APPLYING LEAN TO

WELDING OPERATIONS
producing front-end loaders (This case study shows how the principles of Lean can be
applied to welding operations in a plant see lead photo). A systematic approach to
measuring welding process parameters and welder skills was used to diagnose areas of
applying Kaizen or the process of continuous improvement. Welder training and
optimization of welding parameters resulted in a significant improvement in quality and
reduction of waste. Design changes facilitating ease of welding and reduction of
grinding were made. Weld process monitoring was used to measure deviation from
optimized parameters and corrective action was implemented through welder coaching
on the job. Welding duty cycles were measured to justify robotics in specific areas.
Annual savings of $400,000 were achieved in a shop employing 35 welders.

INTRODUCTION

Lean manufacturing is focused on eliminating waste in the entire manufacturing

process. It deals with minimizing work-in -process, eliminating processes that do not
add value to the product, making the process flexible enough to make products of
different design without compromising quality or cost. Historically, many manufacturing
companies have been able to maintain bloated or inefficient methods because of a
protected market, strong brand strength, or huge profit margins. Global competition is
forcing these manufacturers to change their methods to be less wasteful, and provide
value to their customers through customization and reduced cycle or delivery times.

Lean principles applied to the welding activity of a front-end loader manufacturing facility
resulted in a productivity improvement

In the early 1980s, the Lean paradigm was invented at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), and the Toyota Motor Co. was the first company to successfully
apply it to automotive manufacturing. Lean philosophy is universal and can be applied
to manufacturing, design, quality control, administration, order taking, accounts
receivable, or any activity that needs to be improved. The process starts with a macro
mapping of the activity called value stream mapping. It involves people at all levels in

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identifying areas of inefficiency. Once the problem is identified, groups of people work
together for short periods of time in a well-documented activity called Kaizen to solve
the problem. Building on small successes slowly embarks the entire enterprise on a
never-ending process of continual improvement. Lean and Kaizen are work
philosophies, requiring the commitment of the owner or CEO of the enterprise. Results
are obtained through employee empowerment and are achieved over time.

This article describes how Lean principles were applied to the welding activity of a front-
end loader manufacturing facility. The five key Lean principles were applied to the
welding process as outlined below. The plant manager was the most visible promoter of
the process and success was largely related to the appropriation of the continual
improvement by the employees at all levels, specific to the welding activity.

KEY LEAN PRINCIPLES

1. Perfect first-time quality through the quest for zero defects, revealing and solving
problems at their ultimate source, achieving higher quality and productivity
simultaneously, teamwork, and worker empowerment.
2. Waste minimization by removing all non value-added activities, making the most
efficient use of scarce resources (capital, people, space), just-in-time inventory, and
eliminating any safety nets.
3. Continuous improvement (reducing costs, improving quality, increasing productivity)
through dynamic process of change, simultaneous and integrated product/process
development, rapid cycle time and time-to-market, openness, and information
sharing.
4. Flexibility in production of different mixes or greater diversity of products quickly,
without sacrificing efficiency at lower volumes of production, through rapid setup and
manufacturing at small lot sizes.
5. Long-term relationships with suppliers and primary producers (assemblers, system
integrators) through collaborative risk-sharing, cost-sharing, and information-sharing
arrangements.

PERFECT FIRST-TIME QUALITY

Welding is a multidimensional process and in-process parameters often determine the

final quality of the weld. Besides the three dimensions of the welding nugget, the fourth
dimension of time influences the final quality as it influences time-related parameters
like welding speed, heat input, and timing in applying preheat and postheat, ultimately
affecting the weld microstructures and distortion of the finished parts.

Fillet weld is the most common type of weld used in metal fabrication. Visually
inspecting a fillet weld in two dimensions does not guarantee adequate weld penetration

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in the third dimension. Because fillet welds are usually taken for granted, they are
mostly ignored by engineers and shop supervision. It is assumed that welders have
sufficient skills to deposit quality welds to required sizes. However, failure analysis of
many failed components often points to faulty fillet welds. For example, in a cyclic load
application, fatigue failures usually originate from fillet weld toes. Large oil rigs and
barges have capsized due to the failure of small, insignificant fillet welds. With this
background information and some fatigue failure history with front-end loaders, it was
decided that applying Lean would begin with making perfect fillet welds, every time, to
print specification.

Welders were using 0.035- and 0.045-in.-diameter wires to make 1/4-in. fillets in the
horizontal position in production. Sixteen welders were asked to make 1/4in.-fillet welds
on test coupons, alongside their production jobs, and all in-process parameters were
recorded. These appear in Table 1. The welds were sectioned and quality inspected.
Completely penetrated 1/4in. fillet welds with a 20% maximum over welding were used
as an acceptability criterion. Ten welders out of 16 were able to make 14-in. fillets.
Thirty-seven percent of welders failed to make good quality welds the first time (Table
1). This presented a great opportunity to perform a Kaizen event for improving fillet weld
quality.

WASTE MINIMIZATION BY REMOVING ALL NON VALUE-ADDED ACTIVITIES

FILLET WELDS

As a general comment, shop welding procedure specification data sheets were difficult
to read and did not clearly state the size of welds to be applied to specific components.
A good rule of thumb while welding thick to thin materials is to equal the fillet size with
the size of the thinnest member being welded. In the case of lap welds, the size of the
weld should be equal to the plate thickness up to a quarter of an inch. Pre-qualified
joints further indicate that the minimum size for dynamically loaded structures is 3/16in.
for plate thicknesses less than 1/4 in. The minimum fillet size required for thicknesses
between 1/4 and 1/2 in. base metal thickness is recommended to be 3/16in. per
American Welding Society Standard D 1.1, Structural Welding Code Steel. Considering
the base metal thicknesses being fillet welded at XYZ Ltd., it was confirmed that a 3/16-
in. fillet would be more than sufficient to cover 90% of the work.

A total of 77 welds were measured against a design requirement of 3/16in. size. Weld
leg sizes varied from 3/16 to 3/8in. dimensions. The overwelding for the measured
welds fluctuated from 33% to 206%, with the average at around 107%.

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The excess weld metal and effort in depositing the extra 107% nonvalue-added wasted
manpower was a significant Lean finding.

An external design engineering team looked at all the drawings used to manufacture the
final product. The shop drawings did not show any welding symbols. It was soon
discovered that 90% of the plates used in the construction of the front-end loaders were
less than 1/4 in. thick, and 90% of shop welds were 1/4-in. fillets. The design team
determined that the fillet welds should be resized to 3/16-in. fillets.

WELD DESIGN CHANGES

The design of the front lift arm assembly was carefully modified to change expensive
flare groove welds to simple lap fillets between the wrapper plate and the structural
steel channel. Fit-up was improved on the bushing welds and line boring was
implemented to save assembly time.

WELDING WIRE WASTE MEASUREMENT

The manufacturing facility was using both 0.045- and 0.035-in.-diameter solid E 70S-6
wires for most of the work. As the weld size was optimized to 3/16-in.-size fillets, it
became necessary to optimize wire usage to 0.035 in, diameter and reduce the

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occurrence of undercuts. All the feeders were converted to feed 0. 035 -in. -diameter
wire. These two changes resulted in a large improvement in logistics for consumable
usage and preventive maintenance. Welder training and welding process monitoring
were further simplified.

WELDING GAS USAGE AND OPTIMIZATION

Initial evaluation of welding macro sections revealed uneven penetration patterns. A

10% C02 with balance argon mixture was delivered through a gas mixer. The uneven
penetration profile of the welds indicated significant variation in the gas mixture. The
mixer buffer tank, had to be resized for a bigger capacity to stabilize the gas mixture.

The measured gas flow rates in some parts of the shop were as low as 17 ft3/h, which
resulted in internal fillet weld porosity. Gas flow rates were standardized to 45 ft3/lb
throughout the plant.

Leaks in the gas manifold system were verified. The ratio of amount of gas used to
deposit one pound of filler metal was targeted at 4.5 ft3/lb. This is a good ratio to
monitor gas waste.

LEAN RESOURCES NEEDED FOR KAIZEN APPLIED TO WELDING

In order to carry out a satisfactory welding-related waste measurement, it was

necessary to use various measuring devices and instruments. Without going into too
much detail, a simple list of items is provided to understand what is needed to make a
non-subjective welding assessment.

HUMAN RESOURCES:

 Motivated CEO or plant manager interested in pursuing opportunities for cost savings
 Internal or external experienced welding engineer/technician team with excellent,
analytical, training, and people skills.

MATERIAL AND SOFTWARE RESOURCES:

 Calibrated length-measuring instruments

 Stopwatch
 Wire feed speed measurement device
 Calibrated ampere and volt meters
 Shielding gas flow measurement devices
 Gas saver devices

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 Gas leak detection equipment
 Duty cycle measurement device capable of data acquisition, storage, and download
over 24-h measurement periods, for continuous improvement
 Fillet gauges, manual, or electronic systems
 Ability to test fillet welds quickly with destructive tests
 Ability to produce weld macrographs for quality feedback to welders
 Digital photography equipment Annualized gas and wire consumption data and
pricing
 Cost calculation software to validate improvements of Kaizen activities.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS FOR APPLYING LEAN TO WELDING AND

WELDING MANAGEMENT

The dilemma of prioritizing between passing quality audits and improvement in

productivity is not new. A case in point would be to use very wide welding parameter
ranges in a welding procedure specification (WPS) within code requirements, so that
most welders would pass a welding audit by an ASME auditor, avoiding a serious
nonconformance. On the other hand, to improve welding quality and weld penetration,
higher wire feed speeds are usually required while using semiautomatic processes, as
seen in this case study. The ISO 3834 quality requirements for fusion welding of
metallic materials standards provides a good way around the dilemma by using specific
work instructions (WIs). The WIs in a factory focus on productivity improvement, but are
based on qualified WPSs. Thus, the WIs would need a tighter wire feed speed control
for higher productivity; however, a nonconformance to WIs may not necessarily mean a
nonconformance to the qualified WPSs.

The ISO 3834 standard has been widely used in Europe under EN729 series
equivalent, and has now been adopted by Australia, Japan, and many European
countries. It is a very good practical welding standard and provides many other
advantages. For example, the standard requires the fabricator to disclose the size of the
manufacturing facilities, including the capacities of press brakes, turning rolls, cranes,
cutting equipment, etc., during the certification audit. It is used in Europe by purchasing
departments in the tendering process to qualify subcontractors in their own countries
and also from foreign countries.

The principal author has worked closely with the working group on ISO 3834 for the last
three years and has been successful in bringing into focus the critical role of top
management for Lean activities as applied to welding. The ISO 3834 Part 6 of the
standard Dow recommends that top management review welding performance and
allocate resources for welding technology selection, including implementation and

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performance monitoring of the welding processes. Figure 1 is an excerpt of a table from ISO
3834 part 6, and shows the use of the Deming process to welding and the role of top
management in the continuous improvement process, as highlighted in this article. It is hoped
that adopting the ISO 3834 standard by metal fabrication shops in North America will create the
environment to foster Lean as applied to welding operations.

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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH THE DYNAMIC PROCESS OF CHANGE

WELDING WIRE SIZE

Once the initial welding parameters were recorded, as shown in Table 1, the task of continuous
improvement began with plant supervision. All welders were using water-cooled welding guns of
European design. These guns never leaked any water; however, a lot of undercutting was
noticed on fillet welds. Arbitrarily used in production were 0.045- and 0.035-in. diameters. The
welders on the floor had implemented a "smart" solution to this problem. On a four-drive roll

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feeder system, two rolls were 0.035-in. and the other two were 0.045-in. diameter, so
any diameter of the wire could be fed. As a corrective action for undercutting, the front
end of the guns was changed so that the contact tip could be properly positioned for
spray transfer. All 0.045 -in. -diameter wire was removed from production and
standardized to 0.035-in. diameter.

Annual footage for steel welds (mono pass) 1,203,670 ft

Current method: GMAW, 0.045 in. $1,887,568

Proposed method: GMAW, 0.035-in. smaller fillet $1,360,796

Savings $526,771

Increase in productivity 39.56%

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WELD MONITORING

Much monitoring and skills training were required to break old habits and assimilate new
ones. Every week, the Kaizen team recorded production welding parameters of wire
feed speed and welding speed, including quality and extent of overwelding. The results
were reviewed with the welders not performing to the new standard. To help the welder
acquire the required skills, on-the-job training was provided by the Kaizen group. This
process was repeated throughout the plant until desired results were obtained. The
feeder speed potentiometers were physically marked with a sticker to indicate the
optimized position for the wire feed speed in order to help everyone use the
standardized parameters.

After eight months of training and on-the-job monitoring of welding techniques, the
average welding speed increased by 6 in./min, an impressive 39% improvement. These
results are summarized in Tables 2 and 3. Welders were able to produce 3/16 in. fillet
welds in the horizontal position, with 90%Ar + 10%C02 gas mixture at optimized wire
feed speeds of 600 in./min at an average of 24 in./min of welding speed with practically
no undercut.

COST SAVINGS

The average welding cost per foot for a 3/16in. single-pass fillet weld was reduced from
$1.57 to $1.13 per foot. On an annualized basis, a potential annual savings of $526,771
was calculated (Table 4). In the first year alone, the company was able to realize more
than $400,000 in savings. By reducing waste and increasing welding speed, more
welding capacity was added, requiring further work balancing on the production line in
the following years.

FLEXIBILITY IN PRODUCTION

Management was keen to go to robotics for flexibility of production. However, when the
process audit was carried out, actual welding duty cycle measurements were made.
Further attention was paid to the existing accuracy of fit-up.

Duty cycles were measured in the various areas of manufacturing. The following
weighted-average duty cycles were observed during the audit over a three-shift time
span. The high duty cycle numbers were for areas where the operator was not
interrupted. An average duty cycle of 20% was calculated for the shop for cost
calculations by the Kaizen team.

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 Lift arm assembly average: 22.7%
 Attachments average: 16.1%
 Transmissions average: 17.1%
 Mainframe assembly average: 28.5%
 Quick attachments average: 13.5%
 Tanks average: 22.3%

The overall throughput of the plant was eight units per day. In order to improve this
performance, the initial survey showed that the shop floor layout would have to be
significantly improved, reducing a very large amount of work in process. Robotic
welding was discouraged at this stage, as part fit-up was less than acceptable and the
floor layout was inadequate to feed the robot parts and then remove the finished parts
efficiently without creating further work-in-process pileups.

The overall operation needed to be more balanced. It was found that even if the welding
operation could be significantly improved from a productivity point of view, the
bottleneck was still frequent at the final assembly of the machines. More Kaizen needed
to be done for the logistics of all electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic systems. After the
initial year of welding improvements, it was decided to defer the automation projects
until other operations could produce a pull effect on welding to really make flexible
robotic welding worthwhile.

LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH SUPPLIERS

Further to the initial process audit, the president of XYZ Ltd. was very keen to
implement corrective actions through focused Kaizen activities. The process was
supported with a long-term four-year con tract with the local gas and welding products
supplier, who could provide not only consumables, but also welding engineering
expertise.

The first Kaizen activity was focused on wire feed speeds and reducing undercuts.

The second Kaizen activity was focused on welding speeds and fillet weld sizes.

After the first eight months of assistance from the external welding engineering support,
the plant inspectors were taught to measure and report key parameters targeted by the
two Kaizen activities to ensure that the higher productivity standard was maintained
over the four year period.

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CONCLUSION

While applying Lean principles to a metal fabrication facility employing arc welding in
the manufacture of front-end loaders, a dramatic improvement in productivity was
achieved over a 12-month period. The key to success was the keen interest of the
management team to succeed in the continuous improvement process.

The auditors performed similar audits in more than 100 metal fabrication shops with
good results whenever the plant manager or the CEO of the corporation was keenly
involved in the results.

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