ABC does not show the costs that will be avoided by discontinuing a product or by producing fewer batches of it. (See the discussion of differential costs in Chapter 19) ABC shows how much batch-level and product-level activity is devoted to each product, not how much less money will be spent if fewer products or batches are produced. If ABC shows a low-volume product is a money-loser, the entire loss cannot be avoided by discontinuing the product because some costs assigned to the product may not be avoidable. For example, even if fewer setups are performed, the company may continue to employ all its setup personnel, pay them the same salaries, and retain all their equipment. If fewer design changes are made, the company may not terminate any design engineers and may not spend any less to maintain the computers and software they use. Especially if the numbers of setups and design changes show only small reductions, there may not be any resources on which the firm can begin spending less money. ABC attempts to show each product’s long-run consumption of resources; it does not predict how spending will be affected by certain decisions.