In order to make their visions a reality, managers need detailed information about their company's financial situation -- up-to-date, accurate information. Accounts create this information for their managers by using cost accounting to create a cost management system (CMS). The CMS includes different information from financial reports and straight cost information, which are aggregate measures of the cost of inventory the value of the goods sold. The information managers need is much more detailed and must include information on individual projects, the customer mix, etc. To that end, a CMS provides:

1.

cost information for strategic management decisions;

2.

cost information for operational control; and

3.

measures of inventory value and costs of goods sold for financial reporting investors (121).

Simply put, managers need their information for strategic reasons. A simple balance sheet doesn't give them the information they need to move their company into new...

Only the information in a CMS can be a manager's tool in this way.
What is Value Engineering?

Student 1:

Value engineering a cost-reduction technique, used primarily during design, that uses information about all value chain functions to satisfy customer needs while reducing costs.

Student 2:

Value engineering is a way of reducing the final cost of a product. In the early stages of development, usually design, the developers figure out ways to make the product so it satisfies the requirements of the customer and is less expensive to produce.

Student 3:

Value engineering is a method of reducing the final cost of an item or product. Value engineering involves designers and developers using all the information at their disposal, including the target product cost (indirect and direct costs), to engineer the product in such a way that it can be made cheaper.