ABSTRACT
It might almost be said that few people really know what they have the right to expect from a cost system, which is much the same as having an expensive machine in the shop of which the use is not fully understood. This is partly because cost systems have several uses, each of which is as important as the others, but as usually designed one or more of these uses are emphasized to the neglect of the others. This chapter mentions very briefly what a cost system should provide for the principal officials in a fair-sized plant, and when it should provide it. Just as the foreman is interested in the cost of jobs, so the superintendent, is interested in the cost of orders. It is the superintendent's business to see that orders are turned out at an expected or standard cost and that they are not being delayed in their passage through the plant.
