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-Case Study-
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
O&M: Company Profile Costing and Pricing at O&M The Case O&Ms Proposal Solution of the Case-Questions
Owens & Minor, Inc: Company Profile Headquarter: Mechanicsville, Virginia, U.S Revenue 2010: $ 8.12 billion Number of employees 2010: 4,800
One of the leading distributors of medical and surgical supplies 200,000 products from about 1,200 manufacturers, e.g. gloves, wound closure devices, sterile procedure trays, intravenous products, operating room items, etc
Manufacturer Manufacturer
Bulk Products IndividualOrder Delivery
Manufacturer Manufacturer
Customer
Customers: primarily hospitals, healthcare systems, group purchasing organizations (= buying groups of hospitals) and the federal government
Situation: Change in Customer-Behaviour Initially: Service stopped at the hospitals loading door: pallets with high number of units Now: low-unit-of-measure or stockless systems become popular at customers: e.g. plastic totes that go directly to the nursing and surgical units, bypassing the entire storeroom process Increasing service-level
Questions for O&M: What are the costs of the service? How to price the service appropriately?
Activity-Based Costing at O&M (introduced at O&M in 1994) Several activites (= Cost Drivers) affect costs per customer and hence customer profitability:
Type of service requested Number of lines per purchase order Number of purchase orders generated per month
Cost Drivers
Number of deliveries per week Method of order (mail, phone, electronic data) Interest costs from carrying receivables
Pricing at O&M Cost-plus pricing* was the dominant form of pricing in the medical/ surgical distribution industry Customer pays a base manufacturer price plus a markup added on by the distributor Cost-plus fees are individually negotiated with the customer (7% are a usual number)
+
Base manufacturer price $1 Markup 7%
=
Price of the product $ 1.07
Cost-plus pricing ties the fee to the value of the product rather than the value of the service Customers avoid paying a high distribution fee on expensive products by buying them directly at the manufacturer only products requiring high order-units, high storage room or special management systems are ordered at O&M leaves O&M with inexpensive, low-margin products or products requiring a high service-level
O&Ms findings with Activity-Based Costing There is a wide disparity between the profits made on each customer Some customers (particularly those with stockless or low-unit-of-measure programs) are unprofitable for the company Fees on a cost-plus system are not ideal for the company
The Case Situation (1996): Ideal Health System (hospital chain) announces it is putting its $30 million annual medical/ surgical supply contract up for bid Problem: Atlantic Healthcare
current supplier subsidiary of a medical supply manufacturer allows them to offer distribution services at extremely low rates these rates would force O&M to operate at loss
O&M
brand-neutrality higher flexibility than the other competitors bidding for the contract
Question for O&M: How to outperform Atlantic Healthcare despite higher direct-costs?
Gunther Friedl WS 11/12
O&Ms Proposal to Ideal Activity Based Pricing Basic idea: Distribution fees are tied to activity levels if customers can see how their activity levels affect their costs, they want to become more efficient
O&M saves money in processing, delivery and product handling O&M is relieved from unprofitable customers since fees and services are aligned
Gunther Friedl WS 11/12
O&Ms Proposal to Ideal Risk: no one in the industry uses ABP no experience available Approach: Pricing Matrix based on two major cost drivers 1) Number of purchase orders per month (tied to O&Ms fixed administrative fees) 2) Number of lines per purchase order (tied to O&Ms variable costs) To increase its credibility, O&M shares its profit line with the customers
Questions
1. What are the services rendered by the distributor to manufacturers and hospitals?
1.1. How has the nature of distribution changed over time? 1.2. What is the value-added by O&M?
2. Evaluate the impact cost-plus pricing has on distributors, customers, and suppliers. 3. What effect will ABP have on customer behavior? 4. Explain Exhibit 5. how does the pricing matrix work?
4.1. How do the costs in Exhibit 5 correspond to the costs shown in the customer profitability statement in Exhibit 4? 4.2. Why doesnt the matrix comprise all the costs shown in Exhibit 4?
6. What type of customers will adopt ABP first? 7. How difficult or easy is it for O&Ms rivals to adopt ABP?
Questions
8. What are the risks associated with ABP for Owens and Minor? 9. Work through the numerical excercise provided in TN Exhibit 1 by filling in the template provided in TN Exhibit 3 10. Why is Ownes and Minor adopting a cost-based pricing stragegy rather than value-based pricing strategy?
1. What are the services rendered by the distributor to manufacturers and hospitals?
Manufacturers: want to ship products in large quantities to few customers Hospitals do not want to own, maintain and manage huge amounts of materials Distributors solve this conflict
2. Evaluate the impact cost-plus pricing has on distributors, customers, and suppliers.
Cost-Plus made it easy for customers to demand higher service-levels since they were not paying for resources O&M consumes to provide the enhanced service level they shifted their inventory-costs to the distributor Cost-Plus Pricing: caused a schism between what the customer wants and what the distributor is willing to provide Distributors: were motivated to provide the lowest level of service needed to maintain the customer relationship Manufacturer: were motivated to ship high priced, high volume items directly to the end-customers (hospitals)
ABP connects O&Ms fee to the level of the service they provide Customer is motivated to keep its activities down to a minimum level and only order services that he really needs Customers who want to extand their service-level can get this because there is a way for O&M to price a higher service-level ABP helps customers to optimize their service-level and hence their costs!
4.1. How do the costs in Exhibit 5 correspond to the costs shown in the customer profitability statement in Exhibit 4?
Purchase Orders per month: include all of the items under order cost The Lines per PO include all of the cost items under line cost
4.2. Why doesnt the matrix comprise all the costs shown in Exhibit 4?
Matrix does not include other activity costs such as shipping and handling deliveries, interest costs, account management, fixed costs (occupancy, group fee expenses), etc. Reason: Concerns about compexity if all costs were included as variables
Internal systems at hospitals (e.g. budgeting, compensation) were tied to cost-plus percentages. Product prices with cost-plus percentages were used to determine transfer pricing between hospital departments Technological barriers: Customer has to change to an EDI system (electronical data input) Hospital would have to change its systems and procedures for material handling For a hospital to benefit it would have to be willing to change and shed personnel, equipment and warehousing space. Culture of hospitals (e.g. surgeons have different preferences for many operating room supplies)
O&Ms response: Offered to convert the activity fee to a cost-plus equivalent O&Ms logistical services worked closely with customers moving to ABP to help them realign processes and institute cost savings.
Customers who do not wish to pay for services that they do not consume Customers who are willing to pay for services hat they would like to consume
8. What are the risks associated with ABP for Owens and Minor?
When more and more customers start reducing the services they consume, O&M hast to be willing to take hard decisions on letting people and resources go. Otherwise the costs associated with the provision of the services remain!
10. Why is Ownes and Minor adopting a cost-based pricing stragegy rather than valuebased pricing strategy?
All prices of O&M are based on costs No consideration is paid to what the particular activity/ service is worth to the customer This pricing strategy is meaningful only for commodity services with low entry barriers For more value-added services (e.g. logistics/material management consulting), O&M does not use ABP but does value-added pricing
9. Work through the numerical excercise provided in TN Exhibit 1 by filling in the template provided in TN Exhibit 3
Activity Rates EDI Order Cost Non-EDI Order Cost Line Cost Delivery Cost Interest Cost Emergency Cost Shipping and Handling Cost Activity Levels Sales/month Orders/month Lines/month Deliveries/month % EDI orders Accounts Receivable Emergency Orders/month Vendor Discounts Cost-Plus % $4.50/edi order $ 9.01/non-edi order $0.66/line $457.58/deliver 8.64% p.a. $25/emergency order $130/delivery Alpha Hospital (1) $ 150,000 750 15,000 12 25% $300,000 20 $4,035 15.00 % Alpha Hospital (2) $150,000 400 11,000 7 95% 75,000 6 $4,035 Customer Level Costs Procurement Labeling Account Mgmt Occupancy Group Fees 1,486 1,000 991 1,007 750
Side-Calculation
150,000 + 15%