Target costing has been recognized as an important tool for lowering costs and increasing competitiveness for over a decade. A 1991 Fortune Magazine article touted target costing as ‘‘Japan’s smart secret weapon’’ (Worthy, 1991). Target costing is a process whereby an organization determines the ‘‘estimated selling price’’ for its product or service, less the ‘‘desired profit,’’ with the remainder equaling the ‘‘target cost.’’ The target cost amount must cover all of the firm’s expenses for producing/procuring the product or service: purchased-in costs, costs of production and other operating costs such as marketing, sales and research expenses. Given that external purchases constitute approximately 60 percent of the cost of sales for most manufacturers and around 25 percent of the cost of sales for service providers,external suppliers have a significant impact on a firm’s ability to achieve desired target costs.
The purpose of this research is to explore the role of the purchasing function and its relationship to suppliers as it affects the target costing process in western- economy, primarily US-based, companies. While the role of suppliers in target costing has been emphasized in previous studies (Cooper and which is generally the primary interface with suppliers, and suppliers in the target costing process.
After a brief explanation of target costing and a review of the literature related to target costing, this paper presents the results of an in-depth study of eleven organizations involved in target costing. The research questions explored here are:
Slagmulder, 1997), how suppliers interface with the buying organization has been less well understood (Ellram, 1999). Thus, this paper explores the interaction between purchasing,which is generally the primary interface with suppliers, and suppliers in the target costing process.
After a brief explanation of target costing and a review of the literature related to target costing, this paper presents the results of an in-depth study of eleven organizations involved in target costing. The research questions explored here are: