March 2014 Newsletter: Mac-OU INC Happenings: "State of Michigan Renews Contract with Mac-OU INC for 2014 Lean Green Belt Program Offerings"

The State of Michigan (SOM) has renewed their contract with the Macomb-OU INCubator for the 2014 calendar year in an extension of the Lean Diversification Green Belt certificate program offered to all SOM employees in 2013. Endorsed by the Michigan Lean Consortium, the program is intended for business managers looking to develop excellence, nurture innovation, efficiently allocate resources and eliminate waste.

As an initiative of the SOM’s Good Government Leadership Team, chaired by Lt. Governor Brian Calley, over 50 SOM employees were trained in Lean in 2013. The goal for the employees is to bring Lean principles to their respective departments for immediate implementation.

The Good Government initiative has a four-fold core focus of performance management, service/process optimization, employee engagement and change management. Through a competitive bid process, the SOM chose Mac-OU INC’s Lean Green Belt program to achieve their Good Government mission.

"In Michigan, we recognize that our most valuable resource is our people. The public and private sectors are working together in unprecedented ways to reinvent our government. Our vision is to establish the State of Michigan as a highly functioning organization that provides world-class service and enables prosperity for Michigan's citizens and businesses," Calley says.

"We believe partnering with Oakland University to provide Lean Green Belt certification training to our valued state employees will help accelerate our transformation. The partnership with Oakland U assists us in developing our employees and building capacity to lead service and process optimization efforts statewide. The training Oakland has provided our employees offers yet another opportunity for continuous improvement and real results – leading to better, faster, smarter and cheaper service delivery."

For more information on the Macomb-OU INCubator's Lean Diversification Program, including Green Belt, Black Belt and Startup Lean, please visit oakland.edu/diversify.