Target Costing and Kaizen Costing in Japanese Automobile Companies

Abstract

Cost management methods used by a company must be useful for the production of new products which meet the customers' demand at lowest cost as welt as an aid to cost reduction of existing products by eliminating wastes. To achieve this, companies need a total cost management system which includes target costing and Kaizen costing. The purpose of this paper is to explain features of the system of total cost management in Japanese automobile companies. This paper thus consists of two pillars (i) {"Target} costing," the system to support the cost reduction process in the developing and designing phase of a new model; and (ii) {"Kaizen} costing, the system to support the cost reduction process in the manufacturing phase of existing products. We would also like to emphasize that the management accounting system is functioning very well through target costing and Kaizen costing in Japanese automobile companies. {[ABSTRACT} {FROM} {AUTHOR]}