Concept explainers
Suppy chain management
The following is an excerpt from an article discussing supplier relationships with the Big Three North American automakers.
“The Big Three select suppliers on the basis of lowest price and annual price reductions,” said Neil De Koker, president of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association. “They look globally for the lowest parts prices from the lowest cost countries,” De Koker said. “There is little trust and respect. Collaboration is missing” Japanese automakers want long-term supplier relationships. They select suppliers as a person would a mate. The Big Three are quick to beat down prices with methods such as electronic auctions or rebidding work to a competitor. The Japanese are equally tough on price but are committed to maintaining supplier continuity. “They work with you to arrive at a competitive price, and they are willing to pay because they want long-term partnering,” said Carl Code, a vice president at Ernie Green Industries. “They [Honda (HMC) and Toyota (TM)] want suppliers to make enough money to stay in business, grow, and bring them innovation” The Big Three's supply chain model is not much different from the one set by Henry Ford. In 1913, he set up the system of independent supplier firms operating at arm's length on short-term contracts. One consequence of the Big Three's low-price-at-all-costs mentality is that suppliers are reluctant to offer them their cutting-edge technology out of fear the contract will be resourced before the research and development costs are recouped.
Source: Robert Sherefkin and Amy Wilson, “Suppliers Prefer Japanese Business Model," Rubber & Plastics News, March 17, 2003, Vol. 24, No. 11.
- A. Contrast the Japanese supply chain model with that of the Big Three.
- B. Why might a supplier prefer the Japanese model?
- C. What benefits might accrue to the Big Three by adopting the Japanese supply chain practices?
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Financial And Managerial Accounting
- Paterson Company, a U.S.-based company, manufactures and sells electronic components worldwide. Virtually all its manufacturing takes place in the United States. The company has marketing divisions throughout Europe, including France. Debbie Kishimoto, manager of this division, was hired from a competitor 3 years ago. Debbie, recently informed of a price increase in one of the major product lines, requested a meeting with Jeff Phillips, marketing vice president. Their conversation follows. Debbie: Jeff, I simply dont understand why the price of our main product has increased from 5.00 to 5.50 per unit. We negotiated an agreement earlier in the year with our manufacturing division in Philadelphia for a price of 5.00 for the entire year. I called the manager of that division. He said that the original price was still acceptablethat the increase was a directive from headquarters. Thats why I wanted to meet with you. I need some explanations. When I was hired, I was told that pricing decisions were made by the divisions. This directive interferes with this decentralized philosophy and will lower my divisions profits. Given current market conditions, there is no way we can pass on the cost increase. Profits for my division will drop at least 600,000 if this price is maintained. I think a midyear increase of this magnitude is unfair to my division. Jeff: Under normal operating conditions, headquarters would not interfere with divisional decisions. But as a company, we are having some problems. What you just told me is exactly why the price of your product has been increased. We want the profits of all our European marketing divisions to drop. Debbie: What do you mean that you want the profits to drop? That doesnt make any sense. Arent we in business to make money? Jeff: Debbie, what you lack is corporate perspective. We are in business to make money, and thats why we want European profits to decrease. Our U.S. divisions are not doing well this year. Projections show significant losses. At the same time, projections for European operations show good profitability. By increasing the cost of key products transferred to Europeto your division, for examplewe increase revenues and profits in the United States. By decreasing your profits, we avoid paying taxes in France. With losses on other U.S. operations to offset the corresponding increase in domestic profits, we avoid paying taxes in the United States as well. The net effect is a much-needed increase in our cash flow. Besides, you know how hard it is in some of these European countries to transfer out capital. This is a clean way of doing it. Debbie: Im not so sure that its clean. I cant imagine the tax laws permitting this type of scheme. There is another problem, too. You know that the companys bonus plans are tied to a divisions profits. This plan could cost all of the European managers a lot of money. Jeff: Debbie, you have no reason to worry about the effect on your bonusor on our evaluation of your performance. Corporate management has already taken steps to ensure no loss of compensation. The plan is to compute what income would have been if the old price had prevailed and base bonuses on that figure. Ill meet with the other divisional managers and explain the situation to them as well. Debbie: The bonus adjustment seems fair, although I wonder if the reasons for the drop in profits will be remembered in a couple of years when Im being considered for promotion. Anyway, I still have some strong ethical concerns about this. How does this scheme relate to the tax laws? Jeff: We will be in technical compliance with the tax laws. In the United States, Section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code governs this type of transaction. The key to this law, as well as most European laws, is evidence of an arms-length price. Since youre a distributor, we can use the resale price method to determine such a price. Essentially, the arms-length price for the transferred good is backed into by starting with the price at which you sell the product and then adjusting that price for the markup and other legitimate differences, such as tariffs and transportation. Debbie: If I were a French tax auditor, I would wonder why the markup dropped from last year to this year. Are we being good citizens and meeting the fiscal responsibilities imposed on us by each country in which we operate? Jeff: Well, a French tax auditor might wonder about the drop in markup. But, the markup is still within reason, and we can make a good argument for increased costs. In fact, weve already instructed the managers of our manufacturing divisions to legitimately reassign as many costs as they can to the European product lines. So far, they have been very successful. I think our records will support the increase that you are receiving. You really do not need to be concerned with the tax authorities. Our tax department assures me that this has been carefully researchedits unlikely that a tax audit will create any difficulties. Itll all be legal and above board. Weve done this several times in the past with total success. Required: 1. Do you think that the tax-minimization scheme described to Debbie Kishimoto is in harmony with the ethical behavior that should be displayed by top corporate executives? Why or why not? What would you do if you were Debbie? 2. Apparently, the tax department of Paterson Company has been strongly involved in developing the tax-minimization scheme. Assume that the accountants responsible for the decision are CMAs and members of the IMA, subject to the IMA standards of ethical conduct. Review the IMA standards for ethical conduct in Chapter 1. Are any of these standards being violated by the accountants in Patersons tax department? If so, identify them. What should these tax accountants do if requested to develop a questionable taxminimization scheme?arrow_forwardDanna Martin, president of Mays Electronics, was concerned about the end-of-the year marketing report that she had just received. According to Larry Savage, marketing manager, a price decrease for the coming year was again needed to maintain the companys annual sales volume of integrated circuit boards (CBs). This would make a bad situation worse. The current selling price of 18 per unit was producing a 2-per-unit profithalf the customary 4-per-unit profit. Foreign competitors kept reducing their prices. To match the latest reduction would reduce the price from 18 to 14. This would put the price below the cost to produce and sell it. How could these firms sell for such a low price? Determined to find out if there were problems with the companys operations, Danna decided to hire a consultant to evaluate the way in which the CBs were produced and sold. After two weeks, the consultant had identified the following activities and costs: The consultant indicated that some preliminary activity analysis shows that per-unit costs can be reduced by at least 7. Since the marketing manager had indicated that the market share (sales volume) for the boards could be increased by 50% if the price could be reduced to 12, Danna became quite excited. Required: 1. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION What is activity-based management? What phases of activity analysis did the consultant provide? What else remains to be done? 2. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Identify as many nonvalue-added costs as possible. Compute the cost savings per unit that would be realized if these costs were eliminated. Was the consultant correct in the preliminary cost reduction assessment? Discuss actions that the company can take to reduce or eliminate the nonvalue-added activities. 3. Compute the unit cost required to maintain current market share, while earning a profit of 4 per unit. Now compute the unit cost required to expand sales by 50%, assuming a per-unit profit of 4. How much cost reduction would be required to achieve each unit cost? 4. Assume that further activity analysis revealed the following: switching to automated insertion would save 60,000 of engineering support and 90,000 of direct labor. Now, what is the total potential cost reduction per unit available from activity analysis? With these additional reductions, can Mays achieve the unit cost to maintain current sales? To increase it by 50%? What form of activity analysis is this: reduction, sharing, elimination, or selection? 5. CONCEPTUAL CONNECTION Calculate income based on current sales, prices, and costs. Then calculate the income by using a 14 price and a 12 price, assuming that the maximum cost reduction possible is achieved (including Requirement 4s reduction). 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