‘Lean’ will mean effectiveness: Expert

World renowned lean accounting guru, Brian Maskell, said lean accounting is set to replace traditional accounting and measurement systems. He was speaking at the second national convention on Operational Excellence (OE), ‘IndiZen 2011’, which started in the city on Tuesday.

There are more than 100 delegates from all over India and over 25 foreign delegates from Africa and Russia. Many participant companies are sharing their success stories through case-study
competitions.

Maskell said lean accounting is right for companies that are well on the path toward lean manufacturing. “Driving the business from customer value is essential. This is what we are striving towards. We need a profound understanding of how we create value for the customer. We need an understanding of where our costs are in the value stream,’’ he said.

In his keynote address, managing director of Thermax Ltd, MS Unnikrishnan said,  “Operational excellence is now a strategic necessity for all industries, big or small. Continual improvement in everyday operations by everyone is the way to stay competitive and survive in the long run."

Director of Kaizen Institute (India), Jayanth Murthy, said India is set to emerge as one of the top global economic powers and industry will have to play a key role in this. “Operational excellence is an essential element towards achieving business excellence. IndiZen 2011 is designed to promote mutual learning among OE practitioners.’’

Director and founding partner of Kaizen Institute (India), Vinod Grover said, “Operational excellence practices are still confined to a relatively small minority of Indian industrial and service sectors. In manufacturing, automobile industry has been the leader, but most others are yet to catch up. Small and medium enterprises are slow in adopting these processes in a big way. Most of the service sector — insurance, banking and telecom — continues to ignore this huge opportunity," he said.