The correct answers are: For standard costing to be useful for control purposes, it requires a reasonably stable environment; The ethos behind a system of standard costing is that performance is satisfactory if it meets predetermined standards; The control aspect of standard costing systems is achieved by making individual managers responsible for the variances relating to their part of the organisation’s activities.

If standards were set on an ideal basis, this would enforce the concept of continual improvement that TQM embodies.

In a standard costing environment, products or processes must be standardised and repetitive, so that standards can be established which will be useful for monitoring and control. In a total quality environment, however, continual improvements are likely to alter prices, quantities of inputs and so on.

Attainable standards, which make some allowance for waste and inefficiencies, are more common than ideal standards. The use of such standards conflicts with the elimination of waste which is a vital ingredient of a TQM programme.