A study of the adequacy of the Navy Industrial Fund accounting system for use with the RAMP SMP facility

Abstract

Using modern automated manufacturing techniques changes the behavior of traditional manufacturing costs incurred in labor intensive processes. The Navy RAMP SMP (Rapid Acquisition of Manufactured Parts Small Manufactured Parts) facility is an automated manufacturing facility which is envisioned to operate within the Navy Industrial Fund (NIF) system. The traditional NIF cost accounting system may be inadequate to deal with the changes in costs that will result. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the adequacy of the NIF accounting system to properly account for costs incurred in the RAMP SMP facility. This thesis describes the RAMP SMP facility, discusses the accounting issues which arise when automated manufacturing techniques are introduced, provides an overview of the NIF accounting system, and analyzes the NIF accounting system's adequacy for use with the RAMP facility. The author concludes that some elements of the NIF accounting system are inadequate in their present state for use with the RAMP SMP facility. (kr)