www.thefabricator.com: Door Engineering, a manufacturer of custom-engineered doors for commercial, industrial, and aviation, has a technologically diverse welding department. Visit the plant floor in Mankato, Minn., and you’ll see some manual, out-of-position gas metal arc welding, with skilled welders completing challenging joints on complicated workpieces. You’ll see operators training and managing cobot welding cells. They place a piece in the cell, adapt an existing program via a tablet interface, then initiate the weld.
3 comments:
At my last job, I was given the opportunity to learn to weld, and weld on quite a few shows. It was interesting then that, having told my family how much I was enjoying that aspect of the work, how many family members told me that welding would be a good career path should I step out of theatre. I told them the welding I was doing was not the same thing a professional welder would be doing, (as reinforced by the different jobs the article mentions) but none of them know much about theatrical fabrication or know how to weld so explaining the differences between the two are hard. However, before reading this article I didn't know how in demand welders actually are. The article interviews engineering manager, Westly Willenburg, who comments that their company “really struggled to hold on to our welders.” The approach they've taken by; educating and certifying their welders, rotating their areas of operation, and having their staff work in three shifts, seems to have paid off. It’s nice to see a company that can both manage production and labor well. While I am not considering a career change, it was eye opening to see that my parents might have had a point in saying welding is a sought after skill.
I grew up in this town! It's really interesting to see this pop-up, because I actually have friends who work in the fabrication industry there, and at one point toured some of the plants when I was considering a welding internship during my senior year of high school. While not specifically the Doors company, I have been to a number of fabrication plants in Mankato that employ the use of robotic welders, and/or use them in parallel with their human welding counterparts who will do the very complex process, or places where the robot isn’t practical. I also think their approach to shop floor makes a lot of sense with their “three by three matrix” style; every process has at least 3 people who are proficient in it, so if there is ever a person out sick, or who has to leave for one reason or another, they can more easily restructure their workflow to still meet their production needs, even when short a hand. It makes me think about how similar structure might apply to theatre. Obviously on a shop floor, I think it's reasonable to assume that every carpenter would be expected to know how to operate a radial arm saw, a mitre saw, the table, etc. but especially in situations like a welder if not everyone is trained or for the CNC, not even necessarily if the operator can’t be there, but if the CNC is out of commission for any reason, being able to readily transition to another process that everyone feels capable and competent.
It's really cool to see my home town end up in an article here, and I can attest to the growing manufacturing industry there, and first-hand, there is a huge market for welders in the area, especially those who can work with multiple different approaches and software that might accompany the position.
This was a really interesting article to read that provided a nice insight into this aspect of manufacturing. I don’t know much about welding manufacturing processes, so I thought this was a good read. I have heard a lot about how difficult it is to find welders, and how skilled welders are super in demand basically everywhere, and so what really stuck out to me was reading about how this company provides options of different styles of work to their welders, allows them to focus on the different styles of work they like the most, and rotates them through work styles to keep the days unique. As someone who is really drawn to the entertainment industry by the promise of “unique work each day,” that definitely sounds like a company philosophy that is really appealing to me. I definitely imagine that providing these options for workflow raises interest for working at this company.
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