Toimintolaskentamallin luominen kiinteistönhuoltoon

Toimintolaskennasta on tehty runsaasti tutkimuksia suuriin teollisuusyrityksiin, mutta pienille palveluyrityksille tehtyjä toimintolaskennan julkaistuja tutkimuksia on vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia toimintolaskennan soveltuvuutta pienen kiinteistönhuoltoyrityksen kustannuslaskentaan sekä rakentaa alustava toimintolaskentaan pohjautuva asiakas-kustannusten laskentamalli ja testata luotua mallia työaikaseurannan avulla. Tutkimuksen teoriaosassa on perehdytty toimintolaskennan kehitysvaiheisiin ja nykytilaan sekä kuvattu toimintolaskentaprosessin eteneminen käyttöönoton valmistelusta aina laskentatietojen hyväksikäyttöön saakka. Tutkimuksen empiriaosuus etenee edellä mainittuun teoriaan pohjautuen. Teoria- ja empiriaosuuden perusteella voidaan todeta, että kuukausi ei ole riittävän pitkä aika kattavaan seurantaan kiinteistönhuollon toiminnoista, koska vuodenaikojen vaihtelu aiheuttaa suuria muutoksia tehtäviin toimintoihin. Rakennetun laskentamallin ja toteutetun seurannan tulosten perusteella voidaan siitä huolimatta todeta, että toimintolaskentaan pohjautuva kustannusten laskentamalli tuottaa lisäarvoa kiinteistönhuollon asiakaskustannusten määrittelyssä.

Kunnallisen palveluyksikön toimintojen kehittäminen ja kustannusten

Työn tavoitteena on sisäisen palveluyksikön prosessikuvauksien kautta kehittää nykyistä toimintaa, laskea tuotettujen palveluiden yksikkökustannuksia ja arvioida palkitsemisen vaikutusta sisäisten tukipalveluiden tuottamisen tehostamiseen Nurmijärven kunnassa. Toimintolaskennalla saadaan aikaiseksi tuotetuille palveluille kustannukset ja tuotehinnoittelu. Tällä saadaan aikaan lähes aiheuttamisperiaatteen mukainen kustannusten kohdistaminen. Lisäksi työssä arvioidaan kustannusten kautta saavutettavaa toiminnan tehokkuutta. Työssä haastateltiin yksikön henkilökuntaa, minkä tuloksena saatiin toiminnasta prosessikuvaukset. Toimintolaskennassa tiedot kerättiin eri järjestelmistä ja yksikössä mitattiin työtehtävien hoitoon käytettyä aikaa. Kannusteiden vaikutuksista järjestettiin kolmen organisaation tietotekniikkayksiköiden henkilökunnalle kysely sekä yksikön esimiehet haastateltiin. Haastattelun avulla selvitettiin palkitsemisen nykytilannetta ja tulevaisuuden kehittämismahdollisuuksia. Tuloksena saatiin tukipalveluhinnasto, jolla toteutettiin sisäisten kustannusten kohdistaminen organisaatiossa. Tukipalveluprosessien kuvaamisen tuloksena saatiin toimenpide-ehdotuksia toteutukseen ja lisäkehittämishankkeita. Työntekijöiden kannustekyselyn tuloksena rahapalkitsemisen lisäksi nousi esiin esimiehen antaman palautteen arvostus sekä oman osaamisen kehittäminen.

Quality costs analysis: case study in the automotive industry

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Toimintoperusteinen kustannuslaskenta elektroniikan sopimusvalmistusyrityksessä

Työn tavoitteena oli kehittää kohdeyrityksen kustannuslaskentaa paremmin muuttuneen toimintaympäristön vaatimuksia vastaavaksi. Ongelmana kohdeyrityksen kustannuslaskennassa on ollut yleiskustannusten kohdistamisen vaikeus. Toimintoperusteisen kustannuslaskennan uskottiin parantavan yleiskustannuksien kohdistamiseen liittyneitä ongelmia. Työn teoriaosan lähdeaineistona käytettiin toimintolaskentaan keskittynyttä kirjallisuutta. Empiirinen osa muodostuu kohdeyrityksen sisäisistä lähteistä ja henkilöstön haastatteluiden perusteella muodostuneista näkemyksistä, sekä rakennetun toimintolaskentamallin tuottamista tuloksista.Työssä rakennetun kustannuslaskentamallin käyttömahdollisuutta myös konsernin muissa yksiköissä pidettiin tärkeänä mallin rakennetta suunniteltaessa. Koko konsernin kattavat yhtenäiset kustannuslaskentaperiaatteet mahdollistavat eri yksiköiden välisten kustannusrakenteiden vertailun.Toimintoperusteisen kustannuslaskennan avulla kohdeyrityksessä on saatu tarkempaa tietoa tuotekohtaisista valmistuskustannuksista. Tuotekohtaisten valmistuskustannusten selvittäminen mahdollistaa myös asiakas- ja asiakasryhmäkohtaisten kannattavuuksien selvittämisen. Toimintolaskennan kehittämisen yhteydessä saatiin kohdeyrityksessä hyödyllistä tietoa myös siitä, mitkä toiminnot aiheuttavat suurimmat kustannukset. Toimintolaskenta paljastaa myös ne toiminnot, joita tulisi ja joita on mahdollista tehostaa.

Driver costs in small firms: Empirical analysis for farms

The agricultural sector has always been characterized by a predominance of small firms. International competition and the consequent need for restraining costs are permanent challenges for farms. This paper performs an empirical investigation of cost behavior in agriculture using panel data analysis. Our results show that transactions caused by complexity influence farm costs with opposite effects for specific and indirect costs. While transactions allow economies of scale in specific costs, they significantly increase indirect costs. However, the main driver for farm costs is volume. In addition, important differences exist for small and big farms, since transactional variables significantly influence the former but not the latter. While sophisticated management tools, such ABC, could provide only limited complementary useful information but no essential allocation bases for farms, they seem inappropriate for small farms

Driver costs in small firms: Empirical analysis for farms

The agricultural sector has always been characterized by a predominance of small firms. International competition and the consequent need for restraining costs are permanent challenges for farms. This paper performs an empirical investigation of cost behavior in agriculture using panel data analysis. Our results show that transactions caused by complexity influence farm costs with opposite effects for specific and indirect costs. While transactions allow economies of scale in specific costs, they significantly increase indirect costs. However, the main driver for farm costs is volume. In addition, important differences exist for small and big farms, since transactional variables significantly influence the former but not the latter. While sophisticated management tools, such ABC, could provide only limited complementary useful information but no essential allocation bases for farms, they seem inappropriate for small farms

Customer knowledge processing in key account management

The ability of the supplier firm to generate and utilise customer-specific knowledge has attracted increasing attention in the academic literature during the last decade. It has been argued the customer knowledge should treated as a strategic asset the same as any other intangible assets. Yet, at the same time it has been shown that the management of customer-specific knowledge is challenging in practice, and that many firms are better at acquiring customer knowledge than at making use of it. This study examines customer knowledge processing in the context of key account management in large industrial firms. This focus was chosen because key accounts are demanding and complex. It is not unusual for a single key account relationship to constitute a complex web of relationships between the supplier and the key account – thus easily leading to the dispersion of customer-specific knowledge in the supplier firm. Although the importance of customer-specific knowledge generation has been widely acknowledged in the literature, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the processes through which firms generate, disseminate and use such knowledge internally for enhancing the relationships with their major, strategically important key account customers. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part comprises a theoretical overview and draws together the main findings of the study, whereas the second part consists of five complementary empirical research papers based on survey data gathered from large industrial firms in Finland. The findings suggest that the management of customer knowledge generated about and form key accounts is a three-dimensional process consisting of acquisition, dissemination and utilization. It could be concluded from the results that customer-specific knowledge is a strategic asset because the supplier’s customer knowledge processing activities have a positive effect on supplier’s key account performance. Moreover, in examining the determinants of each phase separately the study identifies a number of intra-organisational factors that facilitate the process in supplier firms. The main contribution of the thesis lies in linking the concept of customer knowledge processing to the previous literature on key account management. Moreover, given than this literature is mainly conceptual or case-based, a further contribution is to examine its consequences and determinants based on quantitative empirical data.

Improving product profitability control in continuous IT-services

The target of the thesis is to improve product profitability control in continuous IT-services. Accurate product cost accounting and correctly allocated revenues are a necessity for good product profitability control. The focus of the study is on costs and revenues that are not traced directly to services. The thesis is focused on revenue allocations as revenue allocation methods have not been used in the case company before. In order to achieve the target revenue allocation methods, which improve the product profitability accounting and control, are presented. The research methods used in the thesis are literature review and empirical case study. The research approach is constructive. The theoretical part is composed of literature and articles that create a base for the empirical part. Internal interviews describe the current situation in the company and based on it development actions are planned. The part of the empirical case study is seen mostly in the limitations as the research is limited to concern only one department in the company. Problems in the revenue tracing are caused by customer specific services and lack of service definitions because of which the revenues are not traced correctly. Methods to allocate revenues are presented in the thesis and stand-alone revenue allocation method is the most suitable one because it is fair and it can be modified. Approximate product profitability analysis is done in the thesis and the results of it indicate that some services are profitable and some unprofitable.

Determination of potential value drivers by identifying customer expectations and perceived value

The purpose of this exploratory research is to identify the potential value drivers regarding a new service offering. More specifically, the aim is to build understanding of customer expectations and perceived value of energy efficiency solutions in the building’s sector. The knowledge is then used in defining potential value drivers. The research is conducted from the customer’s perspective in a business-to-business context. The theory part of the master’s thesis focuses on discussing the antecedents of customer expectations and customer value. The theory gives implications how to determine value drivers and develop value propositions as well as conduct value assessment. The empirical part is based on the qualitative research method. The research was conducted as a single-case study, and the primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with potential customers. The results of the research revealed that the customer expectations are connected to being able to define value drivers. In addition, the research revealed generic themes relating to the offering and customer-supplier relationship, which help in the process of identifying potential value drivers. The results were discussed in terms of product-, service-, price- and relationship-related value drivers for the new service. Based on the data analysis the dominant value drivers are elaborated in terms of identified customer benefits and customer sacrifices (costs). Finally, some implications of value proposition and value assessment to support the value delivery were given.

Industry specific lifecycle services for process critical motors

This Master’s Thesis examines industrial service business and studies how Global Technical Support Center Finland, part of ABB Oy, can develop its lifecycle services based on availability related customer needs. Focus is in three most business critical industry segments OGP (Oil, Gas and Petrochemical), Power and Metals. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study, including literature review and empirical part. The literature review explores industrial service business, product lifecycle services and related customer needs, product effectiveness and maintenance. This study contains also characteristics of constructive research. Primary material was gathered through internal and external interviews. Both theme and semi-structured interviews were performed. This research has shown that customers have different needs depending of the industry segment where they operate. Most remarkable differences are related to maintenance schedules. The main outcomes of the study are the industry specific lifecycle service models that combine company recommendations with customer specific needs. Other development needs were related to proactivity, condition based monitoring, information sharing and lifecycle estimations.

An application of combinatorial optimization in the printing industry

Offset printing is a common method to produce large amounts of printed matter. We consider a real-world offset printing process that is used to imprint customer-specific designs on napkin pouches. The print- ing technology used yields a number of specific constraints. The planning problem consists of allocating designs to printing-plate slots such that the given customer demand for each design is fulfilled, all technologi- cal and organizational constraints are met and the total overproduction and setup costs are minimized. We formulate this planning problem as a mixed-binary linear program, and we develop a multi-pass matching-based savings heuristic. We report computational results for a set of problem instances devised from real-world data.

Planning of a make-to-order production process in the printing industry

Offset printing is a common method to produce large amounts of printed matter. We consider a real-world offset printing process that is used to imprint customer-specific designs on napkin pouches. The production equipment used gives rise to various technological constraints. The planning problem consists of allocating designs to printing-plate slots such that the given customer demand for each design is fulfilled, all technological and organizational constraints are met and the total overproduction and setup costs are minimized. We formulate this planning problem as a mixed-binary linear program, and we develop a multi-pass matching-based savings heuristic. We report computational results for a set of problem instances devised from real-world data.

New insights in the moderating effect of switching costs on the satisfaction-repurchase behavior link

Existing studies on the role of switching costs (SC) as moderator of the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase behavior are inconclusive. We attempt to explain these inconclusive findings by synthesizing an amplifying and a lock-in effect, and hypothesize a nonlinear moderating effect. In Study 1 (a main study and three replications), we find strong evidence for an inverted u-shaped moderating effect of overall SC. Our results suggest that satisfaction is a particularly important predictor of repurchase behavior in situations characterized by medium-levels of SC. Based on Prospect Theory, Study 2 (a main study and one replication) reveals that this inverted u-shaped moderating effect of SC is stronger for positive (relational and financial) SC than for negative (procedural) SC. We conclude with recommendations for satisfaction management of different customer segments, and describe possibilities to influence customer switching costs in various industries. © 2014 New York University.

Sistema múltiplo de apoio à decisão para a programação de sistemas do tipo Job-Shop

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Care cost for pregnant and parturient women with diabetes and mild hyperglycemia

OBJECTIVE: To compare inpatient and outpatient care costs for pregnant/parturient women with diabetes and mild hyperglycemia. METHODS: A prospective observational quantitative study was conducted in the Perinatal Diabetes Center in the city of Botucatu, Southeastern Brazil, between 2007 and 2008. Direct and indirect costs and disease-specific costs (medications and tests) were estimated. Thirty diet-treated pregnant women with diabetes were followed up on an outpatient basis, and 20 who required insulin therapy were hospitalized. RESULTS: The cost of diabetes disease (prenatal and delivery care) was US$ 3,311.84 for inpatients and US$ 1,366.04 for outpatients. CONCLUSIONS: Direct and indirect costs as well as total prenatal care cost were higher for diabetic inpatients while delivery care costs and delivery-postpartum hospitalization were similar. Prenatal and delivery-postpartum care costs were higher for these patients compared to those paid by Brazilian National Health System.