Problems of economics and cost control in charcoal production

Problems of economics and cost control in charcoal production

14.1. Economic analysis and cost control

14.2. The methods of economic project analysis 14.3. Cost control in established enterprises

Charcoal producers fall into two groups. The first are subsistence producers who only market charcoal to acquire cash needed to buy goods or pay taxes, etc. Economics and cost control are of little interest to this producer. He needs the cash and selling some of his charcoal is a way to acquire it.

The second group produce and sell charcoal as a business in which the circulation and growth of the capital they have invested in the business is their main concern. Economics and cost control are important for them.

Although the first group is personally not much concerned with economics, government authorities concerned with improving the charcoal industry must study the economics of subsistence charcoal production. An economic analysis must be the basis of any assistance programme to enable these producers to make more and better charcoal. In many countries subsistence produced charcoal is a major part of total charcoal production. Economic analysis is important to define the future of this sector of the industry, reveal its positive and negative features, and its long term viability.

14.1. Economic analysis and cost control

It is difficult to draw a sharp line to divide these two activities. Generally, economic analysis is of direct use in the planning phase of the development of the enterprise to project the cost of constructing and getting it into production. The objective is to demonstrate the economic feasibility of the proposal, then mobilise the investment funds required and lay down how they will be managed and repaid. Cost control, on the other hand, is concerned more with an enterprise which is up and running. It is the management tool which enables the enterprise to remain economically viable.

Production cost control is built around and forms part of the operations of a producing enterprise. It can be carried out with a background knowledge of accountancy or even just bookkeeping. The main requirement is to always use production data and statistics which are measured in the plant itself. On the other hand, economic analysis of projects requires a deeper knowledge of economics and a technical knowledge of the processes which will be used. A large project calls for a team of technicians, some more qualified in economics, others in technology and engineering.

14.2. The methods of economic project analysis

The process of economic analysis of projects is often called a feasibility study but, strictly speaking, this is only one step along the road to setting up a complete project. For large and

medium size charcoal projects (3, 22) a team of professionals is required who must cover the fields of economics, forestry, building and civil engineering, technology of the process of production, finance and marketing. The complete study for the charcoal industry has the following aims:

1. To provide that a market or end use of adequate size exists for the charcoal and any by-products and to quantify it in detail.

2. To prove that suitable and adequate wood raw material exists and can be harvested economically for the expected life of the plant or to prove that a suitable raw material resource can be economically generated by forest plantations.

3. To choose the production technology to be used and to design the entire production system from wood harvesting through to packaging and marketing of the finished charcoal.

4. To prepare complete financial projections showing the method of financing, detailed expenditure budgets for land plant, site preparation, infrastructure, construction, start-up and training costs. The financial projections must be carried forward approximately twenty years to a point where debts incurred in construction of the plant have been liquidated and the enterprise is functioning as an established business. For the manufacturing enterprise about twelve to fifteen years projection may be sufficient but, if the enterprise is to establish plantations for wood supply, then it is necessary to extend the financial projection till the plantation has gone through a complete rotation, involving replanting which could be twenty years or more. The financial projections will be in the form of a financial model showing profit and loss, sources and expenditure of funds, taxation and cash flow.

5. To prepare documentation for negotiations with government agencies on questions of forest resources, plant site, power and water supplies and other tax concessions, infrastructural needs, control of pollution, etc.

6. Prepare documentation and negotiate with financing agencies, both national and international, to secure financing for the project.

The list of requirements is formidable and costly and time-consuming to accomplish. Fortunately, more or less routine procedural sequences for accomplishing this work have been worked out by international finance authorities and the process is divided into a number of steps which are designed to test the feasibility of the project before committing funds for a complete technical and financial study. Normally the complete project study is preceded by, at least two steps, called a pre-feasibility and a feasibility study. If the results of these studies are positive, then it is worth committing funds for a full project planning exercise leading to the financing and construction of the enterprise.

The value of the complete study depends, in the long run, on the quality of the basic data on which the study rests. A study based on false premises is useless. Only experience in the field can

indicate whether the data base is reasonable or not. As a guide to the effect of errors in basic assumptions, it is usual to test the complete financial model of the project, using varying values of key assumptions such as selling price of charcoal, percentage of fines, charcoal yield during carbonization, cost of wood delivered, growing and harvesting costs, growth rates of plantations, and so on. The degree of risk entailed by variations in principal cost factors then becomes clearer and enables key factors to be more closely scrutinised. Once the financial model has been prepared and programmed on a computer, such studies are relatively simple to carry out. Planning is relatively simple: the difficult task, especially nowadays with high interest costs, is to construct the plant and get it operating profitably within the available financial resources. If there are serious cost overruns or construction delays, a situation can easily arise where the project cannot be completed or can never operate profitably. Hence the need to seek solutions in charcoal making which require minimum capital investment.

14.3. Cost control in established enterprises

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14.3.1. The unit operations

14.3.2. Unit costs and budgeting

14.3.3. Supervision and management overheads

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Procuring finance for and constructing a large new enterprise for making charcoal nowadays is a difficult and costly proposition. As stated earlier, capital and interest costs are so high that a few construction delays can transform a profitable project into a permanent loss maker. Therefore, more attention needs to be given to improving and developing established charcoal making operations by building on the intrinsic expertise and resources they possess, eliminating or reducing constraints which prevent them from functioning at maximum efficiency. It is usually easier and often more successful financially to expand an existing enterprise than to construct a completely new, large scale one and expect it to operate profitably without difficulties.

Established enterprises and traditional production systems are not all successful or soundly based. Nevertheless there always exists a structure of skill and experience within the system which can often be mobilised to work more effectively by proper cost control.

14.3.1. The unit operations

The first step in cost control is to set down the unit operations of charcoal making and decide on a system of cost centres, usually the same ones as the unit production operations. The following example is taken from operations in the Chaco forests of South America (3) where charcoal is made on a large scale by traditional but well organised methods. The unit operations are shown in figure 14. These unit operations can be used as cost centres and unit costs calculated for each one. As total production cost is the sum of each unit cost, providing they are expressed in a common

unit of measurement, e.g. per ton of charcoal at the side of the kiln, the relative importance of each unit operation becomes clear. For example, the unit cost of harvesting wood and delivering it to roadside may be calculated as $5 per stere. This cost must be expressed in dollars per ton of charcoal at side of kiln before its contribution to overall costs can be clearly seen. This cost depends on the yield of subsequent unit process steps. In general, the only significant one is the loss during carbonization. The cost of $5 per stere must be multiplied by the number of steres needed to produce one ton of charcoal free of fines. A typical figure could be 7.3 steres of wood produce one ton of charcoal free of fines. The cost of the wood at side of the road per ton of charcoal is then $5 x 7.3 = $36.50 per ton of finished saleable charcoal at side of kiln. This process must be applied to all unit costs to determine their overall effect on product cost. Technical knowledge of the process as well as cost accounting skill is needed for this and to decide whether efforts to reduce the effect of a particular unit operation on costs could be worthwhile; e.g. yield of wood per hectare could be raised, by gathering more small diameter branchwood. But if this wood mainly produces only fine charcoal in the kiln, the effort could be counterproductive. Tests would be necessary to clear this point. Hence the need to combine the efforts of the technician and the cost accountant to control costs.

14.3.2. Unit costs and budgeting

Cost targets have to be set up in the budget for cost control. It is easier for each sector if its budgeted costs are set in the unit of measure it uses at that point, e.g. stere of fuelwood, ton of charcoal, ton/kilometre of charcoal, and so on. These figures are combined by management using appropriate conversion indices to check on overall performance in terms of the budget for the whole enterprise. To measure performance for the whole enterprise it is necessary to carry out process inventories on a regular basis, about every one to three months. The physical stock of raw material, semi-finished and finished charcoal, when combined with the input of wood and shipments of charcoal over the inventory period, enable the overall results to be calculated. In addition, records must be kept in each department of the material used, output achieved, number of kiln cycles. Unusual events such as floods, prolonged rainy periods, very dry conditions, labour shortage, equipment breakdowns, and transport delays also need to be noted in the production records of each department. Means to weigh and measure are essential.

14.3.3. Supervision and management overheads

Every system of management control and cost budgeting requires staff and costs money. The effort achieved has to be worthwhile. Therefore the costs of management, again divided into sectors, must be calculated and the cost apportioned to the various sectors. Cost analysis for each unit operation may reveal whether some operations could be better carried out by subcontract. This normally requires lees supervision and overhead costs. Transport is a particular case where contractors may well be cheaper than an internally organised system.

Collection and assessment of cost control data normally requires an extra technician who may also be responsible for quality control, etc. The processing of the raw data for management use is then usually carried out by the clerical staff of the office.

Calculated costs of actual unit operations are then compared by management with the budgeted

costs set up at the start of the financial year. Action can be taken to reduce cost overruns where they occur and, at the same time, the financial situation of the enterprise is revealed on at least a month by month basis. The actual profit and loss result of the enterprise is not known down to the last cent by this process. The exact financial results come from the normal financial accounts which are kept parallel with the cost accounts. The financial accounts, however, give only a historical picture of results, which may be too late to enable corrective action to be taken.

经济问题和木炭生产成本控制 14.1。经济分析及成本控制 14.2。项目的经济分析方法 14.3。设立的企业成本控制

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木炭生产者分为两组。首先是谁的唯一市场自给生产木炭获得需要购买商品或支付现金税，经济学和成本控制等小生产者的利益，这。他需要的现金和销售他的一些木炭一种方法可以得到它。

第二组生产和销售作为一个企业，其中流通和他们在企业资本投资增长是他们主要关心的木炭。经济学和成本控制是他们重要的。

虽然第一组是个人与经济没有太大的问题，与提高产业必须研究木炭木炭生产的经济生活有关政府当局。经济分析必须是任何援助方案，使这些生产商做出更多，更好的木炭的基础。在许多国家生产的木炭生活是一个总木炭生产的主要组成部分。经济分析是很重要的界定这个行业的未来，揭示它的积极和消极的特点，它的长期生存能力。

14.1。经济分析及成本控制

这是不难得出一个尖锐的线来划分这两项活动。一般而言，经济分析是在企业发展规划相直接利用项目的建设和投入生产它的成本获得。其目的是展示经济可行性的建议，然后调动投资所需资金，放下他们将如何进行管理和偿还。成本控制，另一方面上来说，就是一个企业，是建立和运行了。这是管理工具，它使企业能够保持经济上可行。

生产成本控制是围绕，形成了一个生产企业的行动的一部分。它可以进行与会计记账，甚至只是背景知识。主要的要求是要始终使用生产数据，哪些是植物本身的测量数据。另一方面，项目的经济分析需要更深入地了解经济和对将用于工艺技术知识。大型项目需要的技术人员，一些在经济，技术和工程等资格。

14.2。项目的经济分析方法

该项目的经济分析的过程通常被称为一项可行性研究，但严格来说，这仅仅是一个沿着设立一个完整的项目道路上的一步。对于大型，中型（3，22）木炭项目的专业人才队伍，需要谁必须涵盖经济，林业，建筑和民用工程，生产，财务和

销售过程中技术领域。为竹炭产业完整的研究有以下目的：

1。为了提供一个适当规模的市场或最终使用的木炭和其副产品的存在并量化细节问题。

为了证明适当和足够的木材原料的存在，可收获的植物预期寿命经济或证明，2。

一个合适的原料资源，可通过森林种植园经济产生。

3。要选择要使用的生产技术和设计，从通过到成品包装和营销采伐木材木炭整个生产系统。

4。为了准备完整的显示了融资方式，土地厂房，场地准备，基础设施，建设，启动和培训费用的详细支出预算的财政预测。财务预测必须结转约二十年的地步债务，该电站的建设费用已结清，企业作为一个历史悠久的商业运作。对于生产企业约有十二推算十五年可能就足够了，但是，如果企业是建立人工林木材供应，则需要延长财务预测till种植园已通过一个完全旋转了，这可能是涉及replanting二十年之久。财务预测将在金融，显示盈利和亏损，来源和资金，税收和支出的现金流模型的形式。

5。为了准备与政府机构进行谈判的森林资源，厂区，电力和水的供应和其他税收优惠，基础设施需要，污染控制等问题文件

6。编写文件和谈判融资机构，国家和国际，以确保为项目融资。

在需求列表是艰巨而昂贵和费时的完成。幸运的是，为完成这项工作或多或少例行程序序列已制定了国际金融机构和过程，是成是犯之前设计一个完整的技术和资金的财务研究，以测试项目的可行性步骤数除以。一般情况下，完成项目研究的前面，至少有两个步骤，称为预可行性和可行性研究。如果这些研究的结果是积极的，那么它就是值得犯一个完整的项目规划工作，导致资金的融资和企业建设。

该完整的研究价值而定，从长远来看，对基本数据的研究在于质量。虚假的前提基础上的一项研究也没用。只有在该领域的经验可以指示数据是否合理与否基地。作为对在基本假设的错误引导作用，这是通常的测试完成该项目的财务模型，使用诸如卖炭的炭化过程中，百分比的罚款，木炭产量价格变化的关键假设值，木材成本交付，种植和收割成本，人工林生长率，等等。风险程度在主要成本因素的变化牵涉然后逐渐明朗，使关键因素来更仔细地检查。一旦金融模式已编制完成，在计算机上编程，这样的研究都比较简单来进行。规划是相对简单：艰巨的任务，特别是现在高利息成本，是建立并得到它的工厂内操作的现有财政资源的利润。如果有严重的成本超支或工程延误，这种情况容易出现在项目不能完成或不能操作盈利。因此，有必要寻求木炭制造解决方案，要求最低资本的投资。

14.3。设立的企业成本控制

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14.3.1。单元操作

14.3.2。单位成本和预算 14.3.3。监督和管理费用

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采购融资，建设大制作木炭的新的企业如今是一项艰巨而昂贵的主张。如前所述，资本和利息成本是如此之高，少数建设延误可以转化为永久丧失制造商一个有利可图的项目。因此，更需要给予重视改善和发展的基础上设立的专门知识和资源的内在他们所拥有的木炭制造业务，消除或减少这些限制，防止他们以最高效率运作。它通常是更容易，更成功的经济往往扩大现有的企业，而不是建立一个全新的，大尺度之一，预计其经营利润没有困难。

成立的企业和传统生产系统不健全的基础所有成功或。然而总有一种技能和经验，可以经常在调动工作以适当的成本控制更有效地系统的结构。

14.3.1。单元操作

在成本控制的第一步是定下的木炭制造单元操作和决定的成本中心，通常为单位的生产经营系统相同。下面的例子是取自经营于南美洲（3）凡木炭大规模由传统但良好的组织方法的查科地区的森林。该装置操作如图14所示。这些单元操作，可作为成本中心，并为每一个计算单位成本。为总生产成本是每个单位成本的总和，提供他们都表达了一个共同的计量单位，如在每一侧的木炭窑吨，各单元操作的相对重要性变得清晰。例如，收获的木材和交付给路边单位成本计算，可为每立方米5。这笔费用之前，必须对整体的贡献成本可以清楚地看到每一面在木炭窑吨美元。这个成本取决于后续工艺步骤单位产量。在一般情况下，唯一显着的一个是炭化过程中的损失。元的成本每立方米五必须乘以所需要的生产一吨木炭的罚款自由立方米数。一个典型的数字可能为7.3立方米的木材生产一吨木炭免费的罚款。木材的在每木炭每吨成本就是路边5元× 7.3 =三十六点五〇美元在每吨成品木炭窑边实用。这个过程必须适用于所有单位的成本，确定其对产品成本的整体效果。技术知识的过程，以及成本核算技能是需要这一点，并决定是否努力降低特定单元操作对成本的影响可能是值得的;如木材产量每公顷可提高，通过收集更多的小直径布兰奇伍德。但是，如果这个主要生产木仅在罚款木炭窑，这种努力可能会适得其反。测试将需要清除这一点。因此，需要结合的技术和成本会计，控制成本的努力。

14.3.2。单位成本和预算

成本目标，必须设置在控制成本预算。这是每个部门的预算成本比较容易，如果它在它的度量单位设置在该点使用，例如：薪材立方米，吨木炭，每吨/公里的木炭等。这些数字相结合的管理，使用适当的换算指数，检查在整个企业的预算方面的整体表现。为了衡量整个企业有必要进行定期的过程库存大约每隔一至三个月，性能。原材料的实际库存，半成品和成品木炭，与木材和木炭在清查期间，

使整体出货量计算结果输入相结合。此外，记录必须存放在各部门所使用的材料，产量达到，窑周期数。不寻常的事件，如洪水，雨季延长，非常干燥的环境下，劳工短缺，设备损坏，运输延误还需要在各部门的生产记录指出。称重和测量手段是必不可少的。

14.3.3。监督和管理费用

每个管理控制和成本预算制度要求工作人员和金钱。这一努力取得的，必须也是值得的。因此，管理成本，又划分为多个扇区，必须计算，成本分摊到各个部门。各单位经营成本分析，可以揭示某些操作是否能更好地进行转包出去。这通常需要酒糟监督和间接费用。交通是一个特别的情况下承包商可能会比一个内部有组织的系统便宜。

收集和评估数据的成本控制，通常需要额外的技术人员也可能是谁负责质量控制等管理使用的原始数据进行处理，然后通常由办公室文员了。

单元操作计算的实际成本，然后比较，与设在该财政年度的预算启动成本管理。可以采取行动，以减少成本超支何地发生，并在同一时间，企业的财务状况至少在一月初透露按月基础。实际的利润和亏损的企业不知道结果是下降到去年的百分之这个过程。确切的财务业绩来自于这是跟上成本账户平行正常的金融帐户。财务账目，但只给出一个结果的历史图片，它可能为时已晚，以使将要采取的纠正措施。

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