attributable to each
product over its
entire product
lifecycle.
Hence, the total
profitability of any given
product can be
determined.
A products life cycle is
divided into different stages
or phases
Design Phase
Also called as
pre production
phase
A high level of setup costs will be incurred
in this stage (preproduction costs),
including research and development
(R&D), product design and building of
production facilities.
90% of the products
costs are locked in at
this stage
Management Accounting
systems should therefore be
developed that aid the planning
and control of product lifecycle
costs and monitor spending and
commitments at the early stages
of a product's life cycle.
Launch & Production Phase
Also called as market
development stage
Success depends upon awareness and trial
of the product by consumers, so this stage
is likely to be accompanied by extensive
marketing and promotion costs.
Material, labour, overheads,
machine set up, inventory, training,
production machine maintenance
and depreciation
Growth or
Operation stage
In this stage sales volume increases
dramatically, and unit costs fall as
fixed costs are recovered over greater
volumes
Distribution,
advertising and
warranty claims
Maturity Stage
Decline Stage
Environmental clean-up,
disposal and
decommissioning
Marketing costs are
usually cut as the product
is phased out
Production
economies may be
lost as volumes fall
Alternatively additional development
costs may be incurred to refine the
model to extend the lifecycle (this is
typical with cars where ‘product
evolution’ is the norm rather than
‘product revolution’).
profits will continue to increase as
the fixed costs are recovered and
the firm still benefit from the
economy of large scale production
the competition
will get tight
DLp G M D
It recognises that for many
products there are significant
costs to be incurred in the early
stages of its life cycle.