Cost Structure - what's costing?

Everything has a cost structure. The cost structure in it's simplest form is a list of costs that are involved in something but preferably a bit organised.

A hot dog could have this cost structure:

Cost Drivers - what is affecting the cost?

A cost driver is the cause for the cost to be as big as it is. In the hot dog example above cost drivers for the sausage could be that the meat content has to be at least 60%, the last harvest of secret ingredient spices was very small and that the newly introduced skin with advertisements on is difficult to print on.

In the hut the ketchup nozzle hole is to big. It was earlier enlarged as a time saving action as it would only require one line of ketchup. Unfortunately most of the customers prefer less ketchup so some has to be removed, causing excessive consumption and extra labour time.