Lean Accounting Article Accepted by IMA

An article written by MBA faculty members Dr. Andrew Bargerstock and Ye Shi has received favorable review for publication in an upcoming issue of Strategic Finance, the monthly peer-reviewed journal of the Institute for Management Accountants (IMA).

The article entitled, “Leaning Away from Standard Costing? – Reconciling Lean Accounting Theory and Practice,” examines an inconsistency in Lean accounting theory and practice related to use of standard costing in US manufacturing enterprises that utilize Toyota-style process improvement techniques.

As much of the Lean Accounting literature suggests, when Lean manufacturing is properly implemented, standard costing becomes another form of waste because variance analysis is replaced by work cell metrics that are considered to be superior methods for production control. Yet, both field reports and a 2013 research study conducted by Manjunath Rao at Maharishi International University indicate that the majority of mature lean manufacturers continue to utilize standard costing and variance analysis. This article sheds new light on possible reasons for this dichotomy including lack of knowledge about lean accounting, deeply entrenched institutional histories of standard costing, and inertia sustained by legacy enterprise resource planning systems.

This publication continues a pattern of recognition for MIU in the research field of lean accounting through the IMA and annual Lean Accounting Summit. Dr. Andrew Bargerstock was awarded Excellence in Lean Accounting Professor in 2009. Dr. Manjunath Rao was chosen as the Lean Accounting Student of the Year in 2011 for his PhD dissertation research that was partially funded by IMA. Ye Shi was honored as the Lean Accounting Student of the Year in 2013 for her work in teaching and writing case studies while pursuing her PhD. In 2011 and 2013, Dr. Bargerstock and Dr. Manjunath Rao published articles in Management Accounting Quarterly on the lean accounting research conducted at MIU.