Que es el Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing?
El TDABC es una metodologia avanzada de gestion de costes desarrollada por Robert Kaplan y Steven Anderson que simplifica el ABC tradicional ofreciendo resultados mas precisos y accionables.
La Innovacion Central
A diferencia del ABC tradicional que depende de encuestas y asignaciones subjetivas, el TDABC utiliza solo dos parametros: el coste por unidad de tiempo de suministro de capacidad y el tiempo necesario para realizar cada actividad. Esta simplicidad lo hace escalable, actualizable y preciso.
Los metodos de costeo tradicionales fueron disenados para una era mas simple. Asignan costes indirectos usando promedios amplios, tratando todos los productos y servicios como si consumieran recursos de forma uniforme.
TDABC captures these differences through time equations, mathematical expressions that model the actual time required for each activity, adjusting automatically for complexity, volume, and special handling requirements.
Why Traditional Costing Falls Short
La mayoria de las organizaciones descubren que el 20-40% de sus productos y clientes son en realidad no rentables cuando se revelan los costes reales.
Traditional ABC systems are expensive to build, difficult to maintain, and often abandoned within 2-3 years. TDABC solves these problems by using time as the single cost driver, dramatically simplifying the model while increasing accuracy.
How TDABC Works: The 6-Step Methodology
From initial setup to ongoing profitability insights, here is how TDABC transforms your understanding of costs.
Identify Resource Groups
Mapear departamentos organizativos y pools de recursos que suministran capacidad. Cada grupo tiene personas, equipos y tecnologia trabajando conjuntamente para prestar servicios.
Calculate Capacity Cost Rate
Dividir los costes totales de recursos entre la capacidad practica (tipicamente el 80% de la teorica) para determinar el coste por minuto de capacidad suministrada.
Build Time Equations
Definir ecuaciones de tiempo que estimen cuanto tarda cada actividad, incorporando variables para diferencias de complejidad.
Assign Costs to Objects
Multiplicar el tiempo consumido por cada actividad por la tasa de coste de capacidad para asignar costes precisos a productos, clientes y canales.
Analyze Profitability
Calculate true profitability at every level. Build Whale Curves to visualize cumulative profitability and identify profit creators and destroyers.
Take Strategic Action
Use insights to reprice unprofitable products, restructure customer relationships, optimize processes, and reallocate resources.
TDABC vs. Traditional ABC
A side-by-side comparison shows why leading organizations choose TDABC.
| Dimension | Traditional ABC | TDABC |
|---|---|---|
| Implementation Time | 6-12 months | 2-4 months |
| Data Collection | Employee surveys, subjective estimates | Time observations, process data |
| Maintenance | Full rebuild to update | Adjust time equations incrementally |
| Precision | Diminishes over time | Mejora con cada ciclo de actualizacion |
| Escalabilidad | Se descompone con la complejidad | Handles millions of transactions |
| Unused Capacity | Hidden in allocations | Explicitly identified and measured |
| Cost to Maintain | High (often abandoned) | Low (incremental updates) |
Industry Applications
TDABC has been successfully applied across virtually every industry.
Healthcare
Measure true cost per patient pathway, identify variation in care delivery costs, optimize resource allocation. Saber mas →
Manufacturing
Understand true product costs including setup, changeover, quality inspection. Saber mas →
Financial Services
Measure cost-to-serve per customer segment, product, and channel. Understand true relationship profitability.
Education
Understand cost per program, course, and student. Optimize resource allocation across faculties.
Government
Measure cost per service delivered, identify efficiency opportunities, justify budget allocations.