Costing techniques in manufacturing industry

Northcott& Llewellyn (2002) cite costing statistics for primary hip replacement operations across a range of Health Trusts in the UK. The cost of the procedure in 1999/2000 varied from £480 to £9337, with an average cost of £3899.

Required: suggest at least five reasons to account for the very large differences in the cost of the procedure between health care providers. (Hint: obtain and read the paper!)

Bushey Travel is an on-line travel agent. Clients can book on-line or by phoning the company’s headquarters which are located in a business park. Bushey Travel operates as an agency only (i.e. it does not provide holidays itself). It obtains commission on the cost of the holiday from the supplier of the holiday.

Required: identify the principal categories of cost involved in Bushey Travel’s operations

(NB no answer is provided for this question.) This chapter cites work by Hughes and Paulson Gjerde, 2003. There are other studies of the incidence of management accounting practices.

Required: research the use of costing techniques in manufacturing industry using academic journal sources, and write a brief paper summarising the findings. The paper should be fully referenced using the Harvard system of referencing (if this is unfamiliar, a web search will produce many comprehensive explanations of the system) or another system recommended by your lecturer.

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