The American Welding Society

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, there has been rapid development of welding technology and applications, and, since 1919, the American Welding Society (A WS) has worked to advance the science, technology and application of welding. As the century nears its conclusion, a mature welding industry finds itself facing unprecedented opportunities, both domestically and internationally. Meeting these opportunities will challenge industry on economic and sociological fronts as well as in the familiar realm of technology as a much higher level of inter-industry cooperation must be cultivated. Withmorethan35,000members,AWS sees its major challenge in the 1990s as the need to coordinate and focus the efforts of businesses, research institutions and professional organizations as they attempt to meet these challenges. To achieve this goal, A WS recently invited 34 executives and scientists from major welding fabrication and research organizations to a series of strategic planning sessions designed to explore issues vital to the future of materials joining. Called Welding 2000 Fastigium, these four days of intense discussion by some of the top minds in the industry produced valuable insights that will be used to guide AWS's creation of programs as it attempts to facilitate the development of the industry. The meeting was conducted by Sherman Titens of the Fromm Institute, a Kansas City-based consulting firm specializing in long-range strategic planning. Participants included executives and researchers from such organizations as the U.s. Department of the Navy, Sandia National Laboratories, Caterpillar, Inc., and such welding industry giants as Hobart Brothers, Lincoln Electric and Miller Electric Manufacturing Company. At first in small groups and later together, participants discussed the potential effects of scenarios dealing with the workforce, globalization, the professional interface, the materials joining process and "over design" dilemmas. The fastigium panel concluded that the U.S. can remain prominent in manufacturing technology only by bringing together its resources in welding and directing priority to specify goals. Competition from abroad runs the gamut from low labor costs in Asia to increased market leverage by large European con-