Kaizen Applied to Welding Operations-2

Role of Senior Management for Kaizen as Applied to Welding

At the structural-steel fabrication facility discussed above, there were many more welders than the 13 tested. Following the audit findings, several recommendations were implemented. The training of welders was specifically designed to give them feedback on the quality of the macros. This was achieved over a period of 12 months. Initially there were many non-believers. Over time, both quality and productivity improved. The president of the company was the most visible and eloquent supporter of this process; he had set the stage and created the environment for change. There were no more bridge components returning for repair.

A similar Kaizen approach was followed with an agricultural manufacturer. Immediately after the audit, the CEO was ecstatic. He ordered standardization of the weld-monitoring operation.  Over the last eight years, the average wire-feed speed for GMAW with 0.035”-diameter wire has increased from 420 ipm to 600 ipm. Over this time period, the welder population has also steadily increased from 90 to 150 welders, as the company now exports its products all over the world!

The ISO 3834 welding quality standard is interesting. It describes many important process-control parameters to ensure that welding remains under control.  The newly introduced part 6 of the standard provides a useful guide for its application and shows several diagrams, one of which involves top management. This diagram has been reproduced in Figure 1.

Conclusion

Kaizen is an interesting process to apply to welding. It produces, in most cases, spectacular results. It is not disruptive; however, it takes a commitment of the whole organization, including the president or CEO.  The two examples cited here are a small sample of over 100 welding-performance appraisals carried out in Canada over the last 10-year period. The good news is that it works! It is truly an exciting journey in human engineering.

Viwek Vaidya http://www.ca.airliquide.com

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