Chapter 22 provides a discussion of activity-based systems: activity-based management and just-in-time. It discusses activity-based management in relation to the value chain, supply chain, and cost hierarchy, and it compares the just-in-time philosophy to activity-based costing. The chapter examines the definition of just-in-time and its effects on the operating environment. There is also a brief discussion of backflush accounting as compared to the traditional cost flow of a cost-based accounting system.