Ikm Model

Vithuyan Sivapatham
6068860
ACTG 2P21
Section 4
                                                            IKM Model

            IKM model is a Japanese way of changing a working environment for the better. It stands for Innovation, Kaisen and Maintenance. Kaisen has to do with improving a situation that is part of the everyday operation. Maintenance focuses on the business and operational responsibilities you have at your work place. Innovation has to do with developing innovative and changes to products, and investing in new technology.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

            Innovation was not one of the responsibilities I followed. Since I am in the service industry and I am lower level co-op student I could not make suggestions on changes on products and investments in technology. At the most I asked for the company to invest in new computers because it was slowing down the speed of my bookkeeping.
            Maintenance was one of the three employment responsibilities that I was followed during my four months at co-op. My work term at Morby Monteith Professional Corporation consisted of me having many business and operational responsibilities. First, while bookkeeping I was to follow accounting rules such as the revenue recognition principle. This meant that if revenue was earned in 2017 but was received in 2018 I would still include it as a part of 2017 and that would be reflected through the 2017 HST return. To ensure this was followed correctly it was my responsibility to ensure that dates were recorded without mistake. Second, it was my responsibility to ensure that I read the detail of every receipt while inputting them into QuickBooks. A lot of times clients would include receipts that were not business related and this would affect the HST return. If we were to be audited, we would be penalized for lack of competency. Third, I was to make sure the right accounts were used while making journal entries. During an audit, an auditor can compare previous year financial statements to find huge discrepancies in accounts such as Office supplies. This is probably because it was posted to the wrong account. Fourth, it was my responsibility as a receptionist to be kind and positive to clients even if they were being rude. This is because I can help spread a good name for our firm. If I were to be rude to clients, our firm would be represented in a negative light which eventually would lead to loss of clients. Fifth, I was to organize documents given by the client. This is because it would be easier for the clients and auditor to understand my thought process while bookkeeping the company's files. Also it would be easier to find documents if things were inputted incorrectly. Lastly, it was my responsibility to make sure that all work was finished before a deadline. If that meant taking a shorter lunch or staying longer that's what I had to do because all clients want their files to be finished as soon as possible. If we did not finish the work within a certain time it would decrease client satisfaction and we would miss government deadlines causing us to pay penalties.
          Kaisen is a concept that my firm did not really focus on. If I made a mistake at the firm, the manager would tell me one on one about it. This does not reflect what Kaisen is because Kaisen has to do with voicing one's opinion on improving a system. For example, my manager could have held board meetings once a week to ask us about our opinions about the efficiency in which we are able to get our work done. Since I am in the co-op program we got to give an end of the year reflection about our work experience. That was the closest thing we had to follow the concept Kaisen because we gave our firms things they can improve on. The problem was that we gave that feedback at the very end of our co-op experience which meant that our current work experience could not be improved. Also there is a high probability that the does not take their time to read the feedback.