在20世紀80年代后期，信息管理系統(tǒng)的廣泛應用，使得實業(yè)界普遍感到產(chǎn)品成本處處與現(xiàn)實脫節(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化機械設(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用，作為期間費用的一部分進行成本核算，這與傳統(tǒng)的料工費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，在市場競爭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來搶占更多的市場份額，獲得更高的利潤。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，隨后這些信息會提供給生產(chǎn)部門，這樣一臺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)還會提供多功能、多種類的產(chǎn)品，以適應不同顧客的需要，產(chǎn)品市場百花齊放。

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

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)需要知道制造費用的起因，需要認識到哪些費用是固定的，哪些費用其實是可以避免的，需要對各種產(chǎn)品進行盈利分析，而所有的這些信息都會因傳統(tǒng)成本法的使用而失真，對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)品所消耗的資源對產(chǎn)品成本進行精確的歸集成了迫切需要解決的難題。

美國哈佛大學的青年學者庫伯（Robin Cooper）和教授卡普蘭（Robert S Kaplan）在對美國公司調(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)的成本計算，Activity Based Costing（簡稱ABC成本法）應運而生。

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成本法要識別不同活動的成本，并把他們分到不同的活動成本庫（Activity cost pool），活動成本庫可以根據(jù)企業(yè)實際經(jīng)營所發(fā)生的各種活動，靈活加以確定。它們可能包括設(shè)置調(diào)試機器、訂貨、材料處理、儲存、發(fā)運、生產(chǎn)過程監(jiān)管、供電等。對成本驅(qū)動因素（cost driver）的分析有助于確定把制造費用分配到各個產(chǎn)品或產(chǎn)品系列上的適當比率。

第二步是運用這些比率把成本庫中的制造費用分攤到各個產(chǎn)品中。分攤成本要基于生產(chǎn)這個產(chǎn)品需要消耗的成本活動量。

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)成本方法對固定制造費用的歸集比較簡單粗暴，這種方法雖然簡單，但是由此產(chǎn)生的成本信息很可能是錯誤的，容易對決策產(chǎn)生誤導。

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)付出更多的時間、金錢和精力，以獲得更精確可靠的信息，來用這些信息進行管理決策。但是對所發(fā)生的的成本的透徹理解也是一個好的績效管理所必需的。

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