The research was carried out with the aim of designing an Economic Management procedure for the detection of hidden costs in biotechnological and pharmaceutical processes, allowing process improvement.
For the application of the procedure it is necessary to make a diagnosis of the current situation, then the projection of solutions; using methods and techniques such as: interviews, surveys, observation, document analysis, checklists, process sheets, flow charts and balanced scorecard; in addition to digital tools such as Microsoft Office, EndNote bibliographic software and Minitab software.
The main conclusion of the study is that in Cuba the hidden costs related to the production process are not quantified, research has only been carried out in two centers in the country: José Antonio Echevarría Polytechnic Institute (ISPJAE) and the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM); and that in the world only countries such as France (ISEOR), the United States and Colombia, have presented studies of this nature.
The main causes of hidden costs are linked to unproductive times, incorrect identification of job skills, poor planning and distribution of work, etc.; translating into hidden costs that will impact the financial result of the entity, either as an increase in expenditures or a decrease in cash flows, which is why it is necessary to control them to improve organizational results, optimizing resources to obtain greater benefits by incurring in lower expenses.
Key words: Economic Management, Hidden Costs, Production Process.
Introduction
In 21st century organizations, knowledge is considered as a strategic resource to create and maintain competitive advantages, and learning as a critical capacity to be promoted internally. The changes in the current production management are aimed at introducing the process management approach, the management of competencies and identifying the aspects of an intangible nature, which are established today as determining factors to reach the levels of competitiveness of its management, these challenges they are raised by organizations.
Today it is a fact that it is necessary to participate in the development of healthy labor relations in companies, relying on the management and development of human resources. There are several factors that can explain this trend. In the first place, the greater importance, with respect to past times, that the competitiveness of the company acquires, forces employers to pay more attention to productivity, flexibility of employment, remuneration and the working day, to health and safety in the workplace, the training and improvement of staff skills and, of course, quality.
In any company, different techniques are used to identify initial problems, including interviews with workers and managers, direct observation of jobs, as well as analysis of documents related to Human Resources Management and Economic Management, such such as: the financial accounting records and the economic balances of the last 5 years, result of which it is necessary to identify, in general, the following:
Existence of expenses associated with Human Resources Management that are not taken into account in the accounting records, this leads to the falsification of the information, attempts against the veracity of the accounting records and against the use, to the maximum, of the reserves of productivity.
In 100% of Cuban companies, downtime, inactivity, are not quantified.
Most do not carry out work organization studies in production processes and the skills are not well designed, leading to a decrease in productivity.
Hence, the existence of dysfunctionalities in the production system which causes hidden costs that are not monitored and affects the performance of the company constitutes a problem for companies.
In order to solve the problem posed, the following general objective is proposed: To design a procedure for the economic approach of the production process that identifies the hidden costs that are generated from existing malfunctions in it to manage them and improve their business performance.
The investigation is developed using the following theoretical methods: the historical-logical analysis, the analytical-synthetic method, the inductive-deductive method as a way to specify the prevailing trends and the systemic approach during the research process.
Empirical Methods include individual interviews, observation, document analysis, process balances, OTIDA, process map and checklist.
This study is of importance for companies, since the quantification of some waste within productions is not established.
Procedure for the identification of costs associated with the organization of work.
It starts from a bibliographic study where existing models such as, and are consulted. The procedure has as theoretical-methodological bases:
- Focus on System: when considering the structure of companies as complex systems of relationships that works to respond to the needs of the environment, from the integration of their subsystems with the strategy of the company, to obtain a result of high economic impact and social, Approach to process: in the design of the subprocesses from the Extended HRM Process Model for the modeling of the subprocesses, it allows to reveal the interrelation of the subprocesses. The Organizational Design Methodology integrating the approach to processes and competencies of, because the organizational design optimizes the resources, not only material, but also human.The Socio-economic Management procedure developed by which defines,jointly the study of the processes of the Integrated Human Capital Management System and the analysis of the existing malfunctions, as well as the quantification of the costs associated with them. Decree 281 of 2007 and Decree Law 252, as well as Law 60, 2011, the ISO 9001: 2015 standards for the implementation of a quality system, and the guidelines of the Cuban economic policy, of which its main concepts, policies, requirements and the elements for its design and application are taken into account.of which its main concepts, policies, requirements and the elements for its design and application are taken into account.of which its main concepts, policies, requirements and the elements for its design and application are taken into account.
These constitute the fundamental references of the research.
The methodology for the quantification of hidden costs in production processes is as follows:
Procedure for identifying hidden costs in production processes. Source: self made
The procedure consists of 3 stages: Alignment, Diagnosis of strategic planning and the production system and Projection of alternatives for improvements.
Stage 1. Alignment: in this stage the existing information in the company is gathered, in addition the work team is constituted to develop the investigation.
- Setting: at this stage, a brief introduction begins on the company to be studied and all its peculiarities. Working group creation: an expert committee on the productive and economic system is created, in turn approval is requested of this working group by senior management. Information gathering: it is in this phase where the necessary company information is collected to detect the main problems.
Stage 2. Diagnosis of the strategic planning and the productive system: in this stage the strategic project of the organization, its main indicators, and also the detection of malfunctions associated with the main problems are analyzed.
- Analysis of the strategic project: here the mission, vision, strategic objectives, values and the process map of the company are determined and all these elements are evaluated based on the requirements they must meet, in order to globally obtain the company strategy. Analysis of economic indicators: in this phase the financial behavior of the company and indicators such as productivity, costs per product, monthly expenses and income, etc. are analyzed. Analysis of the work organization process and production system: in this phase, a diagnosis of the organization process of work and production systems, applying the techniques of study of methods, time and use of the working day in the productive area, updating the norms of time and consumption,balancing processes and determining all unproductive times; promoting the optimization of resources and times, without affecting the quality of the products following the established in the good manufacturing practices (GMP). Quantification of hidden costs: here through the cost sheets, the hidden costs generated will be quantified due to the malfunctions detected, such as unproductive times, poor staff turnover or a high rate of job fluctuation.such as downtime, poor staff turnover, or a high rate of job fluctuation.such as downtime, poor staff turnover, or a high rate of job fluctuation.
The calculation of hidden costs constitutes an extension in the social sphere of analytical accounting practices. This allows to identify major problems by providing a way of entry and exploitation of the socioeconomic system of companies. In effect, hidden costs measure the waste of economic resources caused by malfunctions.
Hidden costs are classified into a group of five indicators: absenteeism, work accidents, staff turnover, quality of goods and services, and direct productivity. In addition, the staff fluctuation indicator should be added since it also generates a set of hidden costs.
Stage 3. Projection of improvement alternatives: in this stage the improvement alternatives are projected together with their evaluation.
- Approach to improvement alternatives: in this phase, the improvement alternatives are evaluated to reduce costs within the processes, based on the malfunctions detected in the initial diagnosis. Development of improvement alternatives: then the improvements related to the malfunctions found are designed, using all the necessary tools to reorganize and optimize processes. Evaluation of improvement alternatives: the improvement alternatives are then evaluated, selecting the one with the greatest feasibility for the company according to the criteria to be followed.
CONCLUSIONS
- In Cuba, the issue related to hidden costs has not been studied, while in countries such as France and the United States, studies are carried out for its evaluation. The detection of hidden costs plays a fundamental role in any entity given that they impact the financial result, either as an increase in expenditures or a decrease in cash flows, that is why it is necessary to control them to improve organizational results, optimizing resources to obtain greater benefits by incurring less expenses.
REFERENCES
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