Debra Levantrosser  Founder and Lead Adviser, Arbed Solutions  Co-founder, Michigan Lean Consortium

Debra Levantrosser is the founder and lead adviser of Arbed Solutions, a company dedicated to helping and teaching businesses to make positive, Lean changes to their work. She is also co-founder and vice chair of the Michigan Lean Consortium, an organization utilizing Lean principles statewide to help rebuild the state’s economy.

With over 18 years of professional Lean experience, Levantrosser has lead over 300 kaizen events, nearly 75 Lean assessments and helped to identify over $6 billion in savings. She has used the Lean philosophy in health care, manufacturing, law enforcement, insurance, interior design, construction and consulting in over 50 countries.

Most recently, Levantrosser worked as the change integration leader of J&J’s Supply Chain organization responsible for the change process inherent in the recent effort to bring together 45,000 J&J supply chain associates to work towards a common purpose.

She has also worked as J&J’s executive director of Lean and Business Improvement and guided its 250+ operating companies on applying the Lean philosophy in consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and medical devices across the value chain, including transactional areas such as IT, finance, human resources and project management.

Before J&J, Levantrosser held leadership positions at Exide Technologies, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ford Motor Company, Vassar Brothers Hospital and at her own firm, Arbed Designs LLC. Raised in a "Lean household," Levantrosser has been exposed to the Lean culture since her early years.

Levantrosser earned bachelor degrees in German and political science from Michigan State University with a specialization in health studies. She received a master’s degree in public administration from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is in school working towards a Ph.D. in organizational management researching Lean culture.

Levantrosser was on Governor Granholm’s (D-MI) Government Process improvement initiative committee from 2007-2009 incorporating Lean principles to streamline state government, is on the Advisory Board of the School of Management at Marist College and the Oakland University Pawley Lean Institute.

Ravi Lote  Global Operations Manager, PMC

A certified six sigma black belt and supply chain professional, Ravi Lote is the global operations manager for PMC, where he has successfully implemented process improvement solutions in the automotive, health care, insurance and construction fields.

At PMC, Lote has also worked in teams for evaluating, developing, integrating and maintaining discrete event simulation models; evaluated system performance, optimized layout, increased operational efficiency and suggested alternative operational policies  for different throughput maximization projects; and used pre-determined motion time system MODAPTS for calculating accurate and reliable production standards.

Lote has received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Government College of Engineering in Karad, India, a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is working toward his MBA from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Mike Taubitz  Principal Consultant, Lean Journey, LLC  Senior Adviser, FDR Safety, LLC

Mike Taubitz spent 43+ years with General Motors in a variety of engineering and human resource positions. He held every safety position from plant safety supervisor to global director of Safety and Ergonomics. In the late 90s, he learned Lean for office and business systems and used that as a foundation when he developed and led GM’s emerging health and safety issues process from 2000 until retirement in 2008.

In this last assignment, he spent considerable time in the diverse world of global standards and regulation creating linkages of safety to operations management and sustainability.

Upon retirement from GM, Taubitz established Lean Journey LLC, a company devoted to helping clients in any industry sector with continuous improvement using Lean practices. Taubitz joined FDR Safety as a senior adviser in 2010, managing issues dealing with continuous improvement and sustainability.

Leon Liu  Founder, y0, LLC

Leon Liu has over a decade of international work experience with Industrial Engineering, Quality, and Process Excellence (Lean/Six Sigma/Continuous Improvement). He has worked in discrete, continuous, job-shop and transactional environments and is experienced in optimizing operational, functional and business processes. He has held numerous key management positions including General Manager, Chief Excellence Officer and Director of Strategy/Business Development. Leon, using lean tools and methodologies, successfully turned around an unprofitable business, more than doubled revenues and achieved consistent best-in-class EBITDA as a General Manager of an aviation business in a highly competitive environment, during a period of severe economic and industry contraction. He has also held positions as Director of Process Excellence for EMEA/AP and Global Quality Manager. His ability to understand how to see waste and create value in process and product complements his experience in developing successful competitive strategies to grow market share and maximize profitability.

Leon's international upbringing and strong interest in culture, music, art and language has proven to be one of his strongest assets, as it has helped tremendously in appreciating all sorts of diverse environments and given him the ability and flexibility to understand and adapt to a bread spectrum of unique situations. Leon is fluent in Mandarin and English and speaks French, Italian and German with a good degree of competency.

Within the industries he has worked, Leon has developed a reputation for being able to adapt his approach to lead teams of all types of cultural makeups in building effective and sustainable solutions, using lean tools and concepts, with immediate and profound impact.