A Technology Roadmap for Welding and Joining in Canada — Solutions Matrix for Welding and Joining in Canada

• A Solutions Matrix for Welding and Joining
• Manufacturing Excellence
• Technology Application Focus
• Function Focus
• Human Resources Are a Critical Issue
• Basic Research
• Applied Research
• Quality and Productivity Improvement
• International
• Partnership Focus

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A Solutions Matrix is a "mind map" for taking a global view of the elements that are key to applying resources to specific projects that will build momentum in achieving an overall Vision.

A Solutions Matrix for Welding and Joining

The Solutions Matrix that emerged from discussions in the regional forums held in Montreal, Cambridge, Edmonton and Halifax is set out below. The critical focus is on the development of a Leadership Team consisting of Champions from user industries supported by a Resource Secretariat from the welding and joining industry. The purpose of the Leadership Team is to implement the Vision using the Solutions Matrix.

The four pillars of the matrix are the following:

1. Manufacturing excellence in 10 industries for which welding and joining should represent an enabling technology and for which Canada has an opportunity to establish, continue or extend a competitive advantage on the world stage.
2. Six technology application categories that define the areas in which welding and joining technology is capable of advancing and contributing to competitive advantage.
3. Six key functions for the welding and joining industry.
4. Five entities on which to focus in partnership development.

The concept of the Solutions Matrix is that a wide range of possible initiatives and projects can be pursued using a mix of elements from the four pillars. For instance, an applied research initiative could be undertaken on automation and robots in petrochemical and pressure vessels working in cooperation with industry and the University of Alberta. Naturally, each region of the country may have a particular set of projects that it wishes to pursue based on the Solutions Matrix and that relate to its industry strength.

It would be up to the Leadership Team and regional specialists to define the areas and projects that should be pursued and that will contribute to an overall advance in the recognition of Canadian welding and joining expertise.

Figure 9 — A Solutions Matrix for Welding and Joining

Manufacturing Excellence

The industries or sectors which are included in the manufacturing excellence focus are not all necessarily mutually exclusive. For instance, pressure vessels are used in power generation and microjoining will be used in a variety of aerospace and automotive components. However, each of the ten themes represents a consensus of the industries or sub-industries in which Canada has a particular expertise and for which welding and joining is an important activity. Also, the sub-industries that make up a larger industry may not be located in the same area. For instance, the industry that builds pressure vessels may be located in Ontario, but major projects using pressure vessels may be located in the Maritimes or Alberta.

The following is a brief description of each of the manufacturing excellence sectors:

Microjoining is the joining together of very small parts (sometimes no larger than the width of a hair) used in the electronic, medical and telecommunications applications. Real-time monitoring of the physical conditions during joining and numerical modeling is closely associated with microjoining.

Aerospace covers both aircraft and spacecraft. While rivets are the most obvious methods of joining panels used in the skin of the aircraft, welding is used on many components such as engines and landing gear. Research continues on how to replace rivets with welded joins on the skin of the aircraft. Spacecraft are similar to aircraft except that a wider array of materials, such as ceramics, may be used and must be bonded to metals and other materials. The Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre and the Institute for Aerospace Research, part of the National Research Council of Canada and based in Montreal is a major Canadian centre for research on welding and joining in aerospace.

The Automotive Sector centred in southern Ontario is highly developed in the use of automation and robots applied to welding and joining and indeed, contrary to aerospace, welds play a major part throughout the vehicle both for components and for the body.

Transportation refers here primarily to railroad rolling stock and to ships. Bombardier, for instance, is a key player in the fabrication of railroad rolling stock. While shipbuilding plays a decreasing role in the Canadian industrial scene, oil drilling platforms require similar welding and joining technology.

Structural refers to large structures such as buildings and bridges in which steel is a major materials component, and for which welding is critical.

Petrochemical and Pressure Vessels refers to large metal containers (usually circular) that are either used for storage or for an industrial/energy process that uses air, gas or liquid under pressure. For instance, highly critical pressure vessels are used in nuclear reactors.

Pipelines and Tubing are hollow items, also normally circular, that are used for transmitting gases (for example, natural gas) or for liquids (for example, oil). They are also used in structural, mechanical or decorative functions. Some tubing is also used in conjunction with pressure vessels to transmit fluids or gases at elevated temperatures or pressures or both.

Power Generation is an industry that in fact uses many of the products from other sectors described above, for instance, pressure vessels for turbines; tubing; microjoining for instrumentation and various structural elements.

Mining and Resources includes mining, forestry, oil and agriculture. Once again, these industries use a wide array of welding products in plants and equipment.

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Technology Application Focus

The Solutions Matrix includes six areas as the priority for welding and joining technology application in the manufacturing excellence industries described above. The six areas are:

• Design of products to take the best advantage of welding and joining technology as well as the best design of specific weldments.
• Welded materials that are continually evolving including composites and alloys and that require special welding processes and procedures.
• Automation and robotics that are well-entrenched in the automotive industry but that are gradually being employed in other industry sectors.
• New laser technologies for welding and joining.
• Non-destructive examination (NDE) methods that monitor, probe and measure materials response.
• Failure analysis of welded structures and weldments (including corrosion) including wear-resistance.

The Industry Advisory Group on Welding and Joining of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation¹ has identified a number of forces that inhibit innovation and the adoption of new welding technology (apart from human resource issues). These include:

• The lack of current welding process knowledge at design level of project development.
• The "myth" of the history of failure by early adopters of new processes and consumables.
• Welding procedure development may be proprietary which may limit technology transfer possibilities.
• Limited opportunities for smaller fabricators to employ automated processes as setup and capital costs may not justify increases in productivity.

The same group has also calculated that on $70 billion in northern Alberta resource development projects, estimates of potential savings from welding innovation are in excess of $2 billion, and that innovation and automation will increase the capability of the fabrication sector and allow more of the forecast projects to be completed with the limited labour and fabrication resources available.

Function Focus

Within the Solutions Matrix, the Function focus refers to six issues or factors that are of critical importance to individual companies and to the industry of welding and joining as a whole:

• Human resources
• Education and promotion of the industry as a whole through the dissemination and assimilation of industry
• Basic research on welding and joining
• Applied research on welding and joining
• Quality and productivity improvement, and
• International harmonization of standards

Human Resources are a Critical Issue

Certainly the issue of human resources has been front and centre since the first session in developing the Vision for the Canadian welding and joining industry at the Forum in Whitby in late 2003. It was reemphasized at each of the Regional Forums in Cambridge, Montreal, Edmonton and Halifax. The quote that we used in the Vision document continues to hold true and will likely be an issue throughout the ten-year implementation period of this Technology Roadmap — 2006 to 2016.

Within Canada, this shortage is being felt particularly in Alberta. The Industry Advisory Group on Welding and Joining referred to earlier has identified the supply of welders, technologists and welding engineers as the most critical force inhibiting innovation. The suggestions on how to address the shortage emanating from the first Vision Forum were re-emphasized and expanded upon at the Regional Forums. These included:

• Recognize and develop an articulated "career ladder" going from skills to science to management with a recognized continuum of credentials.
• Promote employer buy-in for both apprenticeship and co-op training and education.
• Make Red Seal obligatory across Canada for certain types of welding (a compulsory apprenticeable trade).
• Stress the benefits of careers, skills and technology at the level of the senior primary grades and ensure the provision of suitable instructors, particularly at the high-school level.
• Address the need for increased numbers of welding engineers as welding automation becomes more prominent. The lack of engineers with expertise in welding and welding process applications can result in the adoption of design and manufacturing practices that limit, rather than increase the productivity of welding and the value that it is able to add to the final product.
• Promote the coordination of college welding training across Canada applicable for students, apprentices and the current workforce.
• Develop/support/revamp University welding engineering programs.
• Continue to develop a common national and international system of standards, assessment and certification of welding professionals such as those of the International Institute of Welding (IIW).

At several of the Regional Forums a renowned educator in welding and joining presented a global view of the current welding education scene. He reviewed programs in Canada, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom and U.S.A., concluding with the following observations:

• Canada lags behind both Europe and Asia in welding engineering education.
• The International Institute of Welding (IIW) has developed qualification standards for the International Welding Engineer (IWE) level as well as for the levels of International Welding Specialist and International Welding Technologist — these standards are expected to rapidly become the norm around the world.
• As yet, no University in Canada has committed to conforming its programs with IWE, although the University of Waterloo Welding Specialization is close to IWE requirements.
• The status of the University of Alberta welding engineering program is unclear in terms of future direction.
• The Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) has modules, but is not yet at the IWE level.
• Northern College as a strong 3-year program and Conestoga College is strengthening its 3 year program.

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Basic Research

The Welding Technology Roadmap prepared in 2000 for the United States Department of Energy, the American Welding Society and the Edison Welding Institute describes the transition that welding should make by 2020 from "an empirical-based to a physical-based process." The description is as follows:

Many of the presentations made in relation to welding technology and the associated research during the Regional Forums dealt with aspects of this transition and highlighted the need for greater research on the fundamental physics of the materials used in welding. Again, as stated in the United States Welding TRM:

Key issues relating to research on materials science were made by members of the Canadian Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre in Montreal to the Regional Forum but are not reported here because of their proprietary nature. But certainly, the Centre is at the forefront of welding and joining technology research in Canada. Although the Centre is focused on aerospace, much of the research being undertaken will find applications in the other key user industries of the Solutions Matrix. Other Canadian centres of research (either existing or potential) were referenced during the Forums.

Other technology-related presentations made during the Regional Forums included:

• Lastron Beam Technology (PAVAC Industries)
• Elimination of Residual Stresses and Distortion in Weld Zones by Ultrasonic Preening (Integrity Testing Laboratory Inc.)
• Welding Solutions (Liburdi Automation Ltd.)
• Aerospace proprietary technology of Pratt & Whitney Canada
• Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program (Canada Customs and Revenue Agency)

Also at the Montreal Forum an excellent presentation was made by the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec (CRIAQ) that could provide an organizational model for welding and joining research related to other industries. CRIAQ provides leadership for collaborative research projects involving companies from the aerospace sector and university and other research centres in Quebec. One of the major successes of CRIAQ has been to thoroughly negotiate the intellectual property issues that often complicate collaborative research. The CRIAQ Board has recently approved the broadening of its mission to undertake projects across Canada in collaboration with universities and companies outside of Quebec.

While a definite platform for basic welding and joining research does exist in Canada, it does not appear to be nearly as well-developed as in other jurisdictions including United States, Japan and Europe. However, the Canadian Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre as well as the Materials Technology Laboratory of Natural Resources Canada are exceptions and their work is in the "world class" category. The challenge is to extend that welding and joining research excellence to the all of the identified user industries.

Applied Research

Much of what is described above as Basic Research naturally spills over into the term Applied Research, particularly with respect to research carried out at the individual company level.

However, participants in the Welding and Joining Technology Roadmap Process were thinking particularly of centres at the college level when referring to applied research. For instance, Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology has developed a business plan for a "Materials Joining Innovation Centre (MAJIC)" that would see part of its mandate extend to applied research.

The Mission of MAJIC is as follows:

The creation of MAJIC builds upon the expertise of Northern College in welding technology and the trust that has been built up with industry through the College's Welding Engineering Technology program. MAJIC also responds to the challenge of Canada's Innovation Strategy, creating a "kernel" innovation centre for applied welding technology.

While MAJIC will be the only Centre in Canada completely focused on the workplace application of welding technology, it is meant to be a node in wider networks of complementary centres and institutes that are active in research and development and technology application to manufacturing, materials and construction processes. For instance, during the Regional Forums, colleges in Alberta (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the Maritimes (Nova Scotia Community College and New Brunswick Community College) were identified as offering potential for the creation of additional applied welding technology centres.

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Quality and Productivity Improvement

Quality and productivity improvement is at the heart of manufacturing excellence that all of the ten identified user industries are seeking. The Solutions Matrix focuses on this function at both the enterprise and industry level.

In all of the ten sectors, manufacturing excellence has already or is becoming a key element of competitiveness. And today, the concepts of "Lean manufacturing" and "Agile manufacturing" have almost become a religion in North America. Lean manufacturing really grew out of attempts to improve quality and productivity in Japan, particularly at Toyota. Lean manufacturing is also part of the broader concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM and Lean manufacturing are really attempts to change the "culture" of manufacturing enterprises. Empowerment, flatter management structures, teamwork and continuous improvement become crucial to success in a total systems approach that links manufacturers with their suppliers and their customers.

Concepts of lean manufacturing gained significant momentum in North America when the world automotive industry jumped on board and began emulating Toyota. A five-year study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was very influential in this regard, concluding that plants using the Toyota system significantly outperformed traditional plants — whether located in Japan or not. From this, the definition and components of lean became widely understood by senior management across a wide segment of the manufacturing industry.

One of the tools used to effect the transformation to lean is the "kaizen" event. Kaizen is a cross-functional team event, consisting of six to ten members focusing for two to five days on a defined area of the plant. Using standardized tools and techniques, they analyze, brainstorm, implement changes, measure effect, and document the new "lean" system that must emerge.

It has not been uncommon for such teams to achieve significant gains in productivity, reductions in work-in-progress (WIP), reductions in floor space and distance traveled. However, gains from kaizens can be shortlived unless they are integrated into an overall company plan or "culture change". Nelson Teed, writing in Advanced Manufacturing has provided a good summary of the lean concept and how it needs to be pursued within a manufacturing enterprise. He has observed:

During the regional forums in Cambridge, Montreal, Edmonton and Halifax, the issue of lean manufacturing came up repeatedly and many stressed the need for welding and joining to be integrated into the process. One of the tools to do this is the ISO 3834 standard for quality welding that is similar to the ISO 9001/9004 standard but is specifically designed to address welding fabrication (See exhibit below). The standard was just adopted in September, 2005. The following points were stressed, in relation to the standard:

• Welding is to become reliable and not a hit and miss joining process, as is the often current perception of CEOs.
• More monitoring of the welding processes, before, during and after welding will be required to ensure compliance.
• Senior management will be involved in resource allocation and technology selection, based on welding performance towards continuous improvement.

ISO 3834 Standard for Quality Welding

Using tools such as the ISO 3834 standard, kaizens and value-stream mapping of lean manufacturing, an opportunity exists to develop a specific approach to manufacturing excellence that focuses on welding and joining applicable to each of the ten industry sectors identified.

International

International standards are becoming increasingly more important in nearly every area of business. The process of developing international standards grew initially out of a desire to harmonize technical and business practices in order to facilitate international exchange. However, more and more international standards are being incorporated in regulations of national and regional authorities and in the performance requirements of multinational corporations. As such, compliance with such standards is a pre-requisite for doing business.

This has become evident in the area of quality standards of the International Standards Organization (ISO), based in Geneva, Switzerland. Nearly everyone has become familiar with the ISO 9000 series quality standards as they see the banners emblazoned across the front of corporate headquarters when a company has achieved compliance. Today, a company that wants to do business on any scale beyond the small locality in which it is established must conform to ISO quality standards. As we have seen above, the ISO 3834 standard has just recently been established for quality welding and undoubtedly, over time, will become the norm for doing welding work world-wide.

As standards have been developed and evolved for products and processes, so have they evolved for professional qualifications. The International Institute of Welding (IIW) was founded in 1948 by the welding institutes or societies in 13 countries to promote international collaboration in welding. With 43 member countries, the objectives of the organization are:

• To promote the development of welding and to provide for the exchange of scientific and technical information on welding research and education,
• To assist in the formulation of international standards for welding, and
• To promote the organization of national welding associations.

The Canadian Council of the IIW is hosted jointly by the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) and the Materials Technology Laboratory of Natural Resources Canada, part of the federal government. The Canadian Council will be hosting the Annual Assembly of the IIW in Quebec City from 27 August to 2 September, 2006.

The Qualification and Authorisation System of the IIW has developed standards for the following professional qualifications:

• International Welding Engineer (IWE),
• International Welding Technologist,
• International Welding Specialist, and
• International Welding Practitioner.

To date, in Canada, no University or College has been accredited to offer the education programs required to meet the standards of the above categories. However, the CWB does indicate transitional arrangements on how to meet the qualifications.

In order for welding engineers and other levels of the welding profession to be able to work on projects in Europe and certain other jurisdictions, it is or will soon become mandatory to achieve the IIW professional qualifications.

Partnership Focus

The final column of the Solutions Matrix is the Partnership Focus — those partners with whom the welding and joining industry must work in order to achieve its Vision.

• Industry
• SME/Integrator development
• Universities and Colleges
• Research institutes and centres
• Federal and Provincial government departments and agencies.

In most cases, the Strategic Targets of the Vision coincide with the Partners. The nuance is that before a practical partnership can be established, the particular partner has to have a common understanding and commitment to welding and joining as an enabling technology. Thus, to have a good working relationship with enterprises in the ten identified user industry sectors, the CEOs of those industries and companies must first of all be convinced that a strategic advantage can be gained through the relationship.

Within the industry partnership focus, a subset of industry referred to as "SME/Integrator development" is singled out. This arose in particular reference to the aerospace sector where the need has become evident to encourage more small and medium-sized enterprises to act as suppliers of integrated welded systems and not simply individual components of these systems. The example given in the Regional Forum held in Montreal was in reference to welded systems used in the manufacture of aircraft engines.

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¹ From preliminary presentation of draft report on Welding and Joining Opportunities in Alberta. (Return to text.)

² Nelson J. Teed. Placing Lean Manufacturing In Historical Perspective. Manufacturing and Technology News. (Return to text.)

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