Rosemary Fullerton, Professor, Utah State University
Making Accounting Relevant to Lean Enterprises

Rosemary Fullerton is an associate professor at Utah State University where she has taught in the School of Accountancy for eight years. During her tenure at Utah State, she has been affiliated with the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, serving as a site examiner and team leader. She has also evaluated several Shingo achievement reports and served as a reviewer for the Shingo Research Prize.

Dr. Fullerton’s research is centered on the relationships among Lean manufacturing, cost accounting and performance measures, and firm profitability. Her current research interests include investigating the prevalence of Lean accounting and the impact of cost accounting practices in Lean manufacturing environments. Dr. Fullerton has published her research in some of the top academic accounting and operations management journals. She has also presented her research at various universities and conferences throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and Italy. Dr. Fullerton has won various awards for her teaching and research. In 2004, she was awarded a Shingo Research Prize for her manuscript, The Role of Performance Measures and Incentive Systems in Relation to the Degree of JIT Implementation, co-authored with Dr. Cheryl McWatters from the University of Alberta.

Professor Fullerton just completed a year-long sabbatical where she worked with leading Lean consultants at various U.S. manufacturing firms, helping managers transition their accounting systems to become more relevant in Lean environments. She has presented workshops on Lean accounting to both professional and academic audiences. Her forthcoming book, Accounting for World-Class Operations, is co-authored with Jerry Solomon, VP of Operations at MarquipWardUnited in Hunt Valley, Maryland.    

Dr. Fullerton has a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Utah State University. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a CPA. She is a member of the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Management Accountants, the American Institute of CPAs, and the Utah Association of CPAs, where she currently serves on the Business and Management Council.