Implementation of Management Accounting Methods in Morrison Supermarket Essay

William Morrison Supermarkets plc. is specialized in nutrient and food market. In the really beginning, Morrisons was merely a Bradford market stall set up in 1899. Gradually it was expanded into store, supermarket and eventually went public in 1967. In 1978, Morrisons took over Whelan Stores in Lancashire, which meant that it began to spread out out of Bradford. Later on, fresh nutrient mill, warehouse and distribution centre were built. Then Morrisons shops were opened another and yet another across British, going a national supermarket group. To praise him for lending to nutrient retailing, Ken Morrison was awarded a Knighthood on January 2000. In add-on, because its gross revenues and net income had increased stably over 35 old ages, Jim morrisons entered the FTSE 100 in April 2001. From 2004 to 2005, Morrison acquired Sateway, Rathbones and Kepak Buchan one after another, ranking the 4th among UK ‘s supermarkets. The ground why Morrison is operated so good and keeps a stable growing is that it ever tries every agency to supply its clients with better service and best goods. For illustration, in September 2006, Morrisons made fish labeling inventions, on the label stating the clients where the fish came and how they were caught or farmed besides what name each fish is. Jim morrisons attempts to maximise its net incomes. Meanwhile, it pays more attending to environment friendly, utilizing compostable packaging made from environment friendly stuffs alternatively of fictile packaging. Jim morrisons looks for the local supply beginning of goods around it in order to do the nutrient fresh and better command the goods quality.

From the above brief to Morrisons, we can see that Morrisons has its ain a set of purposes and ever develops itself towards these purposes measure by measure. As the director of Morrisons, he should make up one’s mind how to do full usage of resource, activities and staff from Jim morrisons to accomplish these purposes. Before doing determination, the director must get the hang plentifulness of information. He needs to cipher each merchandise ‘s cost and monetary value it. In order to cipher merchandise cost exactly he should follow activity-based costing system, so he needs to place many activity cost pool and happen proper cost driver for each activity. ABC system enables the director to understand the relationship between concern activities and cost. During pricing, cost is a cardinal to believe about, but the director should besides cognize better about the relationship between cost, volume and net income. As we know, Morrisons processes most of the fresh nutrient though our ain fabrication installations and sell it in its shops. Every twenty-four hours Morrisons receives many large orders. Because of limited machines, the director has to do determination to take the order with richer net incomes. At this minute, he needs to foretell unit part border of each order for doing determination, so analyse this determination by sensitiveness analysis. In add-on, the director should utilize criterions to direction. When there is discrepancy between the criterion cost and existent cost of the fresh nutrient, the director should analyse and work out this issue. In the undermentioned portion, I will give elaborate accounts on how the director uses some direction accounting methods or techniques to pull off concern of Morrisons and make its ends.

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2. Execution of Management Accounting Methods in Morrisons

When the director calculates the cost of fresh beef, he should follow activity-based costing ( ABC ) system. Specifically talking, he needs to assign indirect cost to merchandise severally in two different phases. At the first phase, indirect cost is allotted into five activity cost pools, including beef procurance, beef credence, treating machine, packaging and the administrative forces. At the 2nd phase, the cost driver of each activity pool is identified. For illustration, treating machine ‘s cost driver is machine hr. Harmonizing to machine hr, cost for treating machine is assigned to 3 different merchandise lines of beef, lamb and porc. Similarly, the indirect cost of beef in the other activity cost pools will besides be worked out. Plus direct cost of beef, entire variable beef cost will be available. Here cost driver means the typical event or activity which incurs cost. ABC method enables the director to acquire a more precise beef cost. For pricing, the director should utilize cost-volume-profit ( CVP ) analysis method to cover with ( Please see Figure 1 CVP graph ) . Let ‘s go on to take beef pricing as an case. Now we have got variable beef cost. On one manus, it is all right every bit long as beef monetary value is more than its variable cost ; on the other manus, there is still a fixed cost. If its monetary value is much higher, its gross revenues volume will be bound to travel down. When this volume is lower than break-even point, the disbursal will be over gross incurring a loss in Morrisons. Break-even point is gross revenues volume point at which gross is equal to write off. Equally long as beef gross revenues volume is more than this point, net incomes can be made. Therefore, CVP analysis has influenced pricing greatly. Now there are two orders severally for two sorts of staff of life. One is called Chesty and the other is called Nusty. Because the machine hr is limited the director has to do determination to take one order. It is predicted that Nusty is more than Chesty in unit part border, so it seems advisable to take Nusty. However, sing the machine hr per unit, Chesty is more than Nusty in part border per machine hr. Finally it is right to take Chesty. Because Chesty and Nusty ‘s unit part border is predictable and unsure, it is necessary to see how sensitive this determination is against unsure parametric quantity by sensitiveness analysis technique. First measure is to do part border per machine hr of Chesty same as Nusty and so unit part border of Chesty will drop by a rate. This rate will stand for the sensitive grade of this determination. Morrisons has its ain farms and fabrication installations, so many fresh nutrient sold in its shops are produced by it, including the delightful sandwich fillers. The director needs to contrast the criterion cost and existent cost by utilizing discrepancy analysis method. For the important cost discrepancy, the trough must happen out the ground to take remedial actions for avoiding the heavy loss. The director finds the standard cost of sandwich fillers is much more than the existent cost in May. By ciphering direct stuff discrepancy and direct labour discrepancy, he finds a worker tries a new method to do sandwich fillers, both bettering efficiency and salvaging stuffs. In the terminal, the worker gets large award money for his invention. In decision, these direction accounting methods help the director a batch with Morrisons concern.

3. Benefits of Management Accounting Methods to Jim morrisons

Compared with traditional costing method which makes the merchandise cost overrated, ABC method enables the director to cipher the merchandise cost more exactly, so the goods monetary value in Jim morrisons are more competitory. Furthermore, ABC method is good for measuring concern public presentation of every activity. Based on the public presentation, the director will believe about which non-value-added activities are and how to cut down or extinguish these non-value-added costs. This may explicate why most of Jim morrisons nutrient and natural stuffs come from the country around each shop. It saves transit cost and clip, every bit good as storage cost. It is unneeded to order nutrient and stuffs, because the provider is nearby. CVP analysis assists the director in detecting the break-even point which lets him cognize the current gross revenues volume is doing net incomes or taking losingss, and what the gross revenues volume will be and how the merchandise is priced for the intent of doing its coveted net incomes, every bit good as how the net incomes change with the gross revenues volume. To make this coveted gross revenues volume, the director must do determinations and planning. For illustration, the director may seek to increase gross revenues volume by gross revenues publicity, such as giving price reduction or purchasing one and acquiring another free. The relationship between cost, volume and net income help the director to analyse and do a determination on opening another Morrisons shop, farm, and fabricating mill, or replacing old machines or adding new machines. Sensitivity analysis is able to assist the director to make up one’s mind which parametric quantities are the most of import to do right determinations. For illustration, by utilizing sensitiveness analysis in the relationship between cost, volume and net income of fresh nutrient, the trough will cognize about which influences the break-even point and desired net incomes the most among unit monetary value, unit variable cost, fixed cost and gross revenues volume. Then the director will do determinations and be aftering harmonizing to the information. In add-on, sensitiveness analysis can besides help the director in analyze if it is necessary to alter the made determination when the anticipation on critical parametric quantity is proved to be incorrect, therefore assisting the director to avoid doing unsighted alteration every bit shortly as he sees the anticipation on critical parametric quantity is proved to be incorrect. Variance analysis will convey two sorts of consequence. One is advantageous discrepancy and the other is disadvantageous discrepancy. Advantageous discrepancy from direct labor will demo the employee may make a more efficient method of work. The director will praise this employee for his invention by some manner, such as award money, which will promote all employees in Morrisons to better efficiency. Meanwhile, the director can cognize more about this efficient method of work by probe and see if it is executable to implement this new method to other treating sections of Morrisons. Disadvantageous discrepancy from direct stuff makes the director understand the cost alteration of stuffs so as to command cost and budget exactly for the hereafter, while disadvantageous discrepancy from direct labour will give the director a intimation to look into the ground and take actions in clip forestalling the issue from enlarging.

4. Restrictions of Management Accounting Methods

Although direction accounting methods can convey many benefits to Morrions, they have some restrictions. ABC method makes bing complex and increase bing work. Morrions will hold to use more accounting people. This no uncertainty will increase the operating cost of Morrions. After the direction in Morrions measures the benefits brought and increased cost by ABC method, they will do a determination to follow ABC method or non. Furthermore, cost drivers are keys to ABC method, but they may be hard to place and easy to alter, which will impact the truth of related informations. It is hard to exactly delegate how much cost to which activity and how much cost in each activity to which merchandise. This will act upon the truth of merchandise cost. In CVP analysis, it is non rather accurate to split entire cost, particularly variable cost. In the existent economic activities, as the production and gross revenues volume is over some scope, fixed cost will hold a ladder alteration while variable cost will be affected by concern size and productiveness changing in curve line. In a longer clip, it is impossible that the material monetary value maintain the same. Therefore, it is impossible that the relationship between entire cost and gross revenues gross is ever additive. In add-on, the factors impacting cost and gross are non merely production and gross revenues volume, but besides productiveness and market conditions. Finally, no affair how good Morrions make the anticipation and planning, the existent production and gross revenues volume is seldom the same as the anticipation and planning. When analysing how sensitive unit monetary value is against the coveted net incomes by utilizing sensitiveness analysis, there is an premise that the others factors are non unchangeable. In fact, the alteration of one factor frequently causes the alteration of other factors. For illustration, the director wants to accomplish the net income purpose by raising the unit monetary value of porc, but if pork monetary value is raised porc gross revenues volume will no uncertainty travel down so that the net income purpose can still non be reached. Furthermore, sensitiveness analysis is able to assist the director make right determination, but sometimes it is unexpected. Let ‘s take the mentioned Chesty and Nusty staff of life as an illustration. By sensitiveness analysis Chesty should hold more unit part border, but it has still a little opportunity that the existent unit part border of Nusty is more than Chesty. Variance analysis will take much clip. The director is so busy that he has no clip to look into every ground for discrepancy between existent cost and standard cost. However, he must look into the ground for important discrepancy between existent cost and standard cost. How will the director justice which discrepancy he should look into and which discrepancy he should disregard? This inquiry is difficult to reply. Generally, the director frequently justice to look into some discrepancy ground or non by his guessing, foreboding and establishment. As we know, guessing, foreboding and establishment are unsure and frequently do a error, so that some discrepancy ground he takes plentifulness of clip to look into may be meaningfulness while another discrepancy ground he does non look into is so utile.

In decision, merely like a coin with two sides, direction accounting methods are advantageous, but they have their ain restrictions.

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