10.16.08
Lean Manufacturing & Free Safety Guides
Graphic Products offers a variety of free gifts to people employed in industry, government, the military, non-profits and medium to large businesses. Visit their free gift page at: Lean Manufacturing and Safety Tools.
They offer five lean manufacturing guides that cover 5S, Kaizen, Kanban and TPM (Total Productive Maintenance). They also offer safety related guides and resources including a 130 page Arc Flash handbook and an Arc Flash Labeling Best Practices Guide. Other safety guides cover topics such as safety inspections, pipe marking, valve tags, RTK labeling, WHMIS labeling, and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).
Both the lean manufacturing and the safety guides are available free. There is no cost, no shipping fee, and no obligation to purchase anything. Some of the guides are available for immediate downloading, such as the Best Practices Guides (pipe marking, valve tags and arc flash labeling). Others are printed and will be mailed to you. You will need to supply a legitimate business address as these guides are not sent to home addresses.
Graphic Products is the manufacturer of the DuraLabel brand of label printers. They currently make the DuraLabel PRO, DuraLabel PRO 300 and the DuraLabel 7000. If you’d like to see the high quality of the labels and signs these machines make, ask for some free sample labels.
Pipe Label Calculator
Here is a scenario: It looking like it may be time to replace pipe labels. Some are still in good shape, but most are missing and faded beyond readability. But you need to estimate what it is going to cost. How can you quickly determine how many pipe labels will be needed?
The answer is: by using the new online pipe labeling calculator. Enter the basic information about a piping system into the calculator and it will estimate the number of labels needed, and the amount of supplies that will be required to make those labels.
The pipe label calculator can handle multiple piping systems, showing the results in a table. Once you’ve entered all your piping system you can have a summary of the results immediately emailed to you.
There is nothing like this pipe label calculator anywhere else on the internet. It is a fast and convenient way to find out what it will take to label a piping system.
If you are ready to start making labels call 1-800-788-5572 to learn more about the incredibly versatile DuraLabel PRO 300 thermal transfer printer. It’s the printer that gets the job done, and gets it done right.
10.08.08
More On 5S – Color Coding Standards
5S is a lean manufacturing technique that has standards and visual communication as two of its fundamental building blocks. Visual communication is used to clearly identify storage locations for everything, so that everything has its proper place. This is typically done through color coding, as color provides the fastest and most accurate method of communicating this type of information. It’s very straight forward, a tool marked with a yellow label goes in the yellow storage location.
For this type of system to work there must be color coding standards. There is not standards setting organization for 5S, but a set of color coding standards have developed out of common usage. The advantage of using a common 5S color coding standard is that what is learned in one location transfers to other locations. This reduces the costs of training and helps improve compliance.
Graphic Products offers a one page quick reference guide to these 5S Color Coding Standards. It is available free. Use the following link to go to a page where you can order your copy:
10.07.08
5s – Business Helper In Tough Times
How do you become more competitive? You’ve cut costs, but your customers are demanding more cuts and your suppliers are demanding more money. You’re caught in the middle. A valuable step is to improve your operations using lean manufacturing techniques and an easy starting point, with quick results is 5S.
What is 5S? It is a systematic approach to streaming and getting organized. It uses a lot of common sense and simple principles, but you can’t just haphazardly plunge into 5S and expect great results. A good way to learn about 5s is through a free guide offered by label printer manufacturer Graphic Products. Their 5S Guide provides a good overview of 5S and its benefits. You can quickly become acquainted with 5S and determine whether it is right for your company.
5S is a five step process in which each of the steps is named using a word beginning with the letter “S”. It starts with “sweeping,” which means to clean up. But the word “sweeping” was only chosen because it starts with “S.” 5S involves much more than sweeping. It is a thorough cleaning of both your facility, machines and equipment. What’s the advantage of cleaning? Combined with the other four steps in 5S it helps reduce maintenance costs and equipment down time. It boosts quality and productivity. It improves safety. Get the free 5S Guide and find out how 5S does all this more.
