The MLC had a booth at Oakland University's Clean Energy Research Center Event:

The Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC) attended an event held by Oakland University's INCubator, A Clean Energy Research Center expo on March 31, 2011. The event held many businesses with "green" in mind, each of which had a booth and a story to share. The event was all about welcoming the new Clean Energy Research Center to Oakland University, lead by the School of Engineering and Computer Science.

The Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) will be home for multiple, clean energy research, development, and educational activities. The CERC will create an environment that will foster commercial partnerships, provide an educational platform for student research and clean energy curricula development, while providing an entrepreneurial atmosphere within the OU R&D community to allow technology transfer and commercialization of new technologies.

"It was energizing to be a part of such an important launch for the state of MI, the Clean Energy Research Center. The innovative companies that were present gave a feeling of excitement and positive change. The leaders from state and national government as well as from Oakland University who spoke at the event showed the strong team that has worked together to achieve a phenomenal research center. The MLC is strategically positioned to help the energy industry and plans to be a partner for many years to come," said Debra Levantrosser Setman.

During the event, there were several influencial speakers who were excited about how far "green energy" research has come at Oakland University. The speakers included Gary D. Russi, President of Oakland University; Dr. Virinder K. Moudgil, Provoust and Senior VP for Academic Affairs; Bryan K. Barnett, Mayor of Rochester Hills and OU Alum; Carl Levin, Senator of Michigan (There by video); Colleen Peters, wife of Congressman Gary Peters; Gilbert Sperling, Senior Policy Advisor to Assistant Secretary Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the U.S. Dept. of Energy; Martin Dober, Senior VP of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Michigan Economy Development Corp.; and Maureen Krauss, Director of Economic Development and Community Affairs in Oakland County.

"It is great to see the tremendous energy and passion flowing into the "green space". I think there is an intimate link between green businesses and continuous improvement and was impressed with the people that visited our booth at the show," said Jason Schulist, Chair of Michigan Lean Consortium.

"There was a lot of interest in the ability to improve the new processes even before they actually went into production. The entrepreneurs obviously appreciated the ability to continually improve the processes, just as they were improving the physical ways to make and save green energy," said Lester Sutherland.

Check out photos from the event on Michigan Lean Consortium's Facebook page.

For more information about the MLC and upcoming benchmarking events, visit www.michiganlean.org.

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 Oakland University Pawley Lean Institute and the Michigan Shingo Prize through The Right Place. For more information, visit www.michiganlean.org.