7 Questions Reveal Do Your People Really “Know Welding”?

Having staff who “know welding” is usually considered okay for welding employees in Australian industry.

Generally speaking, if welding is an important aspect in your business, floor managers a who know nothing about welding can easily assume that the company is adequately staffed for growth and competition.

This could be an expensive assumption for your business.

Here are 7 important questions to gauge your company’s welding expertise is adequate:

1. How much money is being lost in weld scrap?
2. What are the hours being spent in weld repairs?
3. What are the hours being spent making “welding adjustments” to automated equipment?
4. What is your internal PPM (or DPMO) weld repair defect rate on manufactured products, and how much have you lowered that repair rate in the last 12 months?
5. What is your external weld defect rate shipped to customers, and how much have you lowered that over the last 3 years?
6. How many times a year does staff have to repair, reprogram or “touch up points” in welding automation that “crashed”?
7. What are the primary welding operation bottlenecks, and how much have you reduced their cycle time in the last 3 years?

Of course this isn’t a full and exhaustive list.

But if your welding employees expertise is on spot they should be able to provide answers to all these questions within 24 hours.

Questions 4, 5, and 7 all point to your company’s continuing improvement environment important in a welding operation:  if you don’t measure, that’s a recipe for business troubles.

If you measure but you have no continuing improvement program, it’s because your welding employees are locked in firefighting mode and/or hopelessly lacking in welding industry expertise.