Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management [Hardcover]

Steven M. Bragg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471251097 | ISBN-13: 978-0471251095 | Publication Date: April 13, 2007 | Edition: 1

Praise for Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management

"Throughput Accounting provides managers with a fresh set of eyes to identify and control bottlenecks. The drum, buffer, and rope will become part of the cost accounting lexicon in the future."
—Geoffrey Garland, Controller, StacoSwitch, Inc.

"This is good stuff! Steven Bragg has introduced us to an accounting structure that will enhance our bottom line utilizing throughput accounting methodology. Finally! We have a presentable means to transform a company's financial functions to support the cultural change to throughput accounting."
—Rick J. Stevens, President, LeanThinkingbyAccountants, LLC

"A thought-provoking, insightful, and useful book that explains how older conventions of accounting can lead to poor management decisions. Instead of focusing on typical cost-cutting methods only, Mr. Bragg provides CFOs with a systemic approach on how to instead focus on maximizing profits and become better business partners."
—Arif Iqball, Executive Director and CFO, Avon Products Co. Ltd. Japan

"Throughput Accounting by Steve Bragg presents a new way to evaluate and apply the concepts of cost accounting with greater impact on operational efficiencies. An interesting, understandable, and useful guide for anyone who needs a valuable source of information and ideas relating to financial and accounting affairs."
—Carlos Millan, Director of Finance and Operations, NOLA, Grupo Quanam

Throughput Accounting addresses every possible area of constraint management that would be of interest to an accountant. This groundbreaking book includes chapters covering financial analysis scenarios with case studies that show specifically how throughput accounting can be used to find the best solutions in a large number of real-world situations.

If you are an accounting manager, financial analyst, production planner, or production manager, Throughput Accounting contains the tools you need to improve your company's performance.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

throughput accounting

a guide to constraint management

Every so often, a completely new idea comes along that can be described as either refreshing, controversial, or both. The theory of constraints, or constraint management, is the new, revolutionary idea that has caught the accounting profession's attention. Developed upon the theory of constraints management philosophy from the physics-based writings of Eliyahu Goldratt, the theory of constraints contends that constraints, or bottleneck resources, prevent organizations from achieving better performance and declares that a company must first determine its overriding goal, and then create a system that clearly defines the main capacity constraint that will allow it to maximize that goal.

Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management—written by renowned accounting expert Steven Bragg—broadens the throughput accounting concept to cover every possible accounting function.

This visionary book:

• Shows CFOs, controllers, and accounting managers how to increase efficiency and save money using throughput-related techniques

• Discusses the impact of throughput concepts on all areas of the accounting function

• Describes how accounting systems realigned to employ throughput concepts can issue financial statements in accordance with GAAP

• Explores how the accounting department can assist other parts of the company by providing better measurements and reports on profit performance

The goal of throughput accounting is to increase a company's profits by focusing strictly on the management of the company's bottleneck resource. Beginning with an introduction to the concepts of constraint management, Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management clearly explores how the traditional budgeting and capital budgeting models can be adapted to integrate throughput concepts, as well as how control systems can be designed to warn of problems related to the constraint and several supporting functions. In addition, this seminal book shows which reports and metrics to use in a throughput environment, as well as how this information can be extracted from an accounting system designed to accumulate information for reports that conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

From the Back Cover

Praise for

throughput accounting

a guide to constraint management

"Throughput Accounting provides managers with a fresh set of eyes to identify and control bottlenecks. The drum, buffer, and rope will become part of the cost accounting lexicon in the future."
—Geoffrey Garland, Controller, StacoSwitch, Inc.

"This is good stuff! Steven Bragg has introduced us to an accounting structure that will enhance our bottom line utilizing throughput accounting methodology. Finally! We have a presentable means to transform a company's financial functions to support the cultural change to throughput accounting."
—Rick J. Stevens, President, LeanThinkingbyAccountants, LLC

"A thought-provoking, insightful, and useful book that explains how older conventions of accounting can lead to poor management decisions. Instead of focusing on typical cost-cutting methods only, Mr. Bragg provides CFOs with a systemic approach on how to instead focus on maximizing profits and become better business partners."
—Arif Iqball, Executive Director and CFO, Avon Products Co. Ltd. Japan

"Throughput Accounting by Steve Bragg presents a new way to evaluate and apply the concepts of cost accounting with greater impact on operational efficiencies. An interesting, understandable, and useful guide for anyone who needs a valuable source of information and ideas relating to financial and accounting affairs."
—Carlos Millan, Director of Finance and Operations, NOLA, Grupo Quanam

Throughput Accounting addresses every possible area of constraint management that would be of interest to an accountant. This groundbreaking book includes chapters covering financial analysis scenarios with case studies that show specifically how throughput accounting can be used to find the best solutions in a large number of real-world situations.

If you are an accounting manager, financial analyst, production planner, or production manager, Throughput Accounting contains the tools you need to improve your company's performance.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471251097
• ISBN-13: 978-0471251095
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #600,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The primary question I receive is, why would anyone write so many accounting books? The story began in the early 1990s, when my former boss, Jan Roehl-Anderson, asked me to assist in taking over a book called Controllership from Jim Willson (correct spelling), who had been maintaining the book since the early 1950s. I liked the experience, and even found it relaxing (I must have issues!).

So... I had an idea for another book, called Just-in-Time Accounting, which the publisher accepted, and which got me on the track of doing management accounting books. Most accounting books up to that point had primarily dealt with accounting principles and not how to management the department, so this was a rich area for new books.

The Accounting Best Practices book, which is one of the top-selling accounting books in the country, started when I was bouncing around ideas for new books with one of my editors, John DeRemigis. He suggested the accounting best practices idea, and I said, "nah, there's not enough material." Four editions later and over 400+ pages long, it appears that he was right and I was wrong.

Writing became more intense in 2005, when John Wiley & Sons recommended me to the authors of the Wiley GAAP Guide as a new co-author. This is a seriously technical high-end accounting principles guide, and so was nothing like what I had written before. My first assignment was adding a hundred or so new examples to the book, which was absolutely frantic -- imagine becoming an expert on a really far-out accounting topic in one day, writing an esoteric example, and then hurrying on to an entirely different example the next day.

I have just finished writing Accounting Controls Best Practices, which is chock-full of control points for the most common accounting systems, as well as for best practices upgrades to those systems. And now, it is time for a break, if only for a week.

So... I am heading to the Western Pacific for some serious diving off a live aboard dive boat.

Steve Bragg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!, June 27, 2007

By 

Christopher Zephro (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management (Hardcover)

Coming from someone how has been implementing Throughput Accounting and TOC / Constraint Management for over 10 years, I can say with experience that this is hands down the best treatment of the topic I've ever read. It's written by and from the perspective of a CFO / Accountant. It addresses the use of Throughput Accounting in all aspects of decisions that people in finance have to make, including capital budgeting.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for any adept of TOC, February 7, 2008

By 

Eric Methot "Eric Methot" (Bursins, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management (Hardcover)

I no accountant yet Steven Bragg leads me to believe that throughput accounting is much easier to grasp than GAAP accounting. It also seems so more "natural" than activity based costing; for example. There are many differences between throughput accounting and "regular" accounting and here you get to read "what" and "why" and more importantly "how" to reconcile the both as GAAP accounting won't disappear.

There is a section on financial analysis where we are taken through a series of decisions to evaluate and how throughput accounting models can help us solve them. It's quite simple and most questions are answered using the same basic tool. Budgeting and control also have sections of their own.

My favorite part of the book after financial analysis was performance measurement. The author discusses twenty indicators with their strengths and weaknesses. While no single indicator alone "says it all," combined they could make a wonderful dashboard(s).

Though not as light as other book on TOC, this one is nevertheless a must.

3.0 out of 5 stars Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management, September 9, 2011

By 

Searcher - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Throughput Accounting: A Guide to Constraint Management (Hardcover)

As an engineer, I found the definitions not concise enough, though written in simple enough language, the concepts in some portions were unclear to me. More examples from an engineering perspective may enlighten me further. The author drew his examples from the manufacturing process. This were clear. But again, he did not dwell on the metric usage, this would have helped for people from non accounting backgrounds. Though the same may be said for metric usage, but I believe that metric usage is widely practised across professions and may have helped to clarify the concept.