Modern Cost Management and Analysis †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Modern Cost Management and Analysis. Answer: Introduction Senior Plc is a holding company and a provider of the engineering solutions. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and a part of the FTSE 250 Index. It is a pioneer in the international arena with providing solution in more than 14 countries (Senior Plc, 2016). The company was established in the year 1933 by a group of employees of Green Economisers Ltd. The business has enhanced from that point of time and transformed into an international Group of manufacturing that is engaged in design, production, and marketing of parts that are technologically related and even engaged in manufacture of equipment that relates to defense, energy mark, aerospace, etc. The main aim of the group is to create growth that pertains to long-term and sustainable in nature with maximization of the shareholder value. This is done through a culture of self-defined and operations that are collaborative in nature with a robust framework. The vision is to become a leader that is trusted on a grand scale and become a high value added company of engineering and manufacturing that produces sustainable growth in terms of operating profit, cash flow and shareholder value (Senior Plc, 2016). The managerial performance helped the company to ensure a successful year. The managerial force ensured a high level of performance operating system that attracts a high level of performance from other groups. The performance was of high magnitude owing to the practices such as loans and regular enhancement tools (Senior Plc, 2016). The managerial force led to strong techniques when it comes to management of supplier, risk and financial management and hence strengthened the overall business. Balance scorecard technique was introduced that stressed on performance. Senior Plc provides a variety of products and caters to commercial aerospace, as well as defense markets. The system for structures, conveyance, engines of gas turbines is also dealt with. The solution stretches to military and aircraft of commercial nature, jet engines and programs of NASA. Secondly, it serves the market with products that cater to emission control of vehicles (land) and control tools for an industrial process (Senior Plc, 2016). Senior Flexonics contains manufacturing, as well as distribution facilities on an extensive basis. The performance in the year 2016 was strong for Senior Plc where revenue of 917.0m was delivered, an increment of 8% over the previous year. The cash generation was strong where cash flow appeared at 48.5m.The company issued dividend of 4.62 pence on every share and the proposed dividend was at 6.57 pence per share. Further, in the year 2016, the group made a strong progress in the achievement of 20/20 vision (Senior Plc, 2016). Value chain of the company The value chain of the company can be described as a process through which the company adds utility to the article that is related to production, marketing, and after-sales service. Senior Plc considers the below-mentioned points to ensure robust growth. The value of the company consists of child labor exclusion, health, and safety of the workers, free to join and form trade unions, access of workers to procedures that are fair and management of the influence of environment. The principles are communicated to the suppliers so that a better result can be obtained. Further, the whistleblowing policy has been established that influences the employees, customers and other partners to report any concerns that come in their way. This procedure has made it easy for the employees to raise their concern and omitting any fear of danger. The program of awareness raising is a major initiative that was undertaken by the group in the code of training to provide a better exposure that will ultimate ly lead to a better practice. The process of planning, controlling and decision-making is one of the prime activities of the managers. In the case of Senior Plc, planning can be defined as the formulation of activity that will enable to achieve the goal. Planning is done by identification of the methods to move towards the goal. For Senior Plc, the manager initiates a program of supplier evaluation that helps in identification and selection of supplier that provides material of zero defect. It helps to trace the matter of defective materials and hence, a new method can be designed for reworking. Controlling is another important managerial function that enables to make corrective actions whenever needed. After the planning process, the plan is implemented and the employees work on it. Feedback is taken to assess the plan. As per the feedback, corrective actions are taken to ensure the plan is not hindered. This helps in framing the financial report in a prudent manner. It is a process that is taken into consideration the best solution from various alternatives. It is a collaboration between the process of planning and controlling. The managers of Senior Plc are always in the hunt for a better practice and redefine the plan with the due passage of time. Further, accounting information system is inserted into the system that helps in the better course of action as the major work are automated and hence, the decision-making process is simplified. Further, the presence of the project team in Senior Plc ensures that the change in the decision happens at a very early stage if needed. Management Information Tools used by Senior PLC Management Accounting involves the use of financial statements and other relevant financial records of the company for analyzing the financial performance of business and planning for the future growth of the company. Management accounting plays a very important role in strategic planning and decision making in decisions like make or buy, expansion of business, acquiring a new business, etc (Lanen et. al, 2008). There are a number of Management Accounting tools which assist in the strategic planning and decision making for a company. In the company named Senior PLC, there are various management accounting tools that have been used in the effective decision-making process and assessing the companys financial performance: Financial analysis has been done by the company by presenting the Consolidated Financial Statements for the Year 2016 along with the previous year so as to make it easier for the management and the users of the financial statements to compare the financial position at the year end. Gearing Ratio is used by the company to monitor the capital. It calculates gearing ratio by dividing net debt by the total capital. Interest coverage ratio is also computed by the company to assess the time's interest is covered by EBITDA. Comparative statements and graphs have been used by the company in its Annual Report which is a very important management accounting tools to compare the profitability, incomes, and expenses of the company. Graphs and charts are easy to read and understand by all the users of financial statements (Needles Powers, 2013). Cash flow Analysis has been used by the company by preparing Cash Flow Statements and comparing them with that of the previous year so that the movement of cash from one period to another can be summarized and the reasons for any adverse movement be controlled (Horngren Foster, 2008). Return on Capital Employed is also considered by the company and has taken the target of increasing the Return on Capital Employed more than the cost of capital and increasing the pre-tax rate of return over 15%. Financial Risk Management is done by the company to minimize the adverse impact of potential risks to the financial performance of the company such as foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk, etc. Other Ratios and measures also have been used by the company such as Earning Per Share, Adjusted EPS , Total Shareholders Return, etc. so that the shareholders can be able to assess the return that they are getting by investing their funds in the company in the form of purchasing of shares (Spiceland et. al, 2011). Such ratios help in determining the per share return that the shareholders are earning from the company. Apart from the tools mentioned above, the company has tried to present the financial position of the company and other benefits to the stakeholders of the company in its annual report through various disclosures in its notes to accounts. Recommendations for Management tools Following Management Accounting Tools can be used by the company Senior PLC which can be useful to the company in strategic planning, decision making, and financial performance assessment just by accessing the Annual Reports: Cost Accounting is an accounting approach that is used to record all the data related to costs of the products manufactured by the company. Such data can be department-wise, process-wise, product-wise, segment-wise or any other relevant allocation. Cost accounting helps the management in many ways as the costs are pre-determined and then compared with actual costs incurred (Vanderbeck, 2013). The difference or deviations are then found out and planning is done so that any adverse deviations are minimized to the best possible extent. Standard costing- It will show the standard costs that will be pre-determined for the products to be manufactured and comparison will be possible with the actual costs incurred during various steps of the manufacturing Such comparison will be helpful in finding deviations between actual costs and the estimated costs so that steps can be taken to minimize such deviations (Robinson Last, 2009). All these particulars can be mentioned in the Annual Report. It is a great tool to standardize your operation at the start of the year and working and comparing data to implement corrective measures. Marginal costing: It is a technique which helps in taking up new orders or projects like taking up the new order at 100 % capacity or less than 100% capacity utilized. It uses fixed cost, variable cost and contribution concepts to arrive at management decisions. Marginal costing helps in finding out the cost of next best alternative. It helps in the best utilization of available resources (Needles, 2011). The company many times are confronted with investment decisions. Such investment may require use of already utilized resources. At this moment concept of Marginal costing help to take the best decision (Venanci, 2012). There are many other tools for deriving out useful data for management decision making. Other tools that are available to a Management`s aid include: Cash flows forecasting and its discounting helps in identifying cash availability and help in a capital expansion like the purchase of capital assets. The business uses these to plan expenditure and to see where it might need to borrow (Charles, 2012). Budgeting helps in spending well and to find out where the company is spending excessively and to pull back their Budgeting helps the business to see where it will incur costs and where revenues will come from (Lary Christopher, 2012). They are particularly important in helping to coordinate the different parts or activities of a business. Variances analysis is an important tool to show the difference between what was forecasted to happen (in a budget) and what actually is the outcome. The reasons are further analyzed for corrections and finally, corrective measures are implemented. Management accountants can then work on to see how the business can maintain on positive variances or avoid negative variances in future (Shim Siegel, 2009). Investment appraisal is another tool which helps to decide whether a particular investment proposal is worthwhile or not. It looks at the costs of investing against the opportunity cost of such investment (Charles, 2012). For example: To open up a new factory or purchase of any new machinery by withdrawing sum of money from business or bank. Conclusion From the above report, it is evident that the management of Senior Plc is strong and uses the different accounting methods in a prudent manner. The company operates on a global front and with the aid of the management it has been able to create a niche for itself in the market. Further, it can be seen that if the company wants to expand it can use certain other management accounting tools for better planning and control. References Charles, T.S 2012, Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, Pearson Education Horngren, C T Foster, G 2008, Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis: United States Edition Lanen, W. N, Anderson, S Maher, M. W 2008, Fundamentals of cost accounting, NY: Hang Loose press. Needles, S. C 2011, Managerial Accounting, Nason , USA: South-Western Cengage Learning . Needles, B. E. Powers, M 2013, Principles of Financial Accounting. New York Press Robinson, M., Last, D 2009, Budgetary Control Model: The Process of Translation. Accounting, Organization, and Society, NY Press Shim, J. K Siegel, J G 2009, Modern Cost Management and Analysis, Barron's Education Series Spiceland, J., Thomas, W Herrmann, D 2011, Financial accounting, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin University Press Vanderbeck, E J 2013, Principles of Cost Accounting, Oxford university press Venanci, D 2012, Financial Performance Measures and Value Creation , State of art . New York: Springer. Larry M. W Christopher J. S2012, Managerial and Cost Accounting, Pearson Press Senior Plc 2016, Senior Plc Business Model, viewed 17 May 2017 https://www.seniorplc.com/about-us/our-business-model.aspx Senior Plc 2016, Senior Plc annual report and accounts 2016, viewed 17 May 2017 https://www.seniorplc.com/~/media/Files/S/Senior-PLC/reports-and-presentations/annual-report-2016.pdf