Implementation of Kaizen costing towards improving cost management at the water and sanitation and electricity departments of the Ethekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

Little is known about kaizen costing opportunities and challenges in service organizations since little research has been conducted about its implementation in this sector (Singh and Singh 2009: 63). Kaizen costing is a management accounting technique that is mainly focused on improving the cost management of the organisation. Since the cost management performance of South African municipalities is very poor, the purpose of this study is to evaluate whether implementing kaizen costing will improve cost management at the water and electricity departments in eThekwini municipality. Studies have shown that there are a lot of unexploited benefits which can be gained by South African municipalities as well as other organisations by implementing kaizen costing. This is a quantitative descriptive case study of the Water and Sanitation and Electricity Departments in the eThekwini Municipality where data was collected from the target respondents using questionnaires. The 320 questionnaires, which consisted of predominantly closed-ended questions, were self-administered to the target respondents. The results were analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. The findings of this study revealed that the adoption of kaizen costing may be successful in improving the cost management inefficiencies faced by the South African municipalities. Based on the findings, the majority of the respondents indicated that they would embrace and support the application of a kaizen costing at the Water and Sanitation and Electricity Departments in the eThekwini Municipality. The study recommends that the Water and Sanitation and Electricity Departments in the eThekwini Municipality should consider implementing kaizen costing to improve its cost management.