Target costing and a research on its applicablity to the blanket manufacturing firms in Uşak

Textile is one of the sectors in which an intense competition takes place all around the world. With abolishment of quotas on textile and clothing on January 1, 2005 Chinese products claimed the world markets and it has forced textile firms to operate under very low profits margins. Another important factor undermining competitive power of exporting firms in Turkey has been appreciation of Turkish Lira since 2002. Costs have become more important in this environment in which firms could not claim control over their prices to some extent. In the struggle of the firms to increase their competitive power, managing costs has been the most efficient tool. In this context, target costing developed in Japan 1960?s and applied mostly in automotive industry seems to possess some features which will potentially chance competitive power of textile firms.This study arms to analyze applicability of target costing in Turkish textile firms. To this end, the main factors affecting the success level of the technique are analyzed and the features of the SME?s and these factors are compared. Using a survey on 52 blanket firms, the applicability of the technique is tested.