Cynthia Tse is assistant controller at Stone Packaging, a manufacturer of cardboard boxes and other packaging materials. Tse has just returned from a packaging industry conference on ABC.
She realizes that ABC may help Stone meet its goal of reducing costs by 5% over each of the next three years.
Stone Packaging's Order Department is a likely candidate for ABC. While orders are entered into a computer that updates the accounting records, clerks manually check cus tomers' credit history and hand-deliver orders to shipping. This process occurs whether the sales order is for a dozen specialty boxes worth a total of $80 or 10,000 basic boxes worth a total of $8,000.
Tse believes that identifying the cost of processing a sales order would justify (1) further computerizing the order process and (2) changing the way the company processes small orders.
However, the significant cost savings would arise from elimination of two positions in the Order Department. The company's sales order clerks have been with the company many years. Tse is uncomfortable with the prospect of proposing a change that will likely result in terminating these employees.
Requirements
Use the CMA's Code of Professional Ethics(Exhibit 1-6) to consider Tse's responsibility when cost comes at the expense of employees' jobs.