Needing to provide a product line with standard, repeatable, and interchangeable components, American Water Technology, a manufacturer of water treatment systems, integrated stainless steel tubing and orbital welding.

Statistical process control (SPC) often is used to reduce the number of manufacturing defects. However, it has other uses also. It can serve to increase productivity and therefore improve a company's profitability. Statistical tools and Pareto diagrams can help you to track manufacturing problems and put you on the trail to finding their causes.

Robert Warnett didn't take many vocational classes in school, never spent much time reading about welding or fabricating, and never had a job in a shop. However, he made quite a few friends in the fabricating industry and made a hobby out of fabricating. Being a hands-on type of guy, he has capitalized on the knowledge and experience he has acquired over the years to do something that many people only dream about doing. He builds custom motorcycles.

While automation can increase throughput and reduce labor, it doesn't solve manufacturing problems. A manual process that produces poor-quality or inconsistent parts will simply do so at a faster rate if automated. Understanding the process and process variables is the key to troubleshooting problems and resolving them to get the maximum gain from automation.

Designing for the laser cutting process optimizes what tube fabricators can achieve.