Employing of Time Driven – Performance Based Costing and Continuous Improvement techniques to Enhance competitive advantage

-An Empirical Study-

Presented to

 The Council of the College of Administration and

 Economics – Karbala University as Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Master of science in Accounting 

By

Iman Abdel Rahim Abdel Karim Al Mayahi

Supervised by

The Professor Dr. Salah Mahdi Jawad Al-Kawaz

The two techniques of Time Driven – Performance Based Costing, and continuous improvement, are among the most important strategic  techniques for cost management, in the modern era, which can, through the integration between them, lead economic units to their goals by improving the value of the product , reducing its cost and providing products that meet the requirements and needs of the customer, Through its performance, low prices, and high quality it enjoys, and as a result, it enhances its competitive advantage.

    Accordingly, the most important objectives of the current research is to study the integrative relationship of the above-mentioned techniques, through their application, in one of the factories of the General Company for Textile Industries, which is the ready-made garments factory in Najaf. For the purpose of achieving this goal, the researcher, when applying the time- driven performance-based costing technique, relied on the data obtained in several ways, including field visits, personal interviews with workers and officials in the factory, as well as sales agents, as well as data extracted from records Accounting and cost in the factory research sample.

    The researcher reached a number of conclusions, the most important of which is that a factory for ready-made clothes in Najaf, as the research sample, suffers due to the lack of application of the two cost techniques based on time-oriented performance and continuous improvement, which through integration between them can achieve its objectives by reducing cost and enhancing competitive advantage. The most important recommendations contained in this research emphasize the focus of attention on the application of the above-mentioned techniques for their role in achieving these goals.