Implementing Material Flow Cost Accounting in a Pharmaceutical Company
Abstract
In Japan, several dozen companies are now attempting to introduce material flow cost accounting (MFCA) through a project initiated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and others. Nevertheless, the majority of companies that have introduced MFCA have used it in only a single project for the purpose of cost study and few companies use it continually to conduct improvement activities. In this paper, we present the case of Tanabe Seiyaku Co. Ltd., which has succeeded in the implementation and organisation-wide deployment of MFCA, in order to analyse the primary factors leading to the use of MFCA in continual waste reduction. Our results demonstrate that MFCA data is reflected in the departmental and employee performance evaluation at Tanabe Seiyaku as part of its management control systems and this mechanism is the key to the continual use of MFCA within the company.
Keywords
Environmental Management System Cost Accounting Management Control System Balance Scorecard Enterprise Resource Planning SystemPreview
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