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The Lean Revolution is off and running! But before we get too far in transforming businesses, especially the management accounting support for Lean (aka Lean Accounting or LA), it’s important to slow down just a bit and address some critical questions in the spirit of advancing the thinking for the benefit of practitioners. In this regard we want to answer two questions: (1) Is Lean Accounting a viable replacement for, complement to, and/or supplement for current and evolving management accounting approaches? (2) Does Lean Accounting have the capability to advance two of the more forward-looking roles undertaken by the management accountant: decision support and enterprise optimization? Lean thinking, the foundation for Lean Accounting, has a history of demonstrable benefit and is likely to have a significant impact on the U.S. business landscape. Lean refers to the management system of applying Lean principles to operations, and Lean Accounting refers to attempts to derive monetary management information based on Lean principles. This unique bond between an operations flow design approach (Lean) and a management accounting approach means the process of coming to terms with LA has a number of distinctive traits. The management accountant is required to gain an understanding of Lean thinking, principles, and practices, and a manufacturing shop floor emphasis requires that those from service industries dig a little deeper before they will be comfortable. A careful scrutiny of LA literature (books, articles, the Lean Accounting Summit in September 2006, etc.) reveals a number of assertions (and/or strong implications) related to management accounting that require technical analysis and broader, more open debate for the benefit of practitioners. The process of evaluating LA requires addressing four aspects of the case for it as presented: ( 1 ) LA’s assertions as stated in the literature, (2) understanding the implications of these assertions, (3) questioning the…
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