A follow-up to the Mid-Atlantic Lean Conference that was held in Baltimore on November 14th and 15th was the first meeting of the Consortia of Lean Consortiums. A total of nine Executive Directors from various parts of the country, met to share best practices. Each Executive Director gave a presentation on the history and scope of activities of their respective organizations.

The attendees included:

• AME Chicagoland Consortium – Brian McKibben • AME Consortia – Ryan Mecham • FIT – Federal Improvement Team – Paul Klink • Georgia MEP – Tim Israel • Iowa Lean Consortium – Teresa Hay McMahon • Michigan Lean Consortium – Debra Levantrosser • MWCC – Maryland World Class Consortium – Jeff Fuchs • New England Lean Consortium – Joe Rizzo • South Caroline MEP – Ed Young

A quote from Jeff Fuchs, Executive Director of the MWCC, Maryland World Class Consortium:

“The Lean Consortia meeting was, hands down, the highlight of my week. I know the agenda did not work as planned, but the information everyone presented was incredibly powerful. I was blown away by the diversity, creativity, and enthusiasm of all the consortia and their representatives. Yes, we absolutely must continue! After the dust settles on this year, I will poll everyone to see how we want to proceed together: annual/bi-annual, location/host, format. There is still so much more to learn from each other and so much more progress we can all make!”

Yes, this was very powerful meeting. There was a lot of extremely valuable information presented. I am hoping this is the first of an annual meeting of the Consortia of Lean Consortiums. All Lean Consortiums and their members will benefit from the sharing of these best practices.