Cost reduction and continuous improvement: a longitudinal case study

Abstract

In today’s environment one of the top priorities for organizations is to costs without affecting dramatically organization survival. Therefore, the aim of this paper is provide evidence on (1) the importance of Management Accounting information for cost reduction purposes and (2) the role of some Control System components in order to carry out this strategy. A longitudinal case study has been conducted to this purpose at a Spanish subsidiary of a multinational chemical group. This chemical plant introduced a cost reduction project in the mid 1990s. The most salient results were on the one hand, the implementation of quality circles and internal benchmarking practices and, on the other hand the importance of both formal and non-formal Control System components in order to successfully achieve the project’s objectives.