Tactical decision making Choosing among alternatives with an immediate or limited end in view.

Taguchi loss function A function that assumes any variation from the target value of a quality characteristic causes hidden quality costs. Tangible products Goods that are produced by converting raw materials through the use of labor and capital inputs such as plant, land, and machinery. Target cost The difference between the sales price needed to achieve a projected market share and the desired per-unit profit.

Target costing A method of determining the cost of a product or service based on the price (target price) that customers are willing to pay. Tariff The tax on imports levied by the federal government.

Technical efficiency The point at which, for any mix of inputs that will produce a given output, no more of any one input is used than is absolutely necessary.

Testable strategy A set of linked objectives aimed at an overall goal that system that simultaneously satisfies the three objectives of accurate

performance evaluation, goal congruence, and autonomy.

Transferred-in costs Costs transferred from a prior process to a subsequent process.

Translation (or accounting) risk The degree to which a firm’s financial statements are exposed to exchange rate fluctuation.

Treasurer The person responsible for the finance function. Specifically, the treasurer raises capital and manages cash and investments.

Turnover The ratio of sales to average

operating assets. U

Underapplied overhead The amount by which actual overhead exceeds applied overhead.

Unfavorable (U) variances Variances produced whenever the actual input amounts are greater than the budgeted or standard allowances.

Unit cost Total costs assigned to a product divided by units of product. Unit-level activities Activities that are performed each time a unit is produced. Unit-level activity drivers Factors that measure the consumption of unit-level activities by products and other cost objects.

Unit-level drivers (See Production drivers.) Unrealized external failure (societal) costs Environmental costs caused by an organization but paid for by society. Unused capacity variance The difference between acquired capacity

(practical capacity) and actual capacity. Usage (efficiency) variance The difference between standard quantities and actual quantities multiplied by standard price. V

Value-added activities Activities that are necessary for a business to can be restated into a sequence of cause-and-effect hypotheses.

Theoretical activity capacity The activity output possible if the activity is performed with perfect efficiency.

Throughput The rate at which an organization generates money through sales.

Time buffer The inventory needed to keep the constrained resource busy for a specified time interval. Time ticket A source document by which direct labor costs are assigned

to individual jobs.

Total budget variance The difference between the actual cost of an input and its planned cost.

Total preventive maintenance A program of preventive maintenance that

has zero machine failures as its standard. Total product The complete range of tangible and intangible benefits that a customer receives from a purchased product.

Total productive efficiency The point at which technical and price efficiency are achieved.

Total productivity measurement An assessment of productive efficiency for all inputs combined.

Total quality management An approach to quality in which

manufacturers strive to create an environment that will enable workers to manufacture perfect (zero-defect) products.

Traceability The ability to assign a cost directly to a cost object in an economically feasible way using a causal relationship.

Tracing Assigning costs to a cost object using an observable measure of the cost object’s resource consumption. Transaction risk The possibility that future cash transactions will be affected by changing exchange rates. Transfer price The price charged for goods transferred from one division to another.

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achieve corporate objectives and remain in business.

Value-added costs Costs caused by value-added activities.

Value-added standard The optimal output level for an activity.

Variable activity rate Total variable activity cost divided by the amount of activity driver used.

Variable budgets (See Flexible budget.)

Variable cost Costs that, in total, vary in direct proportion to changes in a cost driver.

Variable cost ratio Variable costs divided by sales revenues. It is the proportion of each sales dollar needed to cover variable costs. Variable costing A product-costing method that assigns only variable manufacturing costs to production: direct materials, direct labor, and variable overhead. Fixed overhead is treated as a period cost.

Variable overhead efficiency variance The difference between the actual di- Whole-life cost The life cycle cost of a product plus costs that consumers incur, including operation, support, maintenance, and disposal. Withdrawal Kanban A marker or card that specifies the quantity that a subsequent process should withdraw from a preceding process.

Work in process All partially completed units found in production at a given point in time.

Work-in-process file A file that is the collection of all job cost sheets. Z

Zero defects A quality performance standard that requires all products and services to be produced and delivered according to specifications. Zero-base budgeting An alternative approach to budgeting in which the prior year’s budgeted level is not taken for granted. Instead, the existing operations

are analyzed, and continuance of the activity or operation must be justified on the basis of its need or usefulness to the organization. rect labor hours used and the standard hours allowed multiplied by the standard variable overhead rate. Variable overhead spending variance The difference between the actual variable overhead and the budgeted variable overhead based on actual hours used to produce the actual output. Velocity The number of units that can be produced in a given period of time (e.g., output per hour). Vendor Kanbans Cards or markers that signal to a supplier the quantity of materials that need to be delivered and the time of delivery. W

Weighted average costing method A process-costing method that combines beginning inventory costs with currentperiod costs to compute unit costs. Costs and output from the current period and the previous period are averaged to compute unit costs. What-if analysis (See Sensitivity analysis.)