Group items tagged

Your facility probably has many written safety procedures-hazard communication or emergency response, for example-but do you have a comprehensive health and safety management system (HSMS)? OSHA mandates many kinds of safety plans, but there is no federal mandate regarding a health and safety system that covers all other safety plans (though some states do require one). This system governs how safety works in your facility and gets everyone involved. If OSHA doesn't require an HSMS system in your state, then why bother implementing one? While a safety system does require a lot of work, the benefits are numerous. Not only will employee morale improve, the number and severity of injuries will be reduced and production may actually increase. Safety, it turns out, is good for business. OSHA also recognizes businesses that have used effective HSMS to achieve lower-than-average injury and illness rates through their Voluntary Protection Programs. Data suggests companies that have developed these kinds of safety systems have seen positive results. According to OSHA: "Companies in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, VPP, all of whom have implemented comprehensive safety and health management systems, experience lost workday incidence rates that are 60% to 80% lower than their industry counterparts. They also experience reduced absenteeism and turnover, improved productivity, and lower Workers' Compensation costs. Safety and health management works and adds to the company's bottom line profits." Getting a health and safety system started at your workplace takes a lot of legwork, so let's take a look at how to begin and how to get everyone from management to employees on the work floor involved. Management Leadership Business-Meeting-1 For a health and safety system to be effective, it can't just be left entirely up to a safety manager. Management needs to set the tone for the program and demonstrate their commitment to it by providing necessary polic

Lean Management - A Guide To Starting Out Right Much like anything over-used and spread before those singing praises have done a lot of research, Lean is a concept that sometimes, despite the best of intentions, misses its mark. Lean principles aren't particularly tricky, but with many offshoots and brands of the ideology, it can be easy for new Lean managers to get caught up in misinformation. At its core, lean is about eliminating all kinds of waste from your business. It sounds simple enough, but one of the biggest problems for many newbies is changing your concept of just what "waste" is. Once you've got a grasp on that, you need to move onto individual strategies that can help you eliminate that waste. In this article, we're going to go over how to accomplish both of these tasks as a manager who may be new to Lean by exploring unique facets of this management type and how they interact with elements of your business. One of the largest differences between Lean management and traditional styles of management is that in a traditional methodology your primary (and nearly sole) concern is the end of the line result. While Lean is of course concerned with achieving superior end results, its focus is on the processes that get you there. In this sense, what you learn and practice as a Lean manager is more about making individual pieces work together efficiently than having a tunnel-vision focus on numbers and figures at the end of the cycle. The Relationship Between Lean management, Waste Elimination, and Continual Improvement "If someone tells you that "lean management is this" and not something else, if someone puts it in a box and ties a bow around it and presents it in a neat package with four walls around it, then that someone knows not of what they speak. Why? Because it is in motion and not a framed picture hanging on the wall. It is a melody, a rhythm, and not a single note." - Lawrence M. Miller, Management Meditations While perhap

Safety Myths We Could All Live Without Safety MythsI'm going to level with you today: There's a lot, and a mean a metric ton, of misinformation when it comes to safety in the workplace. The more experience you have, the more and more you discover which of the things you've been told actually seem to hold up to the action of a real workplace, and which advice becomes clearly idealistic and less useable. That said, why can't we just skip past the clutter? Why do myths about the nature of safety and accident prevention continue to circulate when experienced practitioners know them to be complete bologna? To be honest, I can't answer that, but hopefully what I can do is more useful; in this article, we're going to go over some common workplace safety myths and dissect them so that, with a whole lot of luck, they won't leave anyone's lips ever again. Accidents Happen Safety Myths AccidentsFirst of all, yes, accidents do happen… but the statement itself is dismissive, and suggests that some things are just out of our control. The problem with this sentiment is twofold. First of all, it's a slippery slope: If you decide one thing is out of your control, it's easier to accept that another thing might be as well. Before you know it, you're leaving too much up to chance and not enough up to your problem solving skills. The second problem is that the idea that accidents just "happen" of their own accord is silly and untrue. There is always something you can do, and you should always be actively improving your safety by finding these things as they come along. One counter example to this that people sometimes come up with is a case in which an employee does something really boneheaded and gets themselves into a dangerous situation. "Isn't that kind of out of my control?" one might ask. Actually, there are two possible situations here: 1. The worker deliberately put themselves in harm's way for some unknown reason. In this case, a resu

The GHS and You - 5 Big Changes April 10, 2014 by Tony Ferraro If your workplace handles chemicals, particularly as the initial producer or as a distributor to clients, it's time to familiarize yourself with the global harmonization system (GHS) of classification and labeling chemicals, or the GHS, for short. What is the GHS? The GHS, first proposed to the United Nations in 1992, is an attempt at bringing some uniformity to the chemical labeling procedures of the developed world. Member nations, based upon their own time-frames, signed on to promise to convert to the GHS method of labeling chemical substances by a certain date. The idea was and still remains to make international business and production easier by having chemical labeling procedures that wouldn't slow down import and export, and would be easy for everyone involved to understand. This also greatly reduces transport costs as materials aren't having to be re-labeled or re-inspected as they cross borders. Last, but certainly not least, the GHS protects workers by ensuring the risks of handling any given material are clearly stated in an easy to understand manner from the beginning. According the UN's publishing of a GHS guide, the following are succinct statements of the GHS' most important goals: Defining health, physical and environmental hazards of chemicals: Creating classification processes that use available data on chemicals for comparison with the defined hazard criteria; and Communicating hazard information, as well as protective measures, on labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS). OSHA.gov - GHS What does this mean for me? In the United States, the time-frame for adoption is staggered over several stages. On March 2012, the final rule for how workplaces should adopt their policies was published, and employees were required to be trained on these new procedures by December 1, 2013. Interestingly enough, the adoption of the standard by product manufacturers is not required until Ju

Ok, let's be honest here. Unless you are a safety professional, or you work closely with safety professionals, the chances are that no one has really told you anything about pipe marking, right? But for those of us lucky enough to work in this industry, it quickly becomes all too clear that there is an endless amount of information available about this very narrow topic. Unfortunately, about 99% of the information that people learn about pipe marking is just reiterating the standards and regulations that are put out by OSHA and other regulatory bodies. Now, make no mistake, this information is absolutely critical to learn and follow. The fact is, however, that there are A LOT of other things that someone who works with pipe marking should know. We've put together some helpful tips, tricks, information, and advice that covers a wide range of pipe marking related topics to help ensure your pipe marking strategies are as effective as possible. If you have any other 'secrets' of pipe marking that you don't see here, please contact us below so we can help pass them along in the future. Choose Your Materials Wisely Everyone knows that you can't just use the normal label materials that are basically paper with a little glue on the back, which you might buy at Office Depot. There are, however, lots of different types of industrial labeling materials out there, and picking the right one for the right area is essential. Here are several essential points to be aware of: Pipe Materials - Did you know that normal vinyl labels can cause corrosion on pipes made of nickel and stainless steel? If you have this type of piping, make sure you opt for labels that are identified as 'low halide' to avoid this potentially disastrous risk. Know the Weather Risks - When labeling outdoor piping, you need to keep weathering in mind. Most label materials are water-proof, but the constant change in temperature, humidity, wind, and more can really be rough on pipe markings

So here's how today started out… We got an email from a guy who took issue with one of our recent infographics, 10 Astonishing Facts About Arc Flash. Here's what he wrote: "Have you seen the commercial for the insurance company that uses the premise "If it's on the the Internet, it must be true"? I have still not seen the source of these statistics. The Capschell report is what all of these websites, all of which involved in the business of Arc Flash for profit ($$$$), including yours, use without merit. […] Even NFPA 70E does not not cite the source of the statistic regarding "2000 injuries per day". Don't just give me another website that says that again, show me source (ie the study) that produces those statistics. I am not, by any means, attempting to reduce the importance of arc flash, arc flash studies or PPE. I just have a problem when companies use these types of statistics without regard to the source or veracity of the information. Fear Mongering is the term that come to mind. It's on the internet so it must be true." I believe whole-heartedly that our marketing team did a significant amount of research on Arc Flash prior to creating this infographic, and I don't believe the intent of our marketing team to promote or perpetuate bad information. However, I can understand this person's sentiment, and I wanted to know myself what the real numbers were. So, the hunt for accurate data began. Before I go further, it should be addressed that our infographic says that there are 2,000 injuries each year, not every day. Still, where did this figure come from? I started searching to uncover where the 2,000 injuries per year came from. I asked the marketing team for their source, and they provided me with the official NFPA 70E 2012 Handbook. In Annex K(3), it states plainly that 2,000 people a year are injured as a result of arc flash. But, as our accuser points out, there is no citation. Because this is NFPA, a standardization or

One of the top reasons for digital innovation and transformation failures can be summarized as the enterprise trying to reinvent the wheel. This is the tendency of the enterprise to attempt to create technology, platforms, and applications that have already been implemented, scaled, optimized and almost perfected. This tendency almost always ends up a failed one as it does not create any net new value for the enterprise but comes with a massive opportunity cost as the enterprise spends crucial resources on reinventing the wheel than innovating for the customer. How The Wheel Is Reinvented Nontechnology enterprises can get trapped in a reinvent state where they conclude that homegrown technology is the only path towards customer and business value. This in itself is not entirely false however the type of enterprise and their decision-making process along with the capabilities they have in house have a very large impact on the success of the strategy.eRaaadada Reinventing the wheel happens when a non-tech enterprise discovers a technology trend towards much later in the hype cycle almost towards the end when the technology is hitting the mass market and decides to recreate or reinvent its own version of the technology. This is often done with the assumption that with some investment, the enterprise can have a home grown version of technology or platform that is designed specifically for its needs and is thus a better fit. However, enterprises assume that the state of the technology will remain constant and while they are attempting to home grow a version that can match the current state of the art. In reality, the state of the art shifts and the enterprise is not able to bridge the gap. Who Reinvents The Wheel Typically, technology teams often decide to go down the path of reinvention when they are allowed to make technology upgrade or technology creation decisions without business KPIs and cost constraints i.e. clear success criteria with fixed cost and clear ti

Does your facility have pipes? If so, those pipes need labels. While pipe labeling may seem like a confusing process with many requirements, it doesn't have to be difficult. Starting with a plan will make your pipe-labeling project easier and more organized. Then once your facility's pipes are labeled, you'll see communication about pipes improve. Using visuals like labels makes communication direct and simple, and it reduces the need for asking questions about pipe contents. Before you begin marking pipes, you should understand the basics of pipe marking. Take a look at these seven things you should know before you begin the pipe-marking process. 1. Workers Need to See Pipe Labels, and So Do Emergency Personnel Labeling pipes will primarily help your workers and any maintenance personnel who may need to service pipes. Therefore, you'll want to keep this main audience in mind when you establish your pipe labeling system. It's possible you'll have additional people who enter your facility and need to know what's in your pipes, though. In an emergency situation like a fire, emergency responders may need to know which pipes contain fire-quenching liquids. If an accident involving a pipe containing chemicals occurs, an emergency response team would quickly need to know what chemicals it's dealing with. Because these additional members of the community may be reading your pipe labels, it's important to follow industry standards for pipe labeling instead of having an internal system that only your workers understand. 2. Colors Should Be Standardized Pipe Marking, Pipe Labels To make it easy for workers, emergency responders and other pertinent personnel to read and understand pipe labels, the labels should be color-coded according to the ANSI/AMSE 13.1 standard. The standard assigns six main colors for pipe contents: Yellow Background with Black Text - Flammable Fluids & Gasses Red Background with White Text - Fire-Quenching Fluids Orange

The Adventure of Reducing Risks and Hazards in the Workplace Whenever starting a new job, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you should be doing, and how it needs to be done. When I started working at a new facility as a safety manager, I began my first day with a meeting with the facility manager. The meeting was set up so he could tell me what was expected of me in my new role, and provide other details of the job. I was quite surprised when the meeting took less than two minutes, and the only objective I was given was to 'reduce risks and hazards in the workplace.' I asked for some clarification or guidance in what exactly he was looking for, but he simply said that I was hired to improve safety, and he was leaving the task of finding out how to do it in my hands. He gave me a sheet of paper with some information about what resources I had available, including my annual safety budget and told me to get to work right away. I should point out there that I had several years experience as a safety manager at a large company, which is why I was brought in to this new facility. The facility had recently been cited by OSHA for a variety of safety hazards, and there were even some fairly severe injuries that occurred in the previous months. The facility owners made it clear that safety was a priority for them, and they were willing to do whatever it took to pass inspections, and keep the employees safe. Planning My Safety Program While that initial meeting was unique, to say the least, I was also quite excited about the opportunity. It is quite rare that a safety manager is given such flexibility, and I wanted to make sure the manager wouldn't regret that decision. I got to work right away planning my safety improvement program. OSHA Safety Sign Guide I wanted to make some quick changes to help improve safety in the short term, and then also plan out ways to create a culture change within the facility so everyone would be more safety focused. I kne

Ron Pereira over at the LSSAcademy.com offered a really cool video that pits regular mass production vs. one piece flow, and his simulation produced a time savings with the one piece flow. In his video, what I found to be as interesting as his presented material were the comments at the bottom by professionals in manufacturing. They all seemed to think that one piece flow definitely has its place, and that it CAN be more efficient in certain contexts, but most of them also pointed out that, from a batch processing point of view, one piece flow doesn't save any time when it comes to actually delivering the product to customers if the customers are in the same place. For example, if you are folding, stuffing, and stamping envelopes, but they all have to go to the same post office to be mailed, there isn't really enough of a time saving compared to the possible amount of trips to the post office under a per piece system. Someone else also mentioned the idea of spreading each step in the one-piece flow out to several people vs. to one person, and the savings in time would not be outweighed necessarily by the fact that, now, several people are needing to be paid, instead of the one person. Either way, I think, under certain circumstances (like building full sized dump trucks with different customers), one piece flow is definitely a time saver and waste reducer than building a ton of dump trucks and running the risk of some of them not being sold. Plus, envelopes are way easier to simulate than building a bunch of dump trucks.

If you are planning on purchasing an industrial-grade thermal label printer, you need to weigh several factors. Let's face it, these kind of machines are not cheap-they aren't like the flimsy ones that folks buy to make organizational labels for their home, or for scrapbooking-these are commercial level equipment, and they're designed to hold up to all the rigors of an industrial operation. Pipe Marking Labels So, with that in mind, here are the top 6 factors you should consider before you buy an industrial label maker: 1. Purpose: First off, what do you need to make heavy-duty labels for? Sure, these types of printers can make funny bumper stickers with a catchy slogan on it-but what do you REALLY need it for? Common uses for these are for making lots and lots of pipe markers, arc flash labels, and NFPA 704 "diamond" signs. They're also great for making safety slogans, caution and warning signs, 5S, lean, kaizen, and traffic marking stickers. Depending on how many you need, you might need to use it every day, or for sporadic printings throughout the year. These printers are great, because most of them can print on label tape up to 4 inches wide, and can spit labels out much quicker than those store-bought consumer ones. They can also take the heat and tougher environments of factories and warehouses. 2. Durability: Modern label makers are nearly flawless at their job. They use thermal transfer ribbons and heat seal the text or graphics from the ribbon to a compatible thermal label. This allows for a product that will last for many years before seeing much physical degradation or fading. They are water-resistant and even resist chemical wear. 3. Ease of Use: Many label makers come with their own proprietary software, but I would recommend buying a label maker that can be used with any kind of word processing software or even programs like Photoshop. This way, if you have a change in employees, move offices, or just plain lose the or

One of the biggest hurdles to Digital Transformation and Digital Innovation is the organization's inertia and tendency to optimize for self-preservation. Self-preservation can exist in the enterprise at the individual, team, divisional or the organizational level and can have a devastating impact on the organization's ability to innovate and grow. Self-preservation is not a new phenomenon however, it is more deadly for an enterprise now than ever. This is because the speed of technology change has increased geometrically. In the past, self-preservation would automatically get corrected as the technology was generally learned and adopted slowly with enough time for the enterprise to become aware of the change and implement it. However, the rate of technology change has magnified tremendously and the enterprises no longer have the luxury to take their time with the change. Inaction risks getting left behind and other competitors who leverage and change faster stand to capture the largest market shares and customer mind share. Self preservation is the tendency of the enterprise to ignore, undermine or postpone the adoption and integration of new technology in the enterprise to avoid a change in the status quo across technology, products, services and most importantly, day to day operations and organizational structure. Self-preservation can lead to what is termed as "politics" in an org, it can stifle innovation and innovative individuals & teams and it can favor business driver stagnation over risk taking. 5 Signs of Self-Preservation The following are signs of self-preservation Highlighting the Journey of Innovation as Failure Adversarial teams and individuals within an enterprise who are interested in self-preservation often go out of their way to highlight the tough, risky journey of true innovation as a failure citing the cost and the time being taken to address the real problems in a truly innovative manner. While the individuals and teams trying to

Social distancing is the new buzz word for 2020. Measures imposed by governments across the globe have caused the cancellation or postponement of sporting leagues, events and tournaments, leaving a gaping hole in the lives of sports fans everywhere. Luckily, the internet means there are still plenty of ways for everyone to get a daily dose of exercise and sporting entertainment. Social Distancing Exercise Daily exercise is as important now as it has always been. Whilst there are no team sports allowed, there are still plenty of ways to stay fit and active. Being allowed out for daily exercise means running and cycling are still on the cards. And for those with extra energy to burn, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) sessions are all the rage. YouTube is full of HIIT workouts lasting between 10 minutes and 1 hour. King of HIIT and the nation's favourite PE teacher, Joe Wicks, has plenty of videos online to suit everyone from beginners, kids, and seniors to hard-core fitness fanatics. Online Gaming Online gaming offers up the thrill of sports, albeit without the physical aspects. And you don't need a PlayStation or Xbox as plenty of computer games and apps are downloadable. Dream League Soccer 2020 - Take charge of a footie team, building it from over 3,500 players and rise through the ranks of eight leagues to the top flight of football. TGC 2019 - An authentic golf sim that lets players design challenging courses, compete in Skin wager matches, or become a golfing pro in the PGA Tour Career mode. NBA 2K20 - Adapted for Android, this basketball app has multiple gaming modes. Build a career, compete in streetball tournaments, or become GM of your own team. Even Formula One is getting in on the online gaming act by running virtual races with current and past drivers fighting it out via a video game. F1 fans can watch the races on Sky Sports, YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook channels. Not a fan of online gaming? You can always challenge yourself with one

One of the most common misconceptions out there is the belief that technology equates innovation. Innovation is the creation of new value through a better solution for a problem that either does a better job in solving the problem or does so in a manner that the solution is accessible in a larger set of circumstances by a larger number of people. On the other hand, technology is simply the tooling that holds the promise of new solutions but by itself, is meaningless. Enterprises can become enamored by the promise and hype about technology and go down long, complex journeys, invest millions in upgrading technology and still come out empty on the other side because they built technology for technology's sake. Even in well intention boards and C-suite, industry peer pressure and hype around technologies can force action that ultimately leads to massive investments in people, software, technology, and vendors but does not yield the ROI promised by the technology. Leadership The problem can be accentuated when not enough due diligence is done on the applicability of the technology to the enterprise given the current state i.e. the point in time when the technology is being introduced, the customer's propensity to accept the technology-driven solution i.e. are the users ready to embrace, adopt, learn and utilize new solutions and burning problems that necessitate the adoption of new technology to better solve the problem. When the timing of new technology introduction is gotten wrong, it almost always fails to deliver on its promised ROI. Leaders need to rise above the hype and peer pressure and ensure that they understand, first and foremost, the burning problems that plague their customers or make the bedrock of their future strategy. Next, leaders need to ensure and validate that the technology in mind can actually be used to solve the problem through rapid prototyping and minimal investment. Once customer feedback on the prototype has been validated, then only

Blockchain are certain to disrupt almost all industries fundamentally. Though there are technical issues, the idea of utilizing a blockchain to prove ownership, to prevent double spending and to establish trust and transactions in an otherwise trust-deficient world, is gaining excitement and acceptance. More and more enterprises are getting curious about the blockchain and are willing to start investing in learning, prototyping, and building on top of the blockchain technology. Starting out with the blockchain requires investment in a building the domain expertise, establishing the identity, establishing the infrastructure and deciding the blockchain that the enterprise wants to work with. Among these decisions is the question: Should the enterprise choose a public blockchain or a private blockchain. Both have advantages and disadvantages and the question can often come down to what are the short term goals and potential applications that the enterprise wants to build on the blockchain. Public BlockChains The default option when considering blockchains is the public blockchain. This is the blockchain that is truly decentralized, leverageable for any type of transaction and in the case of the Ethereum blockchain, offers SmartContract authoring capability that makes the blockchain very attractive for building contracts that reflect the needs of the real world. However, for an enterprise deciding between public or private contracts, there are some considerations that require attention. Speed and Scalability Public blockchains tend to be slower as they are limited by the number of transactions that can be verified every second and confirmed every 10 minutes. There are several efforts underway to make blockchains faster and more scalable however those will take time to get implemented. Speed and scalability will continue to be an issue and contracts and applications that require instant or near real time execution will suffer from this lack of speed and scale. Se

One of the key milestones on the Digital Journey starting with a Digital Strategy, Digital Transformation and then sustaining on Digital Innovation is the point where the enterprise reaches a point of data maturity powered by a single, organization wide, consistent version of the truth including the state of the customers and the state of the business and the state of the employees. This point is critical as it becomes the launchpad for several, forward looking initiatives including Artificial Intelligence, ChatBots, Blockchain etc. "Complete" A Complete version of the truth ensures that the following criteria is met: Entity Pivot The key entities that need to be tracked to generate a complete, comprehensive version of the truth are the following Employee Employees, regardless of customer facing or not, need to be understood including where they excel vs. struggle and where their struggle impact the customer experience. Key information about employees that should be tracked is what the employees are working on, how productive they are and how often they introduce delay and errors in business processes. Business Business visibility requires that the enterprise be able to track key metrics such as customer lifetime value, customer attribution, customer acquisition cost and customer satisfaction. In addition, the stage of the customer ranging from prospect to commit to paying customer to abandoned needs to be tracked. In addition, the customer's quality of service and experience needs to be tracked and understood. Customer The most critical of the three is the understanding of the customer. Customer KPIs have a direct impact on and are completely impacted by the Business and Employee KPIs. It is extremely important to understand how customers are searching for, discovering, learning, understanding, using and continuing to use the product and services delivered by the enterprise. In addition, it is important to understand what capabilities drive what kin

Improving Indoor Air Quality Indoor Air QualityWhen trying to make improvements to the workplace, many companies don't even consider the actual air that is breathed in by everyone all day. Indoor air quality can be a significant problem that can have a wide range of different effects on employees throughout the facility. Some of these issues can be immediately seen, such as with allergies. Others may take longer to develop, but can be very serious. If you are not taking air quality seriously in your facility, you are not only doing everyone a disservice, but you could be exposing the company to the risk of potential lawsuits years down the road. With this in mind, take some time to look at five of the most important things that you should know about indoor air quality, and how you can make simple changes to improve it. According to OSHA's Safety and Health Topics: Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has been tied to symptoms like headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating, and irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Also, some specific diseases have been linked to specific air contaminants or indoor environments, like asthma with damp indoor environments. In addition, some exposures, such as asbestos and radon, do not cause immediate symptoms but can lead to cancer after many years. 5 Things to Know about Indoor Air Quality 1. Proper Ventilation and Filtering One of the biggest problems in most workplaces is that the air in the facility doesn't get properly circulated. As the air is breathed, moved around machinery and exposed to cleaning chemicals, it keeps picking up more and more contaminants along the way. Over time, this air can become hazardous to your health and lead to things like headaches, allergies and many other issues. This is why OSHA and many other regulatory organizations recommend reviewing your facilities air ventilation system and filtering. By taking the air from within the facility and venting it outside, all of these common contam

How to Create Bumper Stickers for Your Sticker campaigns For everything from political campaigns to social causes and beyond, cars adorned with bumper stickers are a regular sight across the country. Regular stickers, even more common, are a staple of our world from a young age, and an easily recognizable object for even children. Have you ever wondered how they're made? Sure, there are many companies that print stickers and the like in bulk for a third party, but there are also countless custom sticker campaigns floating about with highly customized messaging, some of which sprang up nearly instantaneously from their creative parties. These aren't cheap, flimsy creations either, some of them are the backbones of grass roots organizations that have changed the way we think and live our lives. Whatever your idea or needs, you're reading this because you want to create your own stickers, labels, or some other similar creative piece with professionalism and reliability. Let's take a look at exactly how you might get that done. Step One - Get Your Printer Especially if you're going to be producing large quantities of whatever you're making, it will be important that you have a reliable printer that isn't going to break down on you. For this reason, I'd suggest a thermal printer. Thermal printers have relatively few moving parts compared to traditional printers. Thermal Printers 101: The primary way in which thermal printers differ from traditional inkjet type models is that they use heat to transfer or even produce text and images. There are two subtypes: thermal transfer and direct thermal. Thermal transfer printers heat an inked ribbon which is then rolled over a paper or high-graded vinyl, transferring an image. Direct thermal printers work with thermal-chromatic paper, but do not require any ink. A heating element is pressed against the paper in the pattern of the text or imagery desired, and the paper responds by changing color in those places.

Transforming into a tech company has become top of mind for executives in all major industries. It is clear that modern technology will fundamentally alter what and how business is done in every domain, sector, and industry. This has led to a call to arms in every enterprise to understand how they can transform into a tech company. The Tech Company Magic Tech companies have fine-tuned the art of bring new digital products and services to the market, quickly, efficiently and effectively and understanding customer feedback to iterate and improve. This capability makes them incredibly agile and leads to faster experimentation that is cheaper and involves less risk. In turn, this enables them to bring new capabilities to the market and even if all do not succeed or get traction, a few do and that drives innovation, customer satisfaction, and growth. From the outside, tech companies appear to be massive juggernauts that are unstoppable and able to crush everything in their path. The 'Non-Tech' Technology has been leveraged in every sector and industry, however, it has almost always been treated as a means to an end, something that is required but never the real value driver for the customer. This has led to the typical organizational structure in enterprises into "Business", "Operations" and "Information Technology". The "Business" arm generates value for customers, the "Operations" team carries out the requirements of the Business team and the "Information Technology" team provides the systems (databases, network and compute) required to "keep the lights on" for the Operations and Business Teams" This structure served enterprises well in the last decades as customers did not have an alternative to directly working with the enterprise and this fortified the value supply chain and also established a hierarchy of sorts within the enterprise where the business looked down upon operations who looked down upon technology. The purpose of

Much has and needs to be said about an enterprise's AI strategy. Artificial Intelligence or AI is considered a fundamentally disruptive technology similar to the steam engine, electricity etc, a technology that will be pervasive and absolute in its impact on the world and its inhabitants. The ability to find hidden patterns to predict the future or detect a behavior has massive implications across the world, in every industry, sector, and domain. When faced with this realization, enterprise's can find themselves stuck, paralyzed and unsure about how to proceed. The field of AI is decades old already and the early success stories have been practicing AI for multiple years already with the tech industry leading the way. How can an enterprise that has no experience and competency in this area let alone lead the technology or even leverage it appropriately to drive business value? When developing the AI strategy, two ideas are paramount. First, this a fundamentally disruptive technology and the enterprise will need to establish it as a core competency for the foreseeable future. Not doing so will not be an option. Second, a long-term plan to success is superseded by the need to drive quick wins and small successes not only to build confidence but use real-world experience to develop and hone that skill. The Short-Term AI Strategy The short-term AI strategy should focus on driving immediate business value through enhanced customer experiences that leverage any field of AI be it machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing etc. Driving the usage and deployment of AI in front of an end user making them smarter, productive and better informed can pay rich dividends by not only helping the enterprise can real-world experience, but it can also give a perception boost to the company as being innovative and cutting edge. However, most importantly, this can highlight and promote the success and potential of AI in the enterprise and encourage a snowball eff