Welding is not a clean process. Weld spatter and water expulsion are two inescapable byproducts. At least that's what the managers of three Canadian automotive plants believed before learning about Parker's Water Retract Actuator (WRA). With this technology, when a weld tip needs to be changed, the...

In our last blog we introduced five ways a well-managed weld cell contributes to efforts to maintain uptime in a lean plant. We concluded that sometimes the innovative creativity of people working the cell can be both a blessing and a challenge. The challenge is when they come up with...

The welding line's lean best practices separate the leaders from the followers. The stars of such manufacturing excellence are often found in the automotive industry, where you'll see welding lines in any facility you visit. Plants in all industries looking for inspiration may refer to Toyota's...