Pilot Project of Industrial Costing in a Ceramic Company

This work was carried out in an industrial context though the adoption of action-research. The main objective was two-fold: (i) to implement a pilot project for improving the method for calculating the cost of ceramic products, and (ii) to achieve improvements in the production process by cost reduction though lean principles. Organizational intervention and direct observation were applied to carry out this work. This could deliver an update method for calculating the cost of products, which fulfilled the needs of a company from the ceramic sector. Improvements were achieved both in the costing method and in the organization management. The results included enhancement of a previous outdated costing method (main barrier) that enabled better management and control of a specific type of product (‘blank’ ceramic). Lean manufacturing applied to the production process contributed to achieving a standardized process with less waste. Future work involves expanding the company pilot project in medium and long term. Work limitations include an intervention in a single unit of analysis and a low scientific contribution.