Dr. Laurie Burney was recently awarded one of 12 Lean Accounting Summit’s Faculty-Student Scholarship Program scholarships. These scholarships were awarded internationally from the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). This scholarship allowed Dr. Burney and a student to attend the Lean Accounting Summit in Orlando, Florida on September 27-28, 2007. Richard Waters, a senior accounting major at MSU, was the student selected to attend the conference. Selection for the AME scholarship was based on an application requiring Dr. Burney to detail how the selected student would benefit from attending, how she currently integrates lean into her teaching and how lean is part of her current accounting research projects.

The Summit is an opportunity for practitioners who are pursuing lean to learn more about Lean Accounting and Accounting for Lean. This year’s conference was attended by over 500 professionals. The speakers at the conference were well-respected lean accounting thought leaders, such as Brian Maskell, Bruce Baggaley and Jerald Solomon. In addition, the conference included many case presentations by innovative lean implementers, including Parker Hannifin Buxton, UK; Boeing Commercial Airplanes; and The Wiremold Company. The conference was a wonderful opportunity for Dr. Burney to enhance her teaching about lean accounting, as well as enhance her current research on lean issues.