By KIMBERLEY GILLES, associate editor

Individual strategies that welding shops develop and use to survive typically are as unique as the shop, but a review of the strategies that successful shops share reveals several common tactics. The stories behind the success of most small shops are very similar – they typically start because the owner has a great idea or a service that someone is willing to purchase.

Making that business grow – and keeping it growing – takes skill and requires approaches that often times can be just outside the reach of the entrepreneur with a good idea. So, when a shop needs more welders or more business, the steps that the owner takes to solve these challenges can determine whether his shop survives.

Here is a short list – the simple list – that job shop owners said are necessary to build and maintain a solid welding business:

• Maintain a consistent management approach, whether that includes a one-person management office or a team.
• Ensure that your customers will get high quality products.
• Listen to your customers, and add services and products to match their needs.
• And, find a way to attract and keep good employees.

Commit to consistency
Joining Technologies LLC (www.joiningtech.com) of East Granby, Conn., formed after the separation of a previously failed business partnership. David Hudson, who now is president of the company, signed on with the company about 12 years ago, and helped to install a management team that was consistent in strategy and presence.

Consistency in management and a stronger management commitment stirred commitment from the company's employees.

One of the commitments management made was to improve employee training and welfare. Now the company has what it calls a knowledge-based workforce. "We have specialists on the floor, not just welders who weld parts," says Hudson. "We have people who have a broad understanding of the process. They can set up the machines and they know what the welds are supposed to look like and sound like. They can download process sheets from the central computer, and they can talk to our customers, who visit to observe our processes," says Hudson.

But Joining Technologies has more than a trained, skilled workforce. It has committed employees, and the employees have a company that is committed to them as well as the survival and growth of the company. Joining Technologies has 40 employees and describes itself as a hybrid job shop that provides electron beam and laser welding and product development services.

Previously, Joining Technologies saw employees leave soon after they got the training they needed to find a position with another company. The consistency and commitment at the management level helped to stabilize employee relations and reduce turnover. "There were reasons on the management level that people were leaving the company after being trained and productive for one or two years," says Hudson. "We had to fix these problems, and we had to grow."

Quality is a competitive tool
Good quality programs also can lead to growth, and those programs don't have to be elaborate programs that are studied by everyone in the shop. Job shops are picking and choosing elements of quality control programs that best suit their needs, and they are using those elements to create a documented quality control process that they can use to demonstrate to their customers that they are providing world-class quality, even with low investments to deliver products to their customers' specifications.

For example, at Prototype Tooling & Manufacturing, welders are certified, and because of the nature of its work, the company must test its welds and send weld samples to third-party testing firms. Quality is an important element of the company's effort to remain competitive.

Based in Fraser, Mich., Prototype Tooling and Manufacturing (www.prototypetm.com/) makes parts and sub-assemblies for the automotive industry. For this job shop, quality is not just about how a product is made; quality is about the process of making the product.

The shop has been ISO 9000 compliant for years, but recently it made the decision to become ISO 9000 registered. The difference is important, especially to small job shops and manufacturers who do not have the financial resources to register with the International Organization for Standardization. That could be a costly step, especially if a shop does not need to implement a full-blown quality management program to meet its customers' requirements.

Many manufacturers now require their suppliers to have a quality management program in place, such as Six Sigma, Five S, or ISO 2000 or ISO registration, but they may not actually require that program to be a full implementation of a specific methodology. So, a job shop can be ISO-complaint, but not ISO-registered, says Terry Logan, principal of Atema Inc. (www.atemainc.com), a training and consulting firm. The difference is that a company without the resources or need to register with the International Organization for Standardization could choose to implement and document a quality management program, and then hire a certified quality auditor to confirm that the shop implemented the program correctly. The auditor reports on a quality audit, and the shop can use the results for its own purposes.

Similarly, job shops may consider implementing parts of a Six Sigma program that best fit its business. For example: A small job shop with a short-cycle production schedule could use a trend line that tracks the amount of defects or scrap that is produced each month, a standard part of a Six Sigma program; but it may not need to gather the data and put it into pareto diagrams or xbar-r charts as other parts of the Six Sigma process would suggest.

Simple quality programs often produce noticeable results.

Michael Doom, executive director of operations for Prototype Tooling & Manufacturing, says his shop developed unique welding fixtures that make hand welding jobs easier to get done, and that the shop's welders have become key contributors making those fixtures more flexible and even easier to use.

Put your shop in order
A separate part of Prototype Tooling & Manufacturing's success has come from implementing a 5S program. 5S stands for "sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain." Anna Petrosky, president of Atema Inc., says that 5S is a "housekeeping" program, an "everything has a place, and everything in its place" organizational philosophy that can be used to organize everything from a desk top to the production floor.

Custom Manufacturing Solutions (www.cusmfgsol.com) of Xenia, Ohio, implemented a 5S program and, as a part of it, asked its employees, including welders, to take their personally owned tools home. The company then supplied toolboxes and tools, and began a preventative maintenance program. It has found that its employees are no longer wasting time trying to find their personally owned tools. Also, the plant is free of clutter, and safety has improved. The company also realized an unexpected benefit: A clean workplace is now one of our recruiting tools, says Keith Bowers, director of production.

Michael Doom, at Prototype Tooling & Manufacturing, says his shop also has seen an unexpected benefit that he attributes to the simple "housekeeping" program: Customers apparently have noticed changes, and now approach the shop rather than the shop seeking out customers.

Custom Manufacturing Solutions is a metalworking, contract shop that competes in the highly competitive military market. It provides a variety of production capabilities and fast turnaround times, and its ability to get orders out quickly has helped it to respond to its changing market: Lead times for military projects have shortened considerably over the past five years, says Bowers. His company has adjusted to that shortened lead-time, and now can now quote a project and ship product within four weeks, Bowers says.

Fill the skills gap
However, the biggest problem most job shops face is the lack of skilled welders and fabricators. Shop owners and managers say that shops have developed individual strategies to overcome this skills gap, and their strategies differ in scope and implementation, but have common features. Shops work with community resources, and they use in-house training programs, and they rely on new technologies.

When Mark Combs launched Combs Welding Design Inc. (www.combswelding.com/) in Dundee, Fla., seven years ago, it was a mobile truck repair service with little capital and equipment. He wanted more for his business, so he changed his strategy and developed the business into a job shop that fabricates structural elements for the construction industry while providing a mobile repair service.

With the shop's growth, Combs needed to hire skilled employees, and that proved to be his biggest problem. He is not alone. Without question, the scarcest resource today is talented, skilled employees. And the biggest challenge to competitiveness is not obtaining new business, but hiring the right people to help a company remain competitive, says Combs.

Combs works with local technical schools to address the shortage of skilled labor, and has sent most of his employees through a state-funded apprenticeship program to improve their welding skills and to have them certified to American Welding Society standards. He says his company now has eight good employees, but that, as a growing business, it continues to face a shortage of skilled labor.

Traditionally, organizations draw on school systems, national and local workforce development programs, professional associations, private education companies and other sources to provide trained or experienced workers. Many of these organizations and institutions work with businesses, such as Combs Welding Design, to align their efforts with the skill needs of companies in the community and the economy as a whole. However, the changing skills that shops require from their employees and an increasing shortage of skilled labor are combining to drive more shops to develop and to train their employees on their own. Leaving training to others often leaves shops open to the risk of failure.

David Hudson at Joining Technologies saw that as the choice he had to make.

Joining Technologies recognized a few years back that it could differentiate itself and make itself a successful company by managing its human resources better than its competitors.

"A very big part of our business model revolves around people and keeping our people excited about the work," says Hudson. It has 40 employees, and it is very careful about how it chooses employees.

"We make sure we choose the right people for our company, not necessarily the people who have lots of experience with welding or laser welding. We choose people with the right attitude, and then we train them," Hudson says. Employees are sent to "learning events," and are provided in-house training and reimbursement when they get education outside of the shop. The result is a high employee retention rate, and a waiting list of potential employees. Hudson noted that the process that led the company to get a waiting list of potential employees was not done quickly: It has taken the shop 14 years to get itself in this position.

And, the business model that Joining Technologies adopted does not suit every job shop.

Some job shops have fluctuating employee levels. One way around this problem is to use equipment that requires fewer employees to operate.

The number of shop floor employees at Prototype Tooling & Manufacturing – the automotive supplier – rises and falls with the industry's outsourcing needs, but the technology it developed – the welding fixtures that ensure the correct positioning of parts – helps it to keep the number of welders it employs steady, Michael Doom says.

Self-help is put to work A-1 Welding (www.a1weldinginc.com/) is looking for more journeyman-level fabricators, but it doesn't want to raid its competitors, so it has set up in-house training to fill its needs. "Some companies try to recruit from other companies, but we are trying not to go down that road," says Brad Davison, president and owner of the Bellingham, Wash., shop. "We will train employees, but we can't have a shop full of trainees. We are fortunate because we have a couple of real good, key people who keep a sharp eye on the operation," Davison says. "We are trying to make the people below them understand that there is room to grow," so the company is offering its own training to bring the less skilled employees along, he adds. A-1 is a diversified shop that fabricates truck scales, among other products. It has grown over the last three years, and some of its projects are large and last as long as three months; but the shop targets jobs that it can complete in one month or less. "We try not to seek work that we think will not fit the company," says Davison.

Technology does not guarantee competitiveness Selvaggio Steel (www.selvaggiosteel.com), a structural steel fabricator, ripped out $1 million worth of machines, and retooled the company with $1.3 million worth of new, automated tools in 2002 so that the company could remain competitive. However, having a highly automated operation was not enough to win a $1.5 million contract for a construction job three blocks away from the shop's facility in Springfield, Ill. The job shop could not bid on the contract because it was not certified by the American Institute of Steel Construction, says Mark Selvaggio, president of the company. That's when he, his brother, Tony, and sister, Michelle, decided to step up their operations by getting certification. Selvaggio is a 28-employee company – 14 on the shop floor and 14 in the office – that has tried to keep abreast of advances in technology. For example, in 1987 the fabricator spent $86,000 for a one-seat license and related hardware to install SDS/2 computer-aided design software. At the time, few small, structural steel job shops were investing in detailing software and paying to upgrade the software on a monthly basis, says Selvaggio. "We've built our entire information structure on that software," says Selvaggio. The software is networked with the company's CNC equipment, including a Daito Seiki drill and saw line. "We now can produce more tonnage than most of our competitors," Selvaggio says. However, he and his brother and sister feel they must get the certification from the American Institute of Steel Construction if they are to sustain and grow the business for the next generation of their family. So, Selvaggio called Atema Inc. (www.atemainc.com), a training and consulting firm, to help his company through the certification progress. Terry Logan and Anna Petroski, both certified quality auditors, have not tried to fit Selvaggio's operation into a predetermined format of how they or anyone else thinks a structural steel fabricator should operate, says Selvaggio. "We're a small company, and we like doing things our way, and we're pretty successful at it," Selvaggio says, adding that Atema has worked with his company's operational "idiosyncrasies." With Atema's help, Selvaggio Steel has developed a process manual, re-certified its welders, and expects to get its certification in the first quarter of 2007.

Markets direct process development Bart Harkey, one of three owners of Automated Manufacturing Solutions Inc., says his company has everything in place for the growth and an evolution that will move it into place as a full-time contract manufacturer with long-run production. The 35-employee company now has a product mix that is 65 percent job shop work and 35 percent contract manufacturing, Harkey says. Automated Manufacturing Solutions (www.amsinconline.com) was launched in northern Georgia as a metal processing operation by Harkey and his partners Michael Barnes and Jason Bramblett. They initially used laser equipment to pre-cut metal sheet to order for their customers. By listening to their customers, the trio of owners added operations, including metal forming with the purchase of a press brake, and welded and finished assemblies. In addition, metal service centers in northern Georgia started to purchase their own laser cutting equipment, eating into the company's market. Welding was something of an afterthought for the shop's founders, and they never expected it to become one of their primary processes. Now Automated Manufacturing Solutions has eight welders, and they recently were certified as part of the company's effort to become an America Welding Society-certified fabricator. The job shop also has a four-station robotic welding system that was recently added. "Now we can cut and form, and weld and paint, and do assembly so we can ship a finished product to the customer," says Harkey. Harkey attended the seminar "Pricing and Profitability – Controlling the Costs of Welding," conducted by Scott Helzer just before the 2006 Fabtech/AWS Show in Atlanta, looking for additional tips on how he could help his shop to grow. The seminar gave him a better understanding of how to price the company's welding services, Harkey says, adding that he also gained insight into how other people quote prices for welding. Next on the shop's list of plans for growth is to get certification from the International Organization for Standardization, Harkey says.