The Institute of Lean Management (Pvt) Ltd,( ILM) has organized a one day workshop on Finance for manufacturing Managers in association with CIMA on September 2 2010 at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo.

The Trainer is Mr Mallik de Silva, Group Finance Manager, Richard Peiris Group. Mallik is an associate member of CIMA and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka who has experience in the mercantile sector in diverse roles as Accountant, Tax Consultant & Finance Manager having served at Reckitt & Colman, Ceylon Tobacco and Ernst & Young. He is a founder member of the Wisdom business academy and a lecturer of repute having over 10 years experience as a part time lecturer at CIMA. In professional training, he specializes in training non financial managers and relaunched the Finance for non finance managers in 2006 hosted by CIMA and also the Finance for HR Managers programme which was the first of its kind.

Today many manufacturing organizations are struggling to survive and have taken various initiatives to reduce the cost. 5S, Kaizen, Total Productive Maintenance, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma are some key initiatives organizations have already taken to proceed with less investment. Nevertheless, big initiatives that require huge investments such as Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) , Restructuring, Value engineering, value manufacturing and value innovation have also taken place in our industries.
Manufacturing managers have to play a big role in the process of cost reduction.

They are constantly engaged in continual improvement in the manufacturing processes, but it is hardly reflected on the profit and loss account. An understanding of the real need of the organization in terms of financial point of view will help manufacturing managers to do kaizen with sense. Once they are familiar and thorough with financial KPIs and working capital cycle they could link their kaizen activities directly to the bottom line. Begin kaizen with end in mind will generate more energy and passion to do kaizen. It avoids frustration for not being rewarded for their kaizen achievements too.

To continue manufacturing in Sri Lanka our manufacturing managers should play a cost effective role because today we are in the Liberalized, Globalised and Privatized world. We cannot play with the price any more and to maximize profit we need to reduce the cost without compromising quality. So our industries are badly in need of manufacturing managers with better financial knowledge. If manufacturing managers want to become lean practitioners, understanding the financial terms is a mandatory requirement.

Institute of Lean Management Pvt. Ltd (ILM) is aimed at serving the national productivity by assisting and strengthening the local industries by improving their business processes and development of human resources with a special focus on leadership and soft skills in order to face the local and global competition on Quality, Cost and Delivery. ILM, in association with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, CIMA, is launching this new concept for the benefit of National Productivity. CIMA works closely with employers and sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its qualification, professional experience requirements and continuing professional development to ensure it remains the employer's choice when recruiting financially-trained business leaders.