Editor's Letter
By Kathy Williams

Implementing ABM with Hoshin Management
By Takayuki Asada, Ph.D.; Jack C. Bailes, Ph.D.; and Kenichi Suzuki, Ph.D.
Illustrating the value of cross-cultural fertilization, a Japanese company applied the American top-down approach of ABM and integrated this system with Hoshin management, a bottom-up gradual process improvement approach.

Standard Costing Is Alive and Well at Parker Brass
By David Johnsen and Parvez Sopariwala, Ph.D.
Despite the introduction of popular new costing systems, companies like Parker Hannifin Corporation are still using the traditional standard cost method and making it work.

Integrating ABC and ABM at Dow Chemical
By James W. Damitio, Ph.D., CMA; Gary W. Hayes, DBA, CPA; and Philip L. Kintzele, DBA, CPA
One of the benefits of the ABC/ABM integration at Dow is that the company now has the ability to link costs across geographic areas and assign managers’ costs appropriately.

Using Enhanced Cost Models in Variance Analysis for Better Control and Decision Making
By Kennard T. Wing, CMA
The oversimplification of fixed and variable costs can result in the system not being used or, if used, can lead to bad decisions. Solution: extend variance analysis.

A Plan For Reengineering Management Accounting Education—Based on the IMA’s Practice Analysis
By Zafar U. Khan, Ph.D., CMA; S. Thomas A. Cianciolo, Ph.D., CPA; and Eileen Peacock, Ph.D., CMA
Armed with the data from IMA’s Practice Analysis, accounting educators now can reengineer their curricula to reflect the current needs of management accounting.

Understanding Capacity Utilization at Rocketdyne
By Thomas E. Buttross, Ph.D., CMA, CPA; Hal Buddenbohm; and Dan Swenson, Ph.D., CMA
Using a CAM-I model, this manufacturer set out to monitor all its resources to learn whether each was productive or nonproductive. Doing so helped it manage capacity better.