Management accounting in ERP integrated MRP and TOC environments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine traditional costing, activity‐based costing (ABC), and through‐put accounting in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrated environment for decision making. Design/methodology/approach – Computer simulation is used to model a manufacturing firm operating under a manufacturing resource planning environment and a theory of constraints environment. Findings – Through the inclusion of both manufacturing and non‐manufacturing costs and the use of both volume and non‐volume‐based cost drivers, ABC captures manufacturing characteristics and resource usage more accurately than traditional costing and through‐put accounting and results in higher profit, lower inventory, and better customer service for both the short and long term. Research limitations/implications – This study only simulates industries that have a relatively high‐overhead content and relatively low labor and raw material costs and inventory evaluations includes only work‐in‐process inventory. Studies of a different industry, where raw material content is relatively high and labor and overhead content are relatively insignificant, would also be valuable. Studies that evaluate raw material or finished goods inventory would be helpful. Practical implications – In order to realize full benefits of ERP integration, a management accounting system should be carefully selected to properly depict manufacturing processes. Management should consider both manufacturing costs and non‐manufacturing costs to capture the characteristics resource usage among products for better decision making. Originality/value – This study incorporates the ERP system to prevent poor decisions being made from using obsolete or outdated data because changes are now made instantly. The impact of management accounting systems was evaluated through a large‐scale simulation to ensure comparability among experimental settings and to provide realistic manufacturing settings.