The original seminar was designed as a two-day seminar that reviews both value engineering and target costing. We have found however, that some organizations already have a firm grip on value engineering, thus a one-day seminar in target costing has been developed.

In conjunction with Dr. Masayasu Tanaka, CVS of Japan, the Advanced Value Group, LLC is now able to offer three and four day target costing and profit engineering seminars. Dr. Tanaka is highly recognized as the premier academic authority in this field. He has worked closely with leading Japanese compnaies like Canon, Nissan, Sharp and Toyota for over thirty years.

WHY THIS SEMINAR?

Most firms have largely misunderstood target costing, like many other new concepts that Western companies have attempted to adopt over the past two decades. Target costing is an extremely powerful concept when properly utilized. Unfortunately, most companies have failed to take the time to understand the basic philosophical drivers that underlie the value of using target costing. Instead, they have tried to adopt the mechanics of target costing, as best they understood them, within the context of their traditional financial management processes. It is therefore no surprise these firms do not receive the full value that target costing could provide, and the experience has been very frustrating for those in the trenches who were held responsible for making target costing work. In a very real sense these firms have been attempting to do the financial equivalent of designing a supersonic plane while insisting on using the design requirements of a bi-plane.

Target costing is an integral part of a coordinated company-wide cost management process; which in turn is a major component of a holistic company-wide strategic management process. In short, target costing is an essential part of a unified approach to company-wide profit planning. Target costing is therefore a proactive approach to insuring that a desired profit is achieved in a project. But it is used to achieve that desired profit in an integrated and company-wide approach in which the entire company is aimed at making sure that each of the company's endeavors are in fact profitable, at planned levels. This is a concept that is fundamentally different from traditional Western financial thinking, which has been focused on project-based cost reduction after costs have strayed beyond acceptable boundaries.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This course is designed for people responsible for making decisions concerning organizational strategy, product development programs and most importantly responsible to insure corporate profitability. Engineers, marketing managers and corporate leaders are invited to attend.

SEMINAR AGENDA

Target Costing Basics


• Definitions
• Why Do It?
• Target Costing History
• Responding to the Fundamental Questions
• Is Target Costing Right for My Company?
  
  Target Costing Concepts and Methodologies
  
  
• The Role of Cost Management
• How to Develop the Target Cost
• Market Driven Costing
• Product Level Costing
• Component Level Costing
  
  What Happens in Product Development?
  
  
• Product Development Phases
• What Happens Within Each Phase
  
  Cost Tables - The Secret Ingredient
  
  
• What Are Cost Tables?
• Why Do I Need Them?
• What Do They Look Like
  
  Target Costing and Leadership
  
  
• The Strategy of Target Costing
• Target Costing Factors
  
  Value Engineering (VE) - Closing the Gap (taught only in two-day seminar)
  
  
• What is Value Engineering?
• How Does It work?
• Why Does It Work?
• The Job Plan
• Working on a Simple Canned Project
  
  Implementation of Target Costing and VE
  
  
• Changes to Organization Structure
• Implementation Steps
• Starting a Proper VE Activity (two-day only)
  
  Summing It All Up
  
  
• Success Stories
• Next Steps