IntroductionCost management involves reducing, estimating, containing and avoiding costs using a variety of different methods (Drury, 2008) (Groth and Kinney, 1994). Cost reduction is done by seeking to reduce both the fixed and variable costs associated with an activity. Cost containment is achieved by limiting or avoiding future cost increases, and cost avoidance involves eliminating unnecessary activities (Groth and Kinney, 1994). Cost management begins by identifying how costs arise and the events associated with them. Only once activities are identified can one begin to manage them successfully. Cost management is often ignored by managers, who instead focus on increasing sales. Most of the time, excessive costs can be an underlying problem and cost control can be very effective in generating greater profits: "a dollar of cost savings goes directly to the bottom line, while a dollar of Increased sales can actually result in a loss for the company. result” (Reider, 2011). Methods that can be used to manage costs are life cycle costing, target costing, Kaizen costing, activity-based management and business process re-engineering. Life cycle costing, target costing and Kaizen costing are all cost management methods and will be the subject of this essay. How they are used to control the costs and benefits of each will be discussed as well as when it is appropriate to use each type of costing system. Life Cycle Costing: Life cycle costing is an analysis process that estimates the cost of an investment. on the economic life of a product. It determines whether the profits made during production will cover all costs involved, including installation costs through to disposal costs (Norman, 2007). I...... middle of paper ......m. (2014). What is target costing? definition and meaning. [online] Extracted from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/target-costing.html [Accessed: April 7, 2014].In the text: (Drury, 2008)Bibliography: Drury, C. (2008) . Management and analytical accounting. 7th ed. London: Cengage. In the text: (Groth & Kinney, 1994) Bibliography: Groth, JC & Kinney, MR (1994). Cost management and value creation. Management Decision, 32 (4), pp. 52--57. In the text: (Kren, 2008) Bibliography: Kren, L. (2008). Use activity-based management for cost control. Journal Of Performance Management, 21 (2), pp. 18--27. In the text: (Norman, 2007) Bibliography: Norman, G. (2007). Life cycle cost. Property Management, 8 (4), pp. 344--356. In the text: (Reider, 2011) Bibliography: Reider, R. (2011). Cost management in difficult times. Journal of Accounting and Business Finance, 22(3), pp.. 9--15.