Management And Accounting Web

Continuous Improvement Bibliography

Provided by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida

Continuous Improvement Main Page | JIT Main Page | Lean Accounting Main Page

Abramovitch, I. 1994. Beyond kaizen. Success (January/February): 85-88.

Agrawal, S. P., Z. Rezaee and H. S. Pak. 2006. Continuous improvement: An activity-based model. Management Accounting Quarterly (Spring): 14-22.

Baik, B., J. Chae, S. Choi and D. B. Farber. 2013. Changes in operational efficiency and firm performance: A frontier analysis approach. Contemporary Accounting Research 30(3): 996-1026.

Bledsoe, N. L. and R. W. Ingram. 1997. Customer satisfaction through performance evaluation. Journal of Cost Management (Winter): 43-50. (Summary).

Borthick, A. F. and H. P. Roth. 1993. EDI for reengineering business processes. Management Accounting (October): 32-37.

Brewer, P. C. and J. E. Eighme. 2005. Using six sigma to improve the finance function. Strategic Finance (May): 27-33.

Brimson, J. A. 1988. Improvement and Elimination of non-value-added costs. Journal of Cost Management (Summer): 62-65.

Burrows, H. F. 1953. Work simplification cuts plant and office costs. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (May): 1151-1157.

Bustard, D. (ed). 2000. Systems Modeling for Business Process Improvement. Artech House Publishers.

Casey, J. and D. Wuestman. 2015. Lean leadership: Coaching to connect the dots. Strategic Finance (May): 23-25.

Cohen, F. 2011. Improving processes in your practice: Do the same thing with less, or more with the same thing with lean six sigma and lean principles in your toolbox. Medical Economics (June): 60-62,-67-69. (Cohen discusses five tools: flow charting or process mapping (create a chart of the steps in a process), value stream mapping (add data and other information to the process map such as the number of people and time required for each step, and possible problems), causal analysis (search for root causes of problems), voice of the customer (create a matrix related to customer expectations vs. actual results), and critical to quality (CTQ) trees (identify process improvement projects related to customer needs).

Cohen, F. and O. Dahl. 2009. Lean Six Sigma for the Medical Practice. Greenbranch Publishing.

Compton, T. R. 2002. Minimize waste with RAD. Strategic Finance (June): 50-53. (Rapid application development).

Cooper, D. and S. Essex. 1977. Accounting information and employee decision making. Accounting, Organizations and Society 2(3): 201-217.

Cooper, R. and R. Slagmulder. 2004. Achieving full-cycle cost management. MIT Sloan Management Review (Fall): 45-52. (Although the typical life cycle assumption is that 80-95% of a product's costs are locked in by design (See Chapter 2 of the CAM-I Conceptual Design), this study indicates that companies can substantially reduce costs throughout the product life cycle. The paper includes a discussion of five cost-management techniques: target costing, product-specific kaizen costing, general kaizen costing, functional group management, and product costing).

Cunningham, J. 2015. Using defects to drive financial gain: Revealing opportunity in unlikely places. Cost Management (January/February): 5-13.

Cveykus, R. and E. Carter. 2006. Fix the process, not the people. Strategic Finance (July): 26-33. (Applying the "lean sigma" formula and kaizen to accounts payable).

Darling, M., C. Parry and J. Moore. 2005. Learning in the thick of it. Harvard Business Review (July/August): 84-92. (The U.S. Army's standing enemy brigade, where soldiers learn and improve in the midst of battle).

Deal, P. M. 1953. Continuous cost reduction. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (November): 338-343.

Deming, W. E. 1993. The New Economics For Industry, Government & Education. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Engineering Study. (Summary).

Dickson, B. H. 1963. Bettering the emotional climate of management improvement programs. N.A.A. Bulletin (January): 13-20.

Downing, B. D. and A. Spanyi. 2007. Toward compliant performance. Strategic Finance (December): 26-32. (Five steps to business process management for compliance: Modeling current processes, analyzing process improvement opportunities, designing improved processes and controls, developing process priorities, and implementing the improved process).

Dyer, R. 2016. Kaizen. Cost Management (January/February): 19-21.

Edwards, G. E. 1964. Our profit improvement methods. N.A.A. Bulletin (November): 20-26.

Fish, E. R. Jr. 1959. "Do-it-yourself" work simplification will get it done. N.A.A. Bulletin (October): 53-61. (Continuous improvement).

Foy, T. D. 1947. Cost reduction. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (May 1): 1065-1075.

Garbinski, F. 2006. When SOX meets lean. Strategic Finance (December): 26-33.

Gino, F. and B. Staats. 2015. Why organizations don't learn. Harvard Business Review (November): 110-118.

Gleason, C. H. 1950. An organized profit improvement program. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (October): 123-131.

Goldratt, E. M. and J. Cox. 1986. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. New York: North River Press.

Greenwood, T. G. and J. M. Reeve. 1992. Activity-based cost management for continuous improvement: A process design framework. Journal of Cost Management (Winter): 22-40. (Summary).

Hammer, M. and J. Champy. 1993. Reengineering the Corporation. Harper Business.

Harby, J. D. 1957. An experience in profit improvement by defect prevention. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (February): 757-762.

Harrington, H. J. 1997. The new model for improvement - Total improvement management. Journal of Cost Management (January/February): 32-39.

Harvard Business Review. 2018. Making process improvements stick. Harvard Business Review (November/December): 16-19.

Hayes, R. H., and S.C. Wheelwright. 1984. Restoring Our Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufacturing. John Wiley.

Hayes, R. H., S. C. Wheelwright and K. B. Clark. 1988. Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the Learning Organization. New York: The Free Press.

Heffernan, L. 2021. Process improvements in accounting. Strategic Finance (October): 62-63.

Hendrix, V. E. 2021. Curb inflation rates using value analysis and continuous improvement. Cost Management (March/April): 24-27.

Hill, O. B. 1959. What a "value analysis" group can do to achieve cost reduction. N.A.A. Bulletin (January): 69-76.

Holland, C. W. 2005. Breakthrough Business Results With MVT: A Fast, Cost-Free, "Secret Weapon" for Boosting Sales, Cutting Expenses, and Improving Any Business Process. John Wiley & Sons.

Hudson, C. L. and M. J. Curran. 1993. Finding $100 bills on the factory floor. Management Accounting (July): 58-61.

Imai, M. 1986. Kaizen: The Key To Japan's Competitive Success. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. (Summary).

Imai, M. 1997. Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management. McGraw Hill Professional Publishing.

Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). 1993. IMA continuous improvement center. IMA FOCUS (July): 1, 7.

Jones, R. 2008. Proving Continuous Improvement with Profit Ability. ASQ Quality Press.

Kapanowski, G. 2016. Continuous improvement project log. Cost Management (March/April): 6-9.

Kapanowski, G. 2016. Lean fundamentals for accountants. Cost Management (January/February): 5-14. (Summary).

Kapanowski, G. 2019. Implementing lean to sustain continuous improvement. Cost Management (July/August): 3-4.

Kato, I. and A. Smalley. 2010. Toyota Kaizen methods: Six Steps to Improvement. Productivity Press.

Kaufman, M., E. M. Matsumura and U. Wemmerlov. 2021. Accounting control, operational control, and the value of continuous improvement: A capacity change perspective. Advances in Management Accounting (33): 1-29.

Killingsworth, P. S. 2006. An exploratory parametric analysis of production cost improvement in the aerospace industry. The Journal of Cost Analysis & Management 8(1): 15-36.

Lankford, P. and C. Cook. 1986. The 'vital few' saves costs. Management Accounting (August): 54-55, 62. (A dental manufacturer uses a technique referred to as 80/20 managing, reporting, and production control).

Lee, J. Y. and Y. Moden. 1996. Kaizen costing: Its structure and cost management functions. Advances in Management Accounting (5): 27-40.

Lee, J. Y., R. Jacob and M. Ulinski. 1994. Activity-based costing and Japanese cost management techniques: A comparison. Advances In Management Accounting (3): 179-196. (Summary).

Lenhardt, J. 2005. Getting the most from your company's existing operations. Cost Management (January/February): 24-27.

Lenhardt, P. M. 2004. Uncover hidden profit potential: Develop activity and profit profiles, Part 1. Cost Management (November/December): 40-46.

Lenhardt, P. M. 2005. Uncover hidden profit potential: Develop activity and profit profiles, Part 2. Cost Management (January/February): 38-47.

Lenhardt, P. M. and S. D. Colton. 2003. The two faces of process improvement. Journal of Cost Management (May/June): 46-48.

Liker, J. 2003. The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From The World's Greatest Manufacturer. McGraw-Hill. (Briefly: 1. Base decisions on a long-term strategy, 2. Create a continuous process flow, 3. Use pull systems, 4. Level the work load to minimize waste, 5. Stop the line to fix problems, 6. Standardize processes and tasks, 7. Use visual controls, 8. Use reliable thoroughly tested technology, 9. Develop leaders, 10. Develop teams, 11. Respect partners and suppliers, 12. Use go-and-see for yourself management, 13. Use consensus decisions, 14. Become a learning organization through continuous improvement).

Liker, J. K. and J. Franz. 2011. The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance. McGraw-Hill.

Lindahl, F. W. and R. Fanelli. 2002. Applying continuous improvement to teaching in another culture. Journal of Accounting Education20(4): 285-295.

Liu, G. 2012. Gathering evidence through enquiry: A process improvement focus. Behavioral Research In Accounting 24(2): 153-175.

Luehlfing, M. S. 1993. Driving out inefficiency. Management Accounting (March): 33-36. (Related to parking lot management).

Lukka, K. 1998. Total accounting in action: Reflections on Sten Jonsson's accounting for improvement. Accounting, Organizations and Society 23(3): 333-342.

Lyons, B. and R. Hardy. 2007. From workout to winning. Strategic Finance (November): 18-23. (A nonprofit university implements G.E.'s workout program).

Mackey, J. T. and H. D. Pforsich. 2006. Beating the budget. Strategic Finance (September): 47-50. (Focus on continuous improvement).

Madison, D. 2005. Process Mapping, Process Improvement and Process Management. Paton Press.

Maginnis, M. A. and G. Uminger. 2018. Management accounting in a true lean (TPS) environment. Cost Management (January/February): 27-35. (Summary).

Maira, A. 1993. Rebuilding U.S. manufacturing industries for sustainable performance acceleration. Journal of Cost Management (Spring): 68-72.

Martin, J. R. Not dated. Constrained optimization techniques. Management And Accounting Web. ConstrainoptTechs

Martin, J. R. Not dated. Continuous improvement plan do study act graphics. PDSAGraphic

Martin, J. R., W. K. Schelb, R. C. Snyder, and J. C. Sparling. 1992. Comparing the practices of U.S. and Japanese companies: The implications for management accounting. Journal of Cost Management (Spring): 6-14. (Summary).

Matson, E. and L. Prusak. 2003. The performance variability dilemma. MIT Sloan Management Review (Fall): 39-44. (Fall): 39-44. (Managers need a balance between streamlining processes and allowing employees the freedom to improve practices).

McNair, C. J. and K. Leibfried. 1992. Benchmarking: A Tool for Continuous Improvement. Essex Junction, Texas: Omneo.

McNair-Connolly, C. J., B. Richards and T. Watts. 2012. The snowball effect: Variation and its impact on organizational performance. Cost Management (July/August): 13-14 and 16-21.

Mehta, M. 2009. A + E = Lean: Process improvement calculates activity efficiency. Industrial Engineer (June): 28-33.

Monden, Y. 1992. Cost Management in the New Manufacturing Age: Innovations in the Japanese Automotive Industry. Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press.

Moden, Y. 1995. Cost Reduction Systems: Target Costing and Kaizen Costing. Productivity Press.

Moden, Y. and J. Lee. 1993. How a Japanese auto maker reduces costs. Management Accounting (August): 22-26.

Morse, E. H. Jr. 1961. The joint financial management improvement program in the federal government. The Accounting Review (July): 362-373.

Naslund, D. 2008. Lean, six sigma and lean sigma: Fads or real process improvement methods? Business Process Management Journal 14(3): 269-287.

Nicklis, J. O. 1956. The story of our profit improvement program. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (May): 1059-1067.

Pattison, D. D., J. Caltrider and R. Lutze. 1993. Continuous process improvement at Brooktree. Management Accounting (February): 49-52.

Pickering, M. 2017. Implementing lean management reporting in lean enterprises. Cost Management (January/February): 28-36. (Summary).

Powell, C. W. 1950. Product design: Where cost reduction begins. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (July): 1358-1360.

Rasmussen, N. H., C. J. Eichorn, C. S. Barak and T. Prince. 2003. Process Improvement for Effective Budgeting and Financial Reporting. John Wiley & Sons.

Reid, L. 1992. Continuous improvement through process development. Management Accounting (September): 37-44.

Reider, R. 2002. Operational Review: Maximum Results at Efficient Costs. John Wiley & Sons.

Roehm, H. A., D. Klein and J. F. Castellano. 1995. Blending quality theories for continuous improvement. Management Accounting (February): 26-32. (Summary).

Rother, M. 2009. Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results. McGraw-Hill Education.

Roy, R. K. 2000. Design of Experiments Using the Taguchi Approach: 16 Steps to Product and Process Improvement. Wiley-Interscience.

Salaman, G. and D. Asch. 2003. Strategy and Capability: Sustaining Organizational Change (Management, Organizations, and Business Series). Blackwell Publishing.

Savage-Fournier, J. 2020. Kata, Kaizen, Kairyo: A story of grit, growth, and great results. Cost Management (July/August): 35-41.

Scherkenbach, W. W. 1991. Deming's Road To Continual Improvement. Knoxville, Tennessee: SPC Press, Inc.

Senge, P. M., A. Kleiner, C. Roberts, G. Roth, R. Ross and B. Smith. 1999. The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. Doubleday.

Shani, A. B. and P. Docherty. 2003. Learning by Design: Building Sustainable Organizations (Management, Organizations, and Business Series). Blackwell Publishing.

Sharp, A. and P. McDermott. 2001. Workflow Modeling: Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development. Artech House Publishers.

Sheridan, J. H. 1998. Lockheed Martin Corporation. Industry Week (October 19): 54-56. (This article describes improvements made in the production of the F-16 Fighting Falcon using lean enterprise techniques. The company refers to these initiatives as advanced affordability, supply chain management and workforce vitality. Manufacturing costs decreased 38%, inventory levels decreased 50%, the cycle time to produce a jet decreased by over 50%, labor costs decreased by 69.7%, the defect rate decreased to 3.4 parts per jet (A F-16 includes 80,000 parts), and on time delivery is 100%).

Shook, J. 2009. Toyota's secret: The A3 report. MIT Sloan Management Review (Summer): 30-33.

Smith, M. A. 1947. Organization for cost reduction. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (July 15): 1391-1395.

Sprinkle, G. B. and M. G. Williamson. 2004. The evolution from Taylorism to employee gain sharing: A case study examining John Deere's continuous improvement pay plan. Issues in Accounting Education (November): 487-503.

Staw, B. M. and R. D. Boettger. 1990. Task revision: A neglected form of work performance. The Academy of Management Journal 33(3): 534-559.

Su, H. and K. Linderman. 2016. An empirical investigation in sustaining high-quality performance. Decision Sciences 47(5): 787-819.

Sullivan, A. A. 1949. Cost reduction through a controlled employee suggestion plan. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (March 1): 791-796.

Suzaki, K. 1987. The New Manufacturing Challenge: Techniques for Continuous Improvement. New York: The Free Press.

Suzaki, K. 1993. The New Shop Floor Management. New York: The Free Press.

Suzaki, K. 2010. New Shop Floor management: Empowering People for Continuous Improvement. Free Press.

Staats, B. R. and D. M. Upton. 2011. Lean knowledge work: The "Toyota" principles can also be effective in operations involving judgment and expertise. Harvard Business Review (October): 100-110. (Summary).

Staats, B. R., D. J. Brunner and D. M. Upton. 2011. Lean principles, learning, and knowledge work: Evidence from a software services provider. Journal of Operations Management 29(5): 376-390.

Stanley, R. and E. Garro. 2023. Creativity and continuous improvement: Essential for value management. Cost Management (March/April): 5-9.

Stone, V. 2020. The three "I's approach. Article 1: Identify. Cost Management (March/April): 5-9.

Stone, V. 2020. The Three "I"s approach. Article 2: Investigate. Cost Management (July/August): 30-34.

Stone, V. 2022. The three "I"s approach. Article 3: Implement. Cost Management (January/February): 30-34.

Swank, C. K. 2003. The lean service machine. Harvard Business Review (October): 123-129. (Summary).

Swenson, D. W. 1998. Managing costs through complexity reduction at Carrier Corporation. Management Accounting (April): 20-22, 24, 26-28. (Summary).

Tatikonda, L. U., D. O'Brien and R. J. Tatikonda. 1999. Succeeding with 80/20 rule. Management Accounting (February): 40-44. (Discussion of a company that tried ABC and dropped it for the Pareto 80/20 rule and JIT).

Taylor, A. and A. Puckett. 2015. Fast and lean! The Fastcap story: Founder and CEO Paul Akers has built a company culture that embraces change and continuous improvement by using lean concepts. Strategic Finance (May): 30-37.

Torok, R. M. and P. J. Cordon. 2002. Operational Profitability : Systematic Approaches for Continuous Improvement. John Wiley & Sons.

Tracey, D. L. and J. E. Knight. 2008. Lean operations management: Identifying and bridging the gap between theory and practice. The Journal of American Academy of Business 12(2): 8-14.

Turney, Peter B. B., and B. Anderson. 1989. Accounting for continuous improvement. Sloan Management Review (Winter).

Turney, P. B. B., and J. M. Reeve. 1990. The Impact of continuous improvement on the design of activity-based cost systems. Journal of Cost Management (Summer): 43-50.

Turney, P. B. B. and A. J. Stratton. 1992. Using ABC to support continuous improvement. Management Accounting ( September): 46-50.

Tyler, C. 2007. Business Genetics: Understanding 21st Century Corporations Using xBML. Wiley.

Tyler, C. 2008. What's going on in my organization? xBML can help you find out. Strategic Finance (March): 48-54. (xBML™ refers to eXtended Business Modeling Language. According to Tyler, xBML™ is a new approach to understanding and improving complex business operations. It includes a software tool and a set of rules which allow the user to graphically model the business's operations to show who is doing what, with which information, where, and when).

Van der Merwe, A. and J. Thomson. 2007. The lowdown on lean accounting. Strategic Finance (February): 26-33.

Whelan, E., S. Parise, J. De Valk and R. Aalbers. 2011. Creating employee networks that deliver open innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review (Fall): 37-44.

Williams, C. 2021. Cost accounting and the race to daily improvement. Cost Management (March/April): 20-23.

Williams, O. M. 1960. Eliminating waste in everyone's job. N.A.A. Bulletin (May): 88-89.

Womack, J. P., D. T. Jones and D. Roos. 1991. The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production. Harper Perennial.

Womack, J. P. and D. T. Jones. 1994. From lean production to the lean enterprise. Harvard Business Review (March-April): 93-103. (Summary).

Womack, J. P. and D. T. Jones. 1996. Beyond Toyota: How to root out waste and pursue perfection. Harvard Business Review (September-October): 140-144, 146, 148-152, 154, 156, 158. (Summary).

Womack, J. P. and D. T. Jones. 1996. Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Womack, J. P. and D. T. Jones. 2005. Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together. Free Press.

Womack, J. P. and J. Shook. 2011. Gemba Walks. Lean Enterprise Institute.

Ymaya, A. 2021. Kaikaku versus a kaizenevent: A deep understanding of two lean approaches to support business transformation. Cost Management (March/April): 38-43.

Ymaya, A. 2023. Continuous improvement. Cost Management (May/June): 34-37.