The production planning problem of pot flowers in a greenhouse was examined concerning profitability by break-even analysis. The present model study was made on production of C. miniate Regel in a definite period. Considering the rate of flowering, several alternative plans were tested using various sizes of finishing pot ranging from No.4.5 to No.7. Evaluation of these plans were made according to the following three items for seed supply: (1) way to supply the seed, (2) way to secure the seedling, (3) the purchase price and purchase interval for the seed. The results were expressed in a chart according to the location of respective items. Regarding the first point, (1) seeds cost (C_S) and the shipment price (α₇) were determined taking into account the standard rate of interest. The second point (2), the yield rate (τ) and the seedling cost (C_N) were presented paying attension to respective costs differing among those plans.

The last point (3), the prices of shipment, α₆ and α₇ were estimated. From these results, it was assumed that the values for the yield, the rate of flowering and the shipment price obtained from the present study might be applicable to production planning for other kinds of pot flower.

The traditional method of a variance analysis of variable overhead costs under standard costing has simply analyzed the total variance into an efficiency variance and a budget variance. But this method implicitly assumes a linear function of production department activity and of service department activity. Therefore, a budget variance may include efficiency variances of service departments.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new variance analysis model under multiple-activities which are quantities of output, quantities of spoilage, production levels of production departments, quantities of service department services, production levels of service department, quantities of service department cost elements, and prices of service department cost elements. This paper examines these items using the following three models:

(1) only 1-production department model

(2) 1-production department and 1-service department model

(3) m-production departments and n-service departments model

The proposed method investigates the usefulness of this model by representing the mathematical formulation, and provides the possibility to furnish useful infomation for cost control.

Recently some corporate managers and research specialists are beginning to suspect that traditional cost management methods, which are based on standard cost accounting, mislead management with regard to decision-making and management control. They suggest many kinds of new cost management methods as countermeasures. This paper analyzes one of them, KIHON-GENKA.

This unique cost management system was developed by the top management of S Corporation to support a high-share, high-profitability strategy, from the stand-point of the relationship between the business environment and the cost management methodology.

Following a summary of the history of the company, the aim and position of this paper are presented in Sections 1 and 2. Sections 3 and 4 clarify the mechanism by which KIHON-GENKA works, and analyze how it has contributed to the growth and profitability of the company. Sections 5 and 6 discuss the influence of business environment changes on KIHON-GENKA systems.

Anam Industrial Co., Ltd., a world leader in packaging and testing semiconductor products, adopted Activity-Based Costing(ABC) in 1992. This was the culmination of nearly two years of experimentation. ABC was recommended initially by AmKor Electronics, Inc., a subsidiary of Anam in the U.S.A.

Semiconductor products assemblers have their uniqueness in that manufacturing overhead costs consume a significantly higher percentage among total manufacturing costs. Therefore the manufacturing overhead allocation procedure can greatly influence the determination of the production cost of an individual product. In this regard, Anam has decided to adopt ABC to obtain more accurate production cost information, which is essential to successfully negotiate with the customers the price of the particular product.

This company implements the departmental activity-based costing system(ABCS), which is a simplified version of ABCS. Under this system, the entire budgeted amount of a particular department is first allocated to the related activities of that department. Then the allocated activities cost in turn is assigned to related products based on the cost driver.

This simplified cost assignment procedure was criticized in some previous studies in that it resulted in some arbitrariness in the allocation process. However at the same time, their effectiveness was highly evaluated in some other studies. Through the use of ABCS, Anam corrected the distorted product cost information which had obtained from the existing costing system. The more accurate cost information obtained from ABCS was effectively used by Anam in price negotiations with its customers. Also ABCS made it easier to figure out how cost would vary with changes in the product design. Additionally, its departmental ABCS turned out to be very effective in restructuring Anam's organization, mitigating the consequent organizational resistance.