I love You Tube, it a great resource for sharing and learning but sadly not widely used by public services (in many organisations it’s blocked, like most social media). I’m also quite interested in beer, so this grabbed my attention, particularly when you throw in Kaizen.

Amongst the dozens of You Tube videos on Kaizen, these two really caught my attention, Kaizen Toast and Kaizen Beer! Both practically explain the principles of Kaizen but from slightly different angles. I thought it would be a bit of fun to compare them and see which one wins, so here goes.

As the enlightened know, we will need some quantitative data and some contextual narrative information for this. The numbers are accurate, but not always believable, the narrative is believable, but not always accurate. If we put them together we will get something accurate, believable and overall convincing.

Toast v Beer Kaizen – Metrics Table (17 June 2011)

Well, Toast looks like the winner, but let’s consider the narrative behind the
numbers.

Toast Kaizen, is produced by the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership and is presented by their Shingo Prize  recipient Bruce Hamilton. The video gives an introduction to Toast Kaizen, applying Kaizen to a familiar setting, the kitchen, and a familiar process, making toast. If you want the full 30min version (available in 11 languages) you’ll need to buy it ($99). A quality You Tube video which Kaizen enthusiasts and learners will no doubt enjoy.

Beer Kaizen! , this is a very funny take on the world of Kaizen, focussing on a ‘work activity’ I can really understand, drinking beer with my friends. The 9.30 mins flew by and I think I actually learned a lot about Kaizen. My personal beer distribution system is now worthy of a Six Sigma Black Belt. Even an untrained operative (kids friends), or reluctant/resistant workers (my kids) can now successfully serve me up a beer. Actually the video is a homage to the Toast Kaizen video, but it does the trick very cleverly.

So what’s the PONT?

1. Hopefully you’ve picked up a bit of learning about Kaizen by watching those videos. Lots of things on YouTube are great resource, it’s not all keyboard cat (excellent though it is!).
2. Humour is used in both of these videos, a great way of getting learning transferred.
3. Different things work for different audiences (beer for me), I think that both videos are winners, nice one guys.