Costs and their determination play a critical role in all manufacturing companies. The traditional costing system has received criticism resulting from the arbitrary allocation of indirect manufacturing costs. As an important initiative to address its weaknesses, new costing methods such as the Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) have emerged. Unfortunately, up to our knowledge, no investigations have been applied in analyzing assembly companies thoroughly nor considering all the processes necessary to obtain the final products. This article explores the TDABC application in the assembly industry through comparison with traditional volume-based costing by focusing on manual and semi-automatized production. Since the research is descriptive, a multiple-case study design was implemented in the assembly of televisions, motorcycles, and printed circuit boards. The developed methodology allowed determining the existence of factory overhead and direct labor cost variances between two different cost accounting systems, which also affected the unit cost of the products. Findings also highlight the benefits of TDABC application in the assembly industry, along with the shortcomings and future potential of research in this area.

Purpose This paper aims to show the potential of time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to value and integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) and quality management (QM) processes in the assembly industry. It provides valuable insights about operational processes, sub-process and activities within assembly companies by using TDABC’s time equations with more accurate costs for the decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach The current paper proposes a new methodology framework with four QM and CSR implementation levels and several costing scenarios through the TDABC system. The valuation was built based on the activities of essential referents in each subject, such as ISO, Ethos Institute and electrostatic discharge control programs. To this end, a case study in the assembly industry processes was conducted with data from a TV assembler. Findings The results highlight that TDABC can be extended to perform a cost analysis with QM and CSR processes. The environmental management and occupational safety and health administration processes were considered part of CSR to do so. Consequently, managers can simulate the cost and impact of incorporating CSR and QM in assembly processes and thus decide the implementation degree and its corresponding planning according to the needs and available resources. In this particular case, the company increases a maximum of 12% of its resources to be socially responsible and manage its products’ quality. Originality/value Although theoretical models on CSR have been developed, the current study provides a practical framework based on TDABC scenarios that enterprises can easily implement to support and evaluate QM and CSR processes.