Michigan Lean Consortium elects officers and appoints board members for 2010

Online, December 10, 2009 (Newswire.com) - The Michigan Lean Consortium, a diverse network of knowledgeable lean professionals, has elected officers and appointed board members for 2010. Willie Brown, Ken LePage, Jason Schulist, Debra Setman and Chris Wilson have been elected officers and will decide the individual positions amongst themselves. The positions are chairperson, vice chairperson, treasurer, secretary and ad hoc board member.

Rick Fleming, director of the Michigan Shingo Prize through The Right Place, and Phil Berry, senior director of Continuous Improvement at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, have been appointed board members.

During his 37-year career with General Motors Corporation, Brown gained extensive experience in manufacturing and supplier quality. Prior to his retirement in 2008, he was responsible for practicing lean management with Tier I automotive suppliers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He successfully delivered comprehensive training and real application of lean principles to more than 200 suppliers during the last nine years in corporate America.

Brown also facilitated workshops in change management, constraint management, brainstorming, identifying and eliminating waste, and additional concepts to prepare the participants with tools to improve in their work environment. He resides in Flint, Mich.

LePage is the associate vice president of Process Excellence at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac, part of Trinity Health, where he has also worked as the lean sensei in the Process Excellence group. LePage previously worked for Ford Motor Company, where he led the implementation of numerous lean manufacturing improvements and Six Sigma projects that resulted in over $40 million in operational cost savings.

In 2005, LePage switched to the health care field by working for Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics ValuMetrix Services group and has implemented lean projects at numerous hospital sites. LePage is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He resides in Canton, Mich.

Schulist serves as director of Continuous Improvement at DTE Energy, during which DTE has saved over $500 million while building continuous improvement capability within the organization, especially among C-level executives. Prior to joining DTE, Schulist worked for 13 years at General Motors in business development, corporate strategy and manufacturing operations leadership positions applying lean, Six Sigma and organizational learning methods to various business challenges.

Schulist also spent two years as School-Pak's vice president of Strategy, Marketing and Operations. He earned a B.S in electrical engineering from Marquette University, a M.S. in electrical engineering and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the prestigious Leaders for Manufacturing Fellows program. He resides in Canton, Mich.

Having grown up in a lean household with parents who believed in the principles, Setman has learned to use them in business settings to drastically improve organizational productivity and save organizations hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of her career.

Currently the executive director of Strategy Development and Business Improvement at Johnson & Johnson, Setman has worked in the health care, automotive, higher education, interior design and consulting industries. She firmly believes lean principles can turn around the economy of Michigan. She resides in South Lyon, Mich.

Wilson recently retired as director of Operational Excellence for Amway Corporation with more than 20 years of leadership, domestic and international experience. His extensive supply chain operations background was a perfect fit for him to introduce lean/continuous improvement to Amway.

He has helped create a learning organization where thousands of Amway employees are using problem-solving techniques to improve the way they do their jobs, while the company has significant cost savings. Well integrated into the Grand Rapids business community, Wilson has helped local non-profit organizations implement these lean techniques into their work practices. He resides in Ada, Mich.

The mission of the MLC is to offer a diverse network of knowledgeable lean professionals who come together to share innovative practices. The organization aims to create a lean culture in Michigan to ensure sustainable competitive advantage, which could translate into healthier businesses that offer more job opportunities leading to economic growth in the state.

The charter members of the MLC include: Amway, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, DTE Energy, Johnson & Johnson, The Lean Learning Center, Northwestern Michigan College, The Pawley Learning Institute at Oakland University and the Michigan Shingo Prize through The Right Place.