So... I attended the AWS CWS seminar last week, followed by the Saturday exam.
My main purpose for attending was to assess the program and determine is validity as a requirement for the welding Supervisors in our fairly large high production manufacturing facilities. This is because our Supervisors are very good at employing "Lean" concepts in large volumes of quality product out the door, but I know we are leaving a lot of money on the table due to overwelding in both design and practice, as well as under utilization of high deposition procedures.
All in all, the CWS program is mainly designed to help with just what I described above, but as far as the programs validity to fit our needs, I can only give it a 5 out of 10 score, in it's current format.
Pros -
-Exposure to the concepts of the "Total Welding Management" philosophy was enlightening.
-I appreciated the break down of GMAW Spray transfer into two categories, "Spray" and "Dip Spray" as they are considerably different and I had never had this explained in this manner.
-The detail in which the mathematical process and formulae for determining weld volumes, deposition rates, arc time vs non arc time and operational efficiency factors was extremely useful.
-I can see where the information put forth about variances in basic processes (SMAW, GMAW, FCAW, MCAW, GTAW, OFC, CAC, PT, MT, UT, RT) would be useful to those not already familiar with them, as far as process selection is concerned.
-Information about welding symbology and the importance of good production reporting.
-The seminar instructor was knowledgeable, professional, respectable.
-Networking and learning from other professionals in the field (Seminar Attendees) is always good.
Cons -
-The entire first day of the seminar detailed the Barckhoff "Total Welding Management" system, which was educational to me, but considering the fact that this information is not included in the CWS "Body of Knowledge", proscribed self study materials or in the certification exam, it felt like more of a Barckhoff Welding Management sales pitch rather than an AWS CWS component.
-The second half of the last seminar day, which I feel would have been better spent on review / Q&A, was instead a definite high pressure sales pitch from Jack Barckhoff.
-The only materials from the CWS detaied self study materials that were covered in the seminar was the Certification Manual for Welding Supervisors - CMWS:2005, which was compressed to make time for the Barckhoff sales pitches.
-There was no seminar review of the other detailed self study materials, especially the "Safety in Welding, Cutting and Allied Processes" - ANSI Z49.1:2005, and "Economics of Welding and Cutting" - ARE-12, which was disapointing as there were pertinent exam questions from these materials.
-There was no information delivered either in the study materials or the seminar, concerning topics I see as key to the role of a Welding Supervisor, such as control of parts flow, materials traceability, weld mapping, process tips and techniques toward the prevention of weld defects, auditing, Quality Systems and Registrars, report formatting, employee hiring / firing / training / mentoring techniques, rework / finishing techniques, drawings / prints interpretation and troubleshooting, stacked tolerances, dealing with management functionaries who have little to no welding fabrication knowledge, etc.
-There is no mention in the entire CWS system of GMAW-Pulse welding, with the exception of a few extra power point slides the instructor threw in for good measure.
-The Certification Manual for Welding Supervisors is a reflection of pre 1980's technology, with no inclusion of robotics, lasers or other advanced processes, and is rife with errors.
-The entire program is carbon steel based with very little to no mention of other materials.
-There was a contradiction in the technique for formulating fillet weld volumes between that in the Certification manual as detailed by the Instructor and in the proscribed self study material "Economics of Welding and Cutting" in which the latter included allowances for convexity and the former did not. On the exam, there was an example given for a large fillet welding job in which several questions were chained too. I answered the questions based on the formulas explained in the seminar. If AWS chooses to include convexity in determining the correct exam answers, and I have failed the exam as a result, I'm going to be one pissed off individual.
- The exam was not very challenging.
-There was no seminar or Certification Manual information for determining total weld costs including contributing factors such as gasses, utilities, equipment, consumables, finishing, rework. There were mentions of these factors in the "Economics of Welding and Cutting" self study material, which again, was not reviewed in the seminar.
So, in conclusion, typing this out has helped me make up my mind that I need to explore other alternatives toward enhancing our Supervisory training and develop my own certification program.
AWS, if you're listening, your CWS program is a highly valuable concept that will greatly benefit the industry, however, it is in dire need of an overhaul.
Tim Gary
AWS SCWI
The CWS Manual sounds like a book I need. I have used Total Welding Management a lot. Great resource.
