YouTube Peeks Into Factories

You may be unaware of the phenomenom called YouTube.  This free website lets users post videos (with strict rules, so for the most part they are "work safe"), then anyone can search and view them.  The service has been so popular that it now ranks among the top five on the internet and consumes almost 200 terabytes of bandwidth per day.  That's over 100 million minutes of downloaded videos per day... which is probably enough wasted time to actually have an impact on the GDP.

So why make it a waste?  There has to be some value buried within the millions of videos already uploaded.  Yep... a quick search on "manufacturing" turned up 585 videos and "factory" returned 4,664 results.  Many won't end up being relevant, but some can be.  Below are some examples I found on the first couple pages of results... click on the photo to play it in the blog, or click on the "full size" link to open it in a larger new window.  You may have to click the photo twice to start the video.

How Duct Tape Is Made - 3:51

Link to full size video

Paul Reed Smith Guitar Factory Tour- 3:00

Link to full size video

The Future of Manufacturing - 1:34
Jack Shaw talks about lights out manufacturing at SAP Brazil 2006

Link to full size video

Ford Manufacturing Supply Chain Management - 4:57
Cisco promotional video on supply chain technology

Link to full size video

Real-Time Plane Manufacturing - 0:59
A funny commercial from EDS

Link to full size video

Intel Fab Manufacturing - 2:40
The automation behind core duo / dual core

Link to full size video

Lean Manufacturing at ShinMaywa in Japan - 5:12
How the company applies lean on a variety of products

Link to full size video

Rays Wheel Manufacturing - 6:17
Great video on manufacturing car wheels

Link to full size video

Some, like the real-time airplane manufacturing commercial, are more amusing than informative. But some provide an interesting glimpse inside factories.

You might want to spend some time perousing YouTube.  Caution: it is addictive!