A Technology Roadmap for Welding and Joining in Canada — Projects — Making the Vision Happen

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In introducing the Welding and Joining Technology Roadmap we earlier indicated the process of moving from a Vision to Projects. The exhibit below recalls that process.

We first of all identified the Vision.

We then identified the Strategic Targets to whom the Vision has to be sold, emphasizing CEOs and other manufacturing industry leaders.

Subsequently, we identified the barriers and constraints that had to be addressed in order to implement the Vision. This included all of the challenges at the international level because of the increasing pressure on the competitive position of North American manufacturers coming from China, India and other parts of Asia. But it also addressed the apparent "downward spiral" that was evident in the Canadian welding and joining community.

We concluded that the downward spiral had to be unraveled and reversed. The key to doing this is to convince industry leaders to see welding and joining as an "Enabling Technology" that can provide strategic advantage at the manufacturing company level and at the welding and joining industry level. It is essential to ensure that welding and joining specialists are included in product/project design teams and that welding and joining fully integrates itself with processes of manufacturing excellence (for example, lean manufacturing).

From this, we identified a Solutions Matrix that would carry the theme of Enabling Technology across 10 industry sectors, 6 welding and joining technology applications, 6 industry functions and with 5 sets of partners. But we stressed that the Matrix was "a set of possibilities" for a wide range of specific projects and initiatives across Canada over the next ten years.

We have now reached the point of identifying the priority themes and projects for welding and joining in Canada over the next few years so that other projects drawn from the Solutions Matrix can be developed within the full ten-year framework for the TRM. The priorities are:

• Create stronger industry leadership.
• Create an exciting image of the industry.
• Institute a Quality and productivity advantage for manufacturing industries based on welding and joining as an Enabling Technology.
• Implement a stronger research innovation and technology adoption program.
• Create a strong Education and Training base for welding and joining.
• Create a Clearing House for welding and joining information.

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Create Stronger Industry Leadership

Throughout the TRM process the issue of industry leadership has been front and centre. Without strong leadership, implementation of the Vision will not be achieved. The leadership required is that of key individuals in the user industries that are already convinced of the strategic advantage that welding and joining can bring to manufacturing and who are ready to work together to "spread the gospel" to increase the strategic advantage of Canadian manufacturing as a whole.

Suggested principles to be followed in creating the Leadership Team include:

• A minimum of 3 CEOs or other senior leaders drawn from the industry sectors of the Solutions Matrix and from leading welding and joining companies.
  • That are already convinced that welding and joining is an Enabling Technology that can provide Canadian manufacturing with a strategic advantage.
  • That have the time to commit to the initial implementation of the Welding and Joining TRM, at least over a 2-year period.
  • That represent a balance between the regions of Canada.
• A Resource Team of about 5 members drawn from the welding and joining sector that may represent industry, associations, universities and colleges, research or government.
  • That understands and is committed to implementation of the Welding and Joining TRM.
  • That can support the CEOs and other industry leaders in the directions they determine.
  • That represent a balance between the regions of Canada.

Once the Leadership Team has been initially constituted the first task will be to ensure that sufficient funding for the operation of the Team (Leaders and Resource Team) is in place for a minimum 2-year period. Such funding would be expected to come from industry and from government.

The second task for consideration would be the convening of a forum of the leading associations, institutions and government agencies to achieve a working agreement on a common approach to implementing the TRM. An example of such an approach is that taken by the forest and wood products industry in Finland where "Wood Focus Finland" emerged as a central structure to promote the industry while leaving existing organizations and associations with a large measure of independence to implement their specific and/or renewed mandates.

The third task would be to secure the funding required to implement the other recommended actions of the TRM as described below — and as confirmed or modified by the forum referred to above. Such funding would be expected to come from industry and government.

In its approach the Leadership Team would draw guidance from the acronym D.R.E.A.M.

• Identify desires
• Assign responsibility
• Ensure engagement
• Take action
• With a clear methodology

Image of the Industry

The first project in the TRM implementation is to undertake a Canada-wide campaign directed at the four strategic targets — industry, government, education and the research community — to create a positive, energetic image of the welding and joining industry, why it is important for Canada's prosperity and how it can contribute to increasing the competitive position of Canadian manufacturing and construction over the next ten years.

This project will require professional assistance from marketing and corporate relations specialists with experience in designing industry campaigns and will needed to be fully funded. The main objective of the campaign is to "open doors and minds" so that industry leaders will be receptive to the concept of welding and joining as an enabling technology. Messages and campaigns will need to be carefully crafted for each of the strategic targets and communication channels and venues clearly defined to transmit the message. The elements of the campaign may include:

• Broad media messages through marketing and advertising.
• Directed media messages at key industry events.
• Showcase companies to illustrate the messages.
• Corporate and government presentations.
• Follow-up practical tools providing leaders with the means to "drill down" the message into their companies, institutions and organizations.
• A specific campaign crafted for schools and students at the primary, secondary and post-secondary levels.

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Manufacturing Excellence and Technology Application

This project has two components:

1. A welding and joining productivity network.
2. Welding and joining centres at educational institutions.

A Welding and Joining Productivity Network

The concept of the Welding and Joining Productivity Network is to create at least four centres across Canada that would work together on a program that would provide ongoing support to the messages transmitted during the campaign to change the image of the industry and particularly, to further the concept of welding and joining as an enabling technology.

Centres are envisaged in the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec and Alberta and might be attached to existing institutions or organizations, possibly at the education or research levels. The overall mandate would include the following:

• Design and apply concepts of manufacturing excellence, such as lean manufacturing to welding and joining. Each of the centres might develop a specialized approach in accordance with the industry focus of their region.
• Integrate welding and joining into manufacturing excellence, particularly at the design stage. This would require the articulation of welding and joining into the existing concept of product, project and process design so that design teams are fully aware of welding and joining as an enabling technology and have the necessary information and tools to incorporate it into design.
• Conduct welding technology application assessments and create a "Best Practices" technology application database. Such a database would be one of the tools required by design teams.
• Develop and advocate policies to governments, such as tax incentives for investment in automation and productivity improvement. It may be that one of the welding and joining productivity centres becomes specialized in the economic and policy analysis of welding and joining enabling it to be at the forefront in advocating incentive measures to government that would promote the use of the best welding and joining processes in industry.
• Develop an "Integrator" capacity among companies in Canadian industry capable of supplying complete sub-assemblies, not just individual parts. This integrator capacity is particularly required in the aerospace sector and the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre in Montreal has an incubator program and facility in place to encourage SME's to move into integration. It is possible that, over time, each of the proposed centres in the Welding and Joining Productivity Network would have an associated Incubator.
• Sponsor specific welding and joining technology demonstration projects or workshops in all regions of the country. The concept here is that rather than just being places to which industry would come, all of the centres in the Welding and Joining Productivity Network would have an outreach program to demonstrate welding and joining technologies in specific applications.

Welding and Joining Centres at Educational Institutions

The concept of the welding and joining centres at educational institutions is patterned on the example described earlier of the Materials Joining Innovation Centre (MAJIC) proposed for Kirkland Lake, Ontario by Northern College of Applied Arts and Technology.

The main function of such applied research centres, likely located at colleges across Canada, is to be responsive to industry needs to solve specific problems relating to welding and joining. As such, the services offered would likely include:

• Information dissemination and technology transfer, based on databases
• Education and training
• Consulting, contract engineering and lab services, and
• Contract applied research.

The Welding and Joining Productivity Centres and the Welding and Joining Applied Research Centres would act in a complementary fashion. The Productivity Centres would be responsible for moving the yard sticks forward for welding and joining to be used as an enabling technology through a number of funded and directed projects, but they would not provide services at the enterprise level. The Applied Research Centres, on the other hand, would make use of the tools developed by the Productivity Centres to respond to the problem-solving needs of individual enterprises. It is possible, however, that a Productivity Centre and an Applied Research Centre could be co-located and be under a single governance structure.

Implement a Stronger Research Innovation and Technology Adoption Program

This TRM implementation projects stems from the consensus that an insufficient critical mass of basic research on welding and joining exists in Canada and that two aspects need to be strengthened:

• Greater research capacity for innovative welding and joining process applications and adoption for all user industries.
• Greater research capacity for new materials with improved joining capabilities, and their efficient use in welding and joining applications.

It is likely that this goal will be met by funding a greater number of specific projects at existing Universities that have a welding and joining specialization and at existing research institutions, such as the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre. However, consideration in implementing this project should be given to the model of the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec (CRIAQ), described earlier. A Consortium for Research and Innovation in Welding and Joining might be created that would draw industry and all of the basic research centres across the country into a cooperative and coordinated venture.

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Create a Strong Education and Training Base for Welding and Joining

The issue of human resources was indeed prominent throughout the Welding and Joining TRM process and, at times, tended to overshadow some of the more technology-related issues. A shortage of skilled welding and joining specialists exists, particularly at the basic qualified welder level for oil and gas projects in Alberta and in other parts of the country. Three specific projects are recommended:

• Create a Human Resources Sector Council.
• Standardize and harmonize education, qualifications, training and apprenticeship across Canada — harmonized with standards of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Institute of Welding (IIW).
• Describe a "Value-chain" for investment in human intellectual property — an explanatory report on how investment in human resources is at the base of achieving the Vision of the Welding and Joining industry.

The key element is the creation of a Human Resources Sector Council in which work on the other two elements can be pursued. For this, the Leadership Team would need to present a request to the federal government's Sector Council Program.

The Government of Canada's Sector Council Program (SCP) works to enable partnerships that address skills and human resource issues by establishing, developing and supporting national partnerships and the capacity of partners to address both pressing and emerging skills and human resources issues. Sector Councils, Sectoral and Occupational Studies, Industry Profiles, Sectoral Career Information, Grant and Contribution programs and other sectoral activities are a part of the Sector Council Program. The initiative is managed by the Human Resources Partnerships Directorate of the federal government's Department of Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSD).

The five main objectives of the Human Resource Sectoral Program are the following:

1. Increase sectoral capacity
   Work with national sectors to help increase their ability to identify and meet their human resources needs.
2. Understand and describe skills
   Support activities to understand and describe skills Canadians need in today's labour market.
3. Encourage learning systems to be more responsive to the labour markets
   Help create and maintain national partnerships between the private sector and learning systems that can help educators provide students with the skills needed in today's labour market.
4. Promote the workplace as a learning place
   Support lifelong learning by promoting learning in the workplace.
5. Develop labour market transition mechanisms
   Encourage labour mobility programs that promote recognition of workers' skills across Canada.

The specific projects that the Welding and Joining TRM recommends under the heading of standardizing and harmonizing education, qualifications, training and apprenticeship include the following:

1. Make Red Seal obligatory across Canada for certain types of welding (a compulsory apprenticeable trade).
2. Define a basics skills ladder.
3. Promote the coordination of college welding training across Canada applicable for students, apprentices and current workforce.
4. Develop/support/revamp University welding engineering programs.
5. Showcase welding and joining careers with schools, industry and academia across Canada.

Create a Clearing House for Welding and Joining Information

The concept of this recommendation is the creation of a Clearing House to act as a central information conduit for welding and joining:

• Providing an access point for industry to submit its needs for solutions to welding and joining issues,
• Providing access to the international knowledge base for welding and joining, and
• Providing the opportunity for the Welding and Joining Productivity Network and the Welding and Joining Centres at educational institutions to find the best solutions to industry needs.

As the exhibit shows, the concept of the Clearing House is closely linked to the Welding and Joining Productivity Network and Welding and Joining Applied Technology Centres.

The Productivity Network will generate interest in the application of welding and joining as enabling technologies in Canadian manufacturing industries and will — with education and research institutions — establish a Canadian knowledge base. At the same time, work on welding and joining from other international jurisdictions will also be advancing. A system is needed that ensures the Canadian knowledge base and the international knowledge base is available for the solutions that industry needs. The Welding and Joining Applied Technology Centres need to be able to access this complete knowledge base, and indeed, add to it, as they work on specific problems for companies.

The Leadership Team will need to determine the best location and structure to host the Clearing House or to ensure that it is part of a Canada-wide distributed system.

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