Du Pont Control Chart
The Du Pont Control Chart is called as such because Du Pont Company of the USA first used it. The various factors affecting the Return on Investment (ROI) are illustrated through this chart. ROI represents the earning power of the business.
It depends on two ratios:
(a) Net Profit ratio and
(b) Capital Turnover Ratio.
A change in any one of the two ratios will change the business earning power (i.e., ROI), and they are affected by many factors. The chart shown below exhibits that ROI is affected by a number of factors.
Any change in these factors will affect the return on capital employed. For example, if the cost of goods sold decreases without any corresponding decrease in selling price, the net profit will increase and therefore, ROI will also increase.
Similarly if there is decrease in working capital, the total capital employed will decrease and therefore, in the absence of any decrease in the net profit, ROI will decrease.
The Du Pont Chart helps management to identify the areas of problems, which affect profit, In other words, management can easily visualize the different forces affecting profits, and profits could be improved either by putting capital into effective use, which will result in higher turnover ratio, or by better sales efforts, which will result in higher profit ratio.
The same rate of return could be obtained either by a higher net profit ratio but low turnover ratio, or by a higher turnover ratio but a low net profit ratio.