Lean Measures and Decision-Making

Why This Workshop?

Traditional accounting and managerial methods were designed to support traditional business operations.  Lean principles and methods require a new set of performance measures and accounting information to support the Lean enterprise.  One example: Lean manufacturing is about eliminating wastes that include "overproduction", but traditional accounting would encourage maximizing machine hours and building inventory to absorb overhead.  This workshop is designed to resolve the conflict between traditional accounting and lean methods.

Who Should Attend?

This two-day event is designed for both operations leaders AND their financial counterparts.  It is highly recommended for CEOs, CFOs, Controllers, Directors of HR, Operations Manager, and other leaders from companies committed to Lean transformation (and usually well into their Lean Journeys).  Company teams are encouraged to participate for both days in order to create greater alignment between accounting and the rest of the business.  Attendees should bring their laptops and be prepared to dive into their own numbers to realistically assess their financial statements and begin building new designs that support their needs.

What Is Covered?

The workshop will illustrate the value and competitive advantage of Lean principles and practices via a hands-on simulation that includes Lean's impact on operations and financial statements.  Unlike other Lean simulations, this one includes financial statements in both a traditional format and then in a simplified "plain English" format in order to demonstrate the importance of the alignment between operations and accounting.  The exercise will clearly demonstrate how traditional transactional processing needs to align with Lean changes occurring in operations, and how a working partnership between these two functions is possible, and how it supports an effective Lean transformation

Topics covered in this workshop include:

• Introduction to Lean Thinking
• How traditional financial accounting can conflict with Lean Thinking
• How Lean can punish the traditional P&L Statement
• How Lean Accounting enables better decisions
• Benefits and methods of identifying and eliminating wasteful financial transactions
• Value Stream Costing and its superiority to traditional Standard Costing methods
• Lean performance metrics and how they support the drive toward operational excellence
• Examples of successful Lean Thinking and Lean Accounting transformations 
• Lean Accounting lessons-learned and implementation recommendations

Your Facilitator:

Your instructor for this engaging two-day workshop is Jerry Solomon, former Vice President of Operations of MarquipWardUnited-Hunt Valley, a division of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, the Western Hemisphere's leading packaging automation and converting group.

Previously, Mr. Solomon has simultaneously held the positions of CFO and VP of Manufacturing at three mid-market manufacturing companies. In these roles, he was able to apply Lean Thinking to both the manufacturing and accounting operations, affording him multiple unique perspectives on Lean Manufacturing and Lean Accounting.

Mr. Solomon is the author of Who's Counting and the co-author of Accounting for World Class Operations: A Practical Guide for Providing Relevant Information in Support of the Lean Enterprise.  Both books won the prestigious Shingo Prize for Research in 2004 and 2008, respectively.

The workshop price includes light breakfast, lunch meals and afternoon refreshments.

For directions and information to Loyola Graduate Campus in Columbia click here