Lean Accounting Resources

By Jean Cunningham:

The topic of Lean Accounting has been getting quite of bit of interest the last few months. The Institute of Management Accounting (www.ima.org ) had their first webinar on the topic of lean and had their largest audience. The AICPA (www.aicpa.org) had their first web cast on Lean, and again had very strong participation. The Association for Manufacturing Excellence, (www.ame.org) which is a national organization with a strong focus on lean, has had very good turnout for its events on Lean Accounting.

While we are seeing some companies actually adopting Lean Accounting, I think more important is the growing awareness that Lean is a total business system and needs appropriate measures that support lean activities. The implementation will come; even if only division by division at the start.

To learn more about Lean Accounting, you can see the webinar/webcasts from the the sites above, or plan to go to the largest event with the most speakers at the Lean Accounting Summit (www.leanaccountingsummit.com ) which will be in Orlando again this fall. The AME annual conference in Chicago will also have Lean Accounting breakout sessions.

In terms of newsletter there is a free newsletter that you can subscribe to at the Lean Accounting Summit website above, some white papers at the IMA website, and a new website called www.igetleanaccounting.com to check out.

Remember….if you have measures that contradict the lean efforts, like those found in nearly every standard cost accounting system, you will be working against yourself. Go learn more!