Process Implementation Design: Implementing Supply Management’s Return on Spend

Abstract

Measuring supply management's budget effects has been treated as technical innovation so far, which requires a clearly defined process. However, the issue of commitment and motivation has been consistently present. Apparently, there was more to successful measurement than just a mechanical process design. “A cost management system […] is not a technical innovation […]. This distinction between administrative and technical innovation is important because the adoption, decision, and implementation success […] are determined more by particular behavioral [!] and organizational [!] variables. […] Thus, […] the key to successfully implementing ABC is effectively dealing with specific behavioral and organizational variables” (Shields, 1995, p. 149). “ABC is a socio-technical tool, and the emphasis should be on the social dimensions” (Cokins, 1998, p. 75). These quotations from literature support the statement: social and behavioural factors play a critical role in success. The literature referred to activity-based costing (ABC), which functioned as a basis for the design of the budget effects measurement process. Since this designed process is innovative and not presented and discussed in established literature, the following discussions on implementation issues will be primarily based on leading ABC- and ABB-literature.