Cost Management in the Supply Chain: an integrated approach

We present an analytical tool to identify the optimal supply chain design and resource allocation that integrates supply chain planning with information from management accounting. Using costing data based on Time-Driven Activity Based Costing techniques, an optimization model determines the most beneficial route to market (i.e., with the lowest cost-to-serve) given the resource constraints in the supply chain. Since Time-Driven Activity Based Costing expresses costs in units of time spent on a resource, it can be combined with supply chain capacity planning, thus integrating supply chain optimization and costing. Based on a validation with practitioners in retail companies and their suppliers, we discuss the insights that the model can provide for practical use.