Kaizen: Continuously Improving Welding
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a time-tested way to measurably improve the productivity, efficiency and, ultimately, the profitability of your company’s welding operations?
And wouldn’t it be even better if it didn’t require large capital equipment purchases? Kaizen (Japanese for Continuous Improvement) is a management system that can do exactly that.
Kaizen is an exacting and time tested method for helping a business focus its efforts in the areas that matter most. Its principal emphases are on long-term improvement over short term gains and optimizing an existing system rather than overhauling it with an expensive new one. Click here to learn more about applying Kaizen to a welding operation.
Implementing a Kaizen process to a welding operation relies on the adoption and implementation of standards. Twelve welders setting their own welding parameters and welding according to their own personal style will produce 12 different welds. Standardizing a welding operation means establishing set parameters and techniques so that every weld is nearly identical. Efforts to optimize the efficiency of an operation are bound for failure if there are not consistent and repeatable results in the weld cell.
As demonstrated by the structural-steel bridge manufacturing contractor in the article listed above , establishing standards through a Kaizen process can yield dramatic increases in wire feed and travel speeds as well as high quality welds with fewer rejected parts.
Do you have a story to share about your company’s efforts at implementing Kaizen or a similar streamlining process? Do you believe that Kaizen can’t be applied to welding operations? Share your opinion by posting a comment below.
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March 16th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Ah Kaizen… an approach that can be implemented in many facets of life. I recently came across a book that I found pretty interesting, called
“One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way ” by Robert Maurer. Great read.
~Carmen Electrode~ http://www.CarmenElectrode.com
April 10th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I have been welding for about 30 years. My father had a small fabrication shop when I was growing up and I started welding when I was around 12-13 years old. In those 30+ years I have done every possible aspect of welding and brazing from mig, tig and arc. I have been a lead welder, certified welder, prototype welder, welding supervisor, production supervisor, weld manager, production manager and now industrial engineering manager. I was introduced to Lean Manufacturing in 1998 at a sheetmetal shop. It was a light bulb moment in my carrer.
A Kaizen is one of the easiest and hardest thing to do. I have done a ton of Events for welding with big improvements Plan, do, check, act! Look at the waste in the weld shop. Every second your welder does not have his or her torch lit is waste. Once you have identified what that is, systematicly eliminate it! Pretty simple