Our Clients

BMA Inc. clients include a very wide range of manufacturing and distribution companies. While these companies include the very large multi-nationals through to small privately held manufacturers, the common thread is: these are organizations making major changes.

Parker Hannifin Corporation - With annual sales of $6 billion, Parker Hannifin Corporation is the world’s leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies, providing systematic, precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of commercial, mobile, industrial and aerospace markets.

"We began our lean manufacturing journey in early 1999 and it wasn't very long before we began to run into the push back from our measurement system. Our lean manufacturing advocates would say when volume drops, stop producing. Our measurement system would say when volume drops, produce so we can absorb. Our lean division general managers wouldn't use labor efficiency or capacity utilization as performance measures, our traditional managers would. Questions that indicated "we just didn't get lean" became the norm. Standard costs, gross margin, and cost led pricing questions were all adding to the confusion as we began to get serious about the lean initiative. Those questions were occupying more and more of our agendas each day.

Our response: organize an internal group to address these issues. That group discovered BMA Inc's lean accounting program in late 2000 and has been working with them ever since. We're finding the tools not only compliment but are essential to successfully implementing lean manufacturing . Performance measures, maturity paths to systems development, how to use available capacity, and value stream and target costing are the first of those tools we're putting in place. As we do, operating and accounting folks no longer argue about whether the approach or the numbers are right. They now focus on the business decisions that need to be made. Accounting is quickly becoming a business partner and the source of the relevant information necessary to make informed business choices.

The bottom line: BMA's tools are powerful. They are quickly becoming essential elements in our journey to lean manufacturing." Fred Garbinski, Director of Corporate Finance

Acuity Brands Lighting, Conyers GA

Comments from people who attended a BMA briefing:

"Best lean overview conducted to date. It pulls a lot of loose ends together."

"The feedback from our senior management team [about] the Lean Accounting Executive Briefing has been overwhelmingly positive ... in fact, they wanted more! The briefing gave them a clear understanding of how Lean Accounting canreally help us move our lean strategy forward and improve our office productivity."
Lisa Haskell, VP ABS Finance, Acuity Brands Lighting, Conyers GA

Watlow Controls Product Group, Winona MN
"I have taken part in four major kaizens in the last few months lead by different consultants. The BMA Lean Accounting kaizen was by far the most productive. We got a great deal done, made a lot of decisions, and made some significant changes."
Ray Feller, General Manager, Controls Product Group

"A former General Manager once advised our team to spend the company’s money as if it were our own, and to make sure the spend results in real value.  The value that BMA provides is outstanding and exceptional."
Ron Blassi, Controller, Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co., St. Louis MO

Danfoss Industrial Controls, Kolding, Denmark

"As a member of the senior management team of Danfoss Industrial Controls, I enthusiastically embraced Lean Manufacturing when we began our implementation a couple of years ago. As the Chief Financial Officer for this division I soon became aware that the company's traditional approach to accounting and measurement did not support the lean changes we were working so hard on. There was also a clear need to "lean out" our accounting and administrative processes.

At this time we came across Brian Maskell, President of BMA Inc., at a conference in America. We brought Mr. Maskell in for a one-day presentation to our executive team and the Lean Accounting message he brought made a lot of sense for us. Since then we have been through two sessions of the BMA Inc. Lean Accounting training and we are now implementing Lean Accounting as a part of our overall Lean Enterprise strategy. Like Lean Manufacturing, these changes are not easy; they require a great deal of understanding and cultural change within the organization. The training and consulting we have received from BMA Inc. has been excellent for us. We are now using BMA Inc. as our sensei as we move further into these vital aspects of lean."
Hans Kongsted, Divisional Finance Manager

"Danfoss Industrial Controls has been working with lean manufacturing for three years and has extensively used value stream mapping and Kaizen breakthrough methodology (Kaizen blitz’s). A value stream organization has been implemented, and a year ago we commenced the journey of Lean Accounting.

When we first heard about Lean Accounting, it struck us how important it was to support our lean manufacturing process. We had the feeling that something else was needed; Lean Accounting was the missing link.

A deeper dig into the secrets of Lean Accounting has revealed many important elements such as lean performance measurement, calculation of lean manufacturing benefits, value stream cost accounting and analysis, product and target costing, elimination of transactions, and truly lean decision making. We are well into implementing these in the different areas of our business. We have found that all these elements really make up a full Lean Management system.

BMA Inc. has been a tremendous help to us. Their experience and knowledge of lean manufacturing is outstanding, and essential to the success with Lean Accounting. BMA, Inc. does an excellent job in continuously linking these two together. Lean Accounting does not make sense without lean manufacturing and vice versa.

In facing the complexity of a global business, with numerous plants and divisions, BMA Inc’s insight into systems and IT issues has also been crucial. Discussions tend to accelerate in the wrong direction, especially when it comes to this critical area. These unfruitful discussions disappear as BMA Inc. guides the improvement processes with great professionalism .

Keep in mind: implementing Lean Accounting and lean manufacturing is hard work, but BMA, Inc. is worth every dime."
Claus Peitersen, Director, Lean Support Office

Affordable Interior Systems, Hudson, MA

"Just wanted to let you know that you definitely made an impact. Everyone sees the importance of integrating sales and marketing into the value streams. Finance is now on-board and we are moving ahead with Lean Accounting. We have begun to stress the importance of level loading assemblies. Everyone is very happy with the training which was well presented, practical, and thoroughly lean."
Glenn Fujimoto, Director, Lean Continuous Improvement

Alliance Remanufacturing Inc.

"Brian Maskell, a/k/a "Brain" Maskell, introduced me to a practical and rational approach to understanding the principles of Lean Manufacturing for the first time, even though I had heard all the different "buzz" words before. He brought a sincerity and sensibility that made me a dedicated believer and then stuck around to help me solve real problems. The eye opening experience became the start of a journey that has affected every aspect of my career as a business manager and owner.

The improvements and multiple success stories I have had over the last two years have been a direct result of the training, teaching and unwavering commitment of my friend Brian Maskell. Whether you’re hearing about "Lean" for the first time, trying to sharpen your understanding or if you really want to put your implementation to the test, Brian is the right man for the job!" David L. Paino Jr., Vice President, Operations

Minnesota Technology, Inc.
"We have used BMA Inc. several times to present leading-edge lean and agile enterprise materials to our associates. This helps us shape our perspective when we share information on the latest developments in business and technology with our clients. BMA Inc. is an associate-preferred resource.

We have received first class service from Brian Maskell. He presents tailored information clearly, in a very practical, straightforward yet entertaining way. For example, his presentation style and information was engaging enough to captivate an audience of 30+ people for two days discussing accounting issues; that in its self is a wonder."
Michael Dietrich, Senior Manufacturing Specialist

O. C. Tanner Company

"Wow! What a great experience it was to have you here for the past few days. Thank you for expanding our minds and opportunities."
Dustin Ott, Manufacturing Manager


Aircast, Inc.

"Value Stream Costing Helped Us to Secure a Large Order that We would have Rejected Using Standard Costing…"
Fabian McCarthy, Executive Vice President Operations and New Product Development

As a manufacturer of medical devices focused on providing innovative ways to replace the cumbersome plaster casts to support broken bones and sprained joints, Aircast has compiled a remarkable record of increasing sales and profits for over thirty years of its existence. However, the challenge of increasing pressure on healthcare costs and the rise of competitors offering "knockoffs" of Aircast’s products at lower prices has caused Aircast to look for ways to understand the economic value delivered through its lean manufacturing system.

Executive Vice President of Operations and New Product Development, Fabian McCarthy, Jr, puts it this way. " Our standard costing system was often not representative of our true cost basis or helpful in making more informed business decisions. It was difficult, and at times impossible, to see how various business drivers were impacting the costs of our products and services. Consequently our ability to understand our operations from a financial perspective was limited. We called on BMA, Inc. to help us to implement simpler and more accurate information about product profitability.

"Value stream costing has enabled us to get a much more accurate picture of the profitability of our product groups while reducing the time that we spend in putting the numbers together. We have been able to make more informed decisions about pricing, capacity utilization, new orders and the like. For example, we can now predict with greater accuracy the effects on profits of lowering prices in competitive markets to gain share. In one instance this increased visibility enabled us to make a decision to offer a customer outside our normal distribution channel a lower price than we had previously thought possible using our old costing system. As a result we were able to secure a large order for business that our standard costing system would have led us to reject.".