Author and consultant, Jean Cunningham, began her class yesterday by defining the difference between “accounting for lean” and “lean for accounting”. The former being the work and information that the accounting department provides for their internal customers in a lean organization, and the latter, applying lean concepts to the functions of the accounting department. Her overarching theme was 1) to make financial statements easier for people to understand and effectively use to make decisions within the organization and 2) to use principles of lean to free up capacity within the accounting department so the team can take on a consultative role to other areas of the organization. She provided the class strategies to take back to their own companies. Cunningham, co-author of Real Numbers: Management Accounting in a Lean Organization and other books, also shared some of her previous experiences as CFO at two manufacturing companies.
NWIRC is scheduling another Lean Accounting class for Spring 2018, with the date to be announced soon. If you’d like more information or would like to be placed on the waitlist, contact Molly Reichard at (814) 898-6888 or mreichard@nwirc.org.
