IPOMS-APICS SAP IDES Controlling and Enterprise Controlling (CO-EC) role

n the Business simulation, one of the players should control the
modules
Controlling (CO) and Enterprise Controlling (EC). Both these IDES
modules strongly involve economics, therefore it would be a benefit
for the player if he knows the basics in this area. Some knowledge in
marketing and sales would also be good. In the simulation the player
will use the Controlling Module for planning, managing and monitoring
overhead costs.
Since overhead costs cannot be assigned directly to cost objects, they
are assigned to the cost centres at which they occurred, or to the
jobs that raised them.
Having these data, which are in the cost centre, the player can, with
the provided tools in IDES, make sure that the data are allocated to
the correct source. The player can for example, at the end of a
posting period — which will also be a posting period in the simulation
— see whether the planned costs
(adjusted to the operating rate) are right compared with the actual
costs. Would this not be the case, the player will have to change the
data for the next coming posting period. The idea with this is that
the player will have to analyze any discrepancies between planned and
actual costs that exceed a predefit ned threshold. The player will
also work with cost controlling, and solve
questions like: Did the company calculate the right price for a
product that is manufactured, or a service that is provided? If the
company did not, what price should be the right in the future? To get
this "right" price the player has been provided with important
information for pricing and pricing policies, controlling the cost of
goods manufactured, stock evaluation, and profitability analysis.
Another major part in the Controller's role is to work with Profit
atability Analysis, which is as the name suggest, analyzing the
company's future profit, what it depends on and what parameters are
the main reason behind it. To be able to do this the player will get
help from a range of on-line, multidimensional reporting tools which
gives him key figures and numbers. Succeeding With this data and with
these queries, the player handling the Controller role will hopefully
have an encouraging and educating assignment. How the player succeeds
and on which basis this should be measured is not very easy, but it
will be calculated with the parameters the player changed during the
simulation session. Hopefully, the player will get
the right data from his companions which will make his job a lot easier.