Noah McGregor of Tea Area High School competes in a welding competition at DeGeest, Tea, S.D., in early May. This is the first competition that DeGeest, a metal fabricator located south of Sioux Falls, S.D., hosted. It plans to host similar events at the end of future school years.

Metal fabricators might have considered finding welders a challenge over the past decade, but that’s turned into a real crisis for many of them as they try to add welding capacity in the face of an expanding domestic manufacturing economy. Wages are rising everywhere now as companies look to fill job vacancies that people seemingly don’t want or don’t qualify for, which makes attracting entry-level applicants hard, and skilled welding veterans increasingly are heading for retirement. It’s enough to keep metal fabricators sleepless at night.

DeGeest, Tea, S.D., is faced with that same reality. Even in this community just southwest of Sioux Falls, S.D., where the agricultural economy is still strong and problem-solving skills are a necessity because repairmen aren’t located right around a corner, manufacturing companies still struggle to find talented workers to fill open jobs. This crisis doesn’t vary by zip codes.

That’s why DeGeest is taking steps to address the situation. Externally, the fabricator is looking to shore up its local manufacturing talent pool by working with local high schools to drum up interest in welding and manufacturing not just for itself, but for other local companies. Internally, DeGeest is continuing to invest in welding technology that will help its less experienced welders get up to speed faster with the confidence of skilled veterans and, perhaps, turn out quality work like those prized welders. Right now DeGeest has 18 welders—just over a third of its total workforce—but if it wants to grow over the coming years, it will have to figure out how to scale its welding department. The fab shop hopes the steps it takes today are going to pay off sooner rather than later.

DeGeest has been working with local educational institutions informally for years, but the company really kicked up its efforts in the last couple of years as the schools got more serious about their welding programs. Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, S.D., and Tea Area High School in Tea, S.D., both have more robust vocational programs because of the fabricator’s contributions.

Harrisburg High has two levels of welding classes, called ag metals, that fall in its agriculture, forestry, and natural resources (AFNR) curriculum track. Josh Christiansen, who has been at the school for three years but has been an educator for 18 years, teaches the welding courses as well as others in the AFNR area. Looking to next school year, he hopes to have about a dozen students each in the beginning and advanced ag metals classes.

Christiansen said DeGeest has been particularly helpful with guidance for the welding programs, going as far as to share the details of the shop’s welding test used to qualify new welders. That input provided him a real-world perspective as to what he should be focusing on in the classroom and what skills are valued by potential employers.

“A big thing that I was trying to learn from them was how they test for blueprint reading and welding symbols. What was a good way to teach that?” Christiansen said. “They were really helpful with their recommendations and providing suggestions.”

Christiansen said that when Harrisburg High launched an automotive program this year, it needed some work tables for the students. DeGeest sent over one of its engineers to see what the school needed, and he designed new tables, complete with engine mounts. DeGeest laser-cut all of the parts for the school and created blueprints to provide a real-world experience. Christiansen said that’s when the student welders went to work assembling and welding the tables.

“Now they’re sitting in the auto shop, and the students are using what they built,” Christiansen said.

Todd Garrison, who has spent several years working in the private sector as fabricator, welding supervisor, and plant manager, now heads the 2-year-old welding program at Tea Area High. DeGeest played a huge role in helping to get the program off the ground by consulting on the building plans for the welding cells, donating different types of welding power sources, and making the welding shields that separate each booth. Garrison said that the program had 25 students when it was launched last school year, but jumped up to 80 this year, meaning that some students were turned away. The interest in welding has prompted the school to double its welding booths from seven to 14, which should be ready next year in anticipation of increased student interest in the subject.

DeGeest’s Nick Irwin consults with a student welder about the test.

Garrison said that the interest that companies like DeGeest show in the welding program helps students think beyond just the project of the moment. A simple field trip to the DeGeest facility really drives home the point that if students are enjoying welding in the classroom, they might have the chance to carry that interest into a full-time career after graduation.

“We do shop tours to places like DeGeest, and we have companies like Masaba Mining Equipment in Vermillion [S.D.] come and do presentations. When the students see some of the parts those companies build, it makes them a lot more interested,” Garrison said. “When you walk around in life and you’re not a welder, you don’t think about all the things that are welded or fabricated. Once they see this type of equipment, it opens their eyes a little bit to how broad the industry is. Those companies make some of the coolest things you can build.”

The other thing that gets the students fired up is the end-of-school-year welding competition that DeGeest hosts. This year it was held on May 7, and students from both Harrisburg and Tea had the chance to compete against their classmates and students from the other school for individual awards and a traveling trophy for the school with the most points.

The welding competition is based on the same welding test that is given to applicants to DeGeest. It covers reading blueprints, deciphering weld symbols, and executing different welds. Each student was provided with steel pieces, prints, and weld settings to fabricate parts for practice in the days leading up to the competition. For the actual welding tournament, the students had to re-create what they had done in the school welding booths.

“We have worked hard to refine welding techniques to create our growing team of experienced tackers and welders,” said Nick Irwin, DeGeest’s robotic welding supervisor and a welding competition judge. “Our industry needs this tribal knowledge to pass down to the next generation.”

Students used eight of the company’s 32 welding stations. Welding judges scored each student’s work and results on a scorecard. First-, second-, and third-place trophies were presented to those with the best layout and tack time and best weld quality. An overall point total winner was named as well. DeGeest’s technology and consumables suppliers rallied behind the students by donating prizes, such as tools, welding helmets, gloves, beanies, T-shirts, and jackets.

This wasn’t just for the students, however. DeGeest hosted the students’ parents, family, guardians, and friends to tour the company’s facility while the tests were going on. They were shown fabricated products and the modern technology used to create them, including laser cutting machines, press brakes, robotic welding cells, and robotic paint lines. It was an eye-opener for a majority of the visitors, according to Derek DeGeest, president of the third-generation fabricating company.

“Most have no idea what we do,” DeGeest said. “We don’t really advertise our services because we mainly work with OEMs, and we don’t build a consumer product. They have limited ideas on the different career paths you can take in manufacturing, and the potential for earnings. A couple of people even joked that they might apply for work here.”

DeGeest said that his company employs people that came up through the ranks of the local vocational programs at the secondary schools and community colleges, so supporting these institutions makes sense. The metal fabricator is an obvious beneficiary of a strong feeder system for manufacturing talent.

But he also admitted that he likes for DeGeest to support these vocational programs because it’s good for the local manufacturing economy in general. He wants DeGeest to grow, but he also wants to see domestic manufacturing thrive. (That’s one of the reasons why DeGeest spends time recording a podcast, Manufacturing a Stronger Standard, with industry guests. The conversations cover issues like upskilling workforces and adding automation to manufacturing operations.)

Students collect their final weld projects after completing the test.

“There’s pressure on the entire industry to continue to grow because of the volume of work that is available now and will increase. We are reshoring. We’re trying to bring back more work. We all have to work together to be able to take all of that on,” he said.

“It’s not only securing our company’s future, but also building a future so that kids can go into manufacturing if they really want to. I want to make sure that they have that opportunity.”

DeGeest is not just preaching to the choir. He tries to put into practice what he professes to the outside world. That’s evident as he describes how the company’s own welding test—the same one used to judge the students during the annual welding competition—is used to put new welders in the right position for success on the shop floor.

If an applicant struggles with blueprint reading but shows promise with welding, the company will train the individual to read blueprints. If someone shows the ability to tack weld but has difficulty delivering quality joints, he or she can start working as a tack welder, preparing setups for the welders, and can continue to practice welding. If the test reveals an interest or aptitude in robots, DeGeest has a path where a new worker can start learning about robotics, beginning with loading/unloading and later covering how to use the teach pendant for quick touchups, how to program at the robot for more complicated jobs, and how to produce offline welding programs.

“When people get to a certain point and they get really good there, they can further their career and keep growing,” DeGeest said.

The fabricator is turning to modern technology to get new and less experienced welders up to speed more quickly. It has standardized on one type of welding source across the entire manufacturing floor, and it uses touchscreen tablets at each of the welding stations to provide details for each welding job. Because of this, each welder knows how to set up the power source, how to execute the weld, and how long the job should take.

DeGeest said that this method seeks to eliminate the trial-and-error approach to a job. A welder doesn’t have to make mistakes trying to dial in the exact power setting on the power source to deliver an acceptable weld; the winning recipe has already been prepared and validated.

“We can guide these new welders and new hires and give them the chance to be successful and put out good work sooner than they might normally be able to,” he said. “That’s the holy grail right there for our industry. How can we take that knowledge from the experienced welders before they retire and build a way that we can capture and share with the new welders that are coming up?”

DeGeest is no stranger to tackling automation in an attempt to improve overall quality and enhance productivity. In 2019 it became the U.S. distributor, integrator, and manufacturer for Lesta, an Italy-based provider of robotic painting technology for liquid and powder coat applications. The LestaUSA showroom is located in the DeGeest facility and showcases the robotic self-learning technology that relies on the movements of a human operator to create programs. For example, the painter or powder coater takes the robot while it is in a weightless mode and guides the robot to finish a metal part in real time. Those manual movements, trigger pulls, and spray parameters are used to create the code that will guide the robot to immediately finish the parts coming up next. The program is saved for the next time that job is scheduled.

The metal fabricator wants to make full use of advanced technology in the welding department as well, but this isn’t entirely focused on robotics. (DeGeest does have seven robotic welding cells.) The company wants to make the most of machine connectivity so that real-time information sharing will lead to better and more cost-effective operations. For instance, a new welder might be going outside of an established amperage limit for a job, and the machine can stop to notify the welder of the issue. A supervisor also can be contacted to provide instant feedback and offer tips to resolve the quality concern. The result is an unacceptable weld is caught before it leaves the welding area, and a teachable moment occurs, which hopefully improves welding performance.

Welders from Tea Area High School pose with their championship trophy.

“We’re trying to create a scalable solution that we can bring in and get the next generation of students or new hires up to speed quicker,” DeGeest said. “Our average tenure at our company is more than 20 years. So how do we create standardized solutions to bridge that gap to be able to bring new welders in as the senior welders retire?”

He not only envisions an interconnected network of welding power sources coordinated over the cloud as helping his own welding department, but also sees this setup working for other job shops as well. DeGeest aims to prove how such a system can work in a real-world fabricating environment with complex weldments and a variety of jobs and then be able to present a package to other like-minded shops. DeGeest said the company is currently looking at technology partners that make the most sense to bring this to the metal fabricating market.

“It’s not going to matter whether you have three or 300 welders, we’re all having the same challenges,” he said. “We’re all having the challenge of finding qualified welders, and we don’t have years to be able to pour into training new people. We’re going to have to use technology to duplicate and standardize the skills that people already have and also make that technology accessible to all, no matter the size of the shop.”

DeGeest said he hoped to have more details about the project in 2022. Until then, the company will continue to support its local welding programs and build up its own welding operations. It’s not a complete remedy for the ills that challenge most fabricators, but it does put DeGeest in a position for a healthier future than competitors that are just sitting on the sideline.

A DeGeest welder logs into a program on a tablet before starting a new job.

See More by Dan Davis

Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The FABRICATOR, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating and forming magazine, and its sister publications, STAMPING Journal, The Tube & Pipe Journal, and The Welder. He has been with the publications since April 2002.

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