Comparison Review of 5S Garage Video and 5S into Action DVD

I had to watch a couple of training videos the other day (5S into Action and 5S Garage), and it reminded me how TERRIBLE most of them are.  First off, there aren't a lot of producers of industrial safety DVDs and training videos, and, second, most of the makers of said videos are TALENTLESS hacks, apparently.

I swear, I've seen some safety training videos that looked like they were produced in the late 70s and they didn't even have the right name of the company, or misspelled it!  That is fairly atrocious, and I think a lot of those videos are more or less ineffective at conveying the subject matter with any degree of complexity or true clarity.  I can only imagine what some working guy sitting there watching this outdated, garbled mess thinks--in the midst of the yawns, laughter, and snores of his coworkers.

Now, not all industrial videos are irrelevant, and I think the ones I'm reviewing in this blog post are fairly well done and modern.  I'm no industrial engineer, but I am reviewing this as a person who was not as familiar with the subject matter before, and now, through the educational material presented on these videos, I feel I may understand it better.

I'm not saying these videos are PERFECT, though.  In my opinion, they could both use a bit more editing.  But, then again, I am pickier than some.

These two videos focus on educating the audience about the 5S Japanese management methodology:

This head to head comparison slates "5S into Action " by Enna  VERSUS  "5S Garage - An Introduction to 5S and Lean Principles " by Old Iron Media.

     

Out of the two industrial training courses,  I would honestly have to say that, while it looks a bit lower in video production values, my favorite video of these two is "5S Garage."  I felt that Garage explained the process without all the "glamor" shown in Action--where a group of actors pretended they were workers and with a staged board meeting with an "executive" narrator who clearly did not really understand what she was reading from the cue cards. Garage explained the idea of 5S from the perspective of a homeowner's garage (much like Hamilton does in "Toast Kaizen") and how we can achieve more efficiency and less waste via the 5S pillars, which the narrator/actor clearly understands and explains--like a real instructor would.

Where Action is more effective is in its re-enactments of a factory shop and how 5S can be implemented into any facility.  I just thought the narrator was very ineffective and they displayed her face staring back at me for way too long. 

Either way, I think I learned a bit more about 5S from watching both of these videos, so it's not a total wash, and, frankly, there's not a lot of other choices out there--until I make one ;)

A Label Maker Review : The LabelTac Thermal Labeling Printer (part 2)

 I realized that I should have included a video with my previous label maker review, so here it is:

A Label Maker Review : The LabelTac Thermal Labeling Printer

So, I got at chance to try out a REAL label maker at my work yesterday, and I was so impressed, I thought I would write a review and show people how much more awesome these kind of labeling machines are versus those rinky-dink ones people buy to make labels for their filing cabinets and their scrapbooking boxes.  There really is no comparison.  These are for people who need to get some serious work done!

First off, these labeling systems are a bit more costly.  The LabelTac 4 Industrial Thermal Label Printer System starts at about $799 USD (although you can find it for less online), and it uses thermal printing to attach the printer ribbon film onto various kinds of labeling and sign  roll materials.

I used MS Word to make the label shown in the photo, and it can spit them out in a few seconds.  This brand comes with Bartender template software, but you can basically use any image or word type software to do it.


Apparently, it can be used with MS Office, Photoshop, Gimp (a free open source Photoshop-clone), Inkscape (open source illustrator),  the real Illustrator, OpenOffice, and one of the guys at work said he even printed it out one time with Powerpoint -- but I don't see why anyone would be in such a hurry that they couldn't take the time to use a more appropriate program.

These machines are way more robust that those little ones, like the Brother labeling machine my mom used to have--of course, she never had to print out thirty arc flash blast signs, or pipe-marking labels! I also think it's so cool that they can fit up to 4 inch wide rolls of label material in them, because I totally can see some fun applications (like making funny bumper stickers for myself) other than work safety slogans, and what not.

I've put a couple photos onto this post to show what it looks like. Here is a video