Aplicação do método de custeio ABC no setor de serviços como ferramenta de suporte à redução de custos

Abstract

This dissertation concerns the application of the Activity Based Costing method (ABC) as a tool to hold cost reduction in service companies. The first step was the contextualization of the method importance followed by the justification of the research. After that, a literary review was made and it involved value chain, cost management, ABC method, time-driven ABC, target costing, kaizen costing, value stream mapping and tourism. Based on the researched literature this survey could be separated in three phases: (1) application of the costing method in service costing, (2) application of the value stream mapping in services with a greater incidence of indirect costs and (3) suggestion of a more appropriated cost reduction technique to the service in analysis. This research is exploratory and applied; it is also focused on three case studies in service, two restaurants and a travel agency. The results obtained with the survey indicate service costs and point out the ABC method as an auxiliary tool in the search for cost reduction, having in mind that the more accurate treatment of indirect costs provided by ABC method facilitated the identification of the services which needed wastage analysis. In the last chapter the final considerations related to the research are presented as well as suggestions for future searches.