統(tǒng)的料工費(fèi)歸集方法有了很大不同。

Many companies rely on customisation of products to differentiate themselves and to enable higher margins to be made.Dell,for example,a PC manufacturer,has a website which lets customers specify their own PC in terms of memory size,capacity,processor speed etc.That information is then fed into their automated production system and the specified computer is built,more or less automatically.

另外，在市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)日益激烈化的背景下，產(chǎn)品差異化策略被許多企業(yè)采用，希望以此作為突破點(diǎn)來搶占更多的市場(chǎng)份額，獲得更高的利潤(rùn)。戴爾公司基于此建立了專門的網(wǎng)站以供顧客按照自己的要求配置電腦，選擇適合自己需要的的處理器、內(nèi)存等等，隨后這些信息會(huì)提供給生產(chǎn)部門，這樣一臺(tái)私人定制的筆記本電腦就誕生了。

Instead of offering customers the ability to specify products,many companies offer an extensive range of products,hoping that one member of the range will match the requirements of a particular market segment.

除了給顧客私人定制的便利，許多企業(yè)還會(huì)提供多功能、多種類的產(chǎn)品，以適應(yīng)不同顧客的需要，產(chǎn)品市場(chǎng)百花齊放。

機(jī)械化的高度發(fā)展，IT技術(shù)的使用，以及由此產(chǎn)生出的設(shè)備維護(hù)成本、研發(fā)成本、市場(chǎng)調(diào)研成本，而所有這些因素都是傳統(tǒng)成本法考慮不到的，一場(chǎng)對(duì)傳統(tǒng)技術(shù)的改進(jìn)迫在眉睫。

These developments in manufacturing and marketing mean that the conventional way of treating fixed overheads might not be good enough.Companies need to know the causes of overheads,and need to realise that many of their‘fixed costs’might not be fixed at all.They need to try to assign costs to products or services on the basis of the resources they consume.

現(xiàn)代企業(yè)需要知道制造費(fèi)用的起因，需要認(rèn)識(shí)到哪些費(fèi)用是固定的，哪些費(fèi)用其實(shí)是可以避免的，需要對(duì)各種產(chǎn)品進(jìn)行盈利分析，而所有的這些信息都會(huì)因傳統(tǒng)成本法的使用而失真，對(duì)管理決策造成了很大困難。尋找一種方法可以基于每種產(chǎn)品所消耗的資源對(duì)產(chǎn)品成本進(jìn)行精確的歸集成了迫切需要解決的難題。

美國(guó)哈佛大學(xué)的青年學(xué)者庫伯（Robin Cooper）和教授卡普蘭（Robert S Kaplan）在對(duì)美國(guó)公司調(diào)查研究之后，發(fā)展了前人的思想，提出了以作業(yè)為基礎(chǔ)的成本計(jì)算，Activity Based Costing（簡(jiǎn)稱ABC成本法）應(yīng)運(yùn)而生。

The ABC process is as follows:

1.Split fixed overheads into activities.These are called cost pools.

2.For each cost pool identify what causes that cost.In ABC terminology,this is the‘cost driver’,but it might be better to think of it as the‘cost causer’.

3.Calculate a cost per unit of cost driver(Cost pool/total number of cost driver).

4.Allocate costs to the product based on how much the product uses of the cost driver.

首先，ABC成本法要識(shí)別不同活動(dòng)的成本，并把他們分到不同的活動(dòng)成本庫（Activity cost pool），活動(dòng)成本庫可以根據(jù)企業(yè)實(shí)際經(jīng)營(yíng)所發(fā)生的各種活動(dòng)，靈活加以確定。它們可能包括設(shè)置調(diào)試機(jī)器、訂貨、材料處理、儲(chǔ)存、發(fā)運(yùn)、生產(chǎn)過程監(jiān)管、供電等。對(duì)成本驅(qū)動(dòng)因素（cost driver）的分析有助于確定把制造費(fèi)用分配到各個(gè)產(chǎn)品或產(chǎn)品系列上的適當(dāng)比率。

第二步是運(yùn)用這些比率把成本庫中的制造費(fèi)用分?jǐn)偟礁鱾€(gè)產(chǎn)品中。分?jǐn)偝杀疽谏a(chǎn)這個(gè)產(chǎn)品需要消耗的成本活動(dòng)量。

The traditional approach to fixed overhead absorption has the merit of being simple to calculate and apply.However,simplicity does not justify the production and use of information that might be wrong or misleading.

傳統(tǒng)成本方法對(duì)固定制造費(fèi)用的歸集比較簡(jiǎn)單粗暴，這種方法雖然簡(jiǎn)單，但是由此產(chǎn)生的成本信息很可能是錯(cuò)誤的，容易對(duì)決策產(chǎn)生誤導(dǎo)。

ABC undoubtedly requires an organisation to spend time and effort investigating more fully what causes it to incur costs,and then to use that detailed information for costing purposes.But understanding the drivers of costs must be an essential part of good performance management.

ABC costing無疑需要企業(yè)付出更多的時(shí)間、金錢和精力，以獲得更精確可靠的信息，來用這些信息進(jìn)行管理決策。但是對(duì)所發(fā)生的的成本的透徹理解也是一個(gè)好的績(jī)效管理所必需的。

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