Discovering Pick-to-Weld: A smarter way to feed your welding cells
- Date
- 2026-09-24
- Location
- Online
- Host
- Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA)
About this event
If you run, program, or improve robotic welding cells, part presentation is never just an upstream detail, it is often the difference between smooth cycle times and constant intervention. Discovering Pick-to-Weld is a focused virtual session on a smarter way to feed welding cells, with practical insight into how better part handling can support more reliable, efficient automated welding. This event is built for people who care about throughput, repeatability, and real production results. Instead of treating feeding as a separate problem, it looks at the full path from picking a part to placing it where welding can happen consistently, helping you think more clearly about where time, errors, and variability enter the process. About the Event This online event explores the concept of pick-to-weld as an integrated manufacturing approach. In many welding environments, the challenge is not only how to automate the weld itself, but how to deliver the right part, in the right orientation, at the right time, with enough consistency for the cell to perform as intended. The session is designed to help attendees understand why feeding strategy matters so much in robotic welding. When parts arrive inconsistently, when orientation needs correction, or when operators must step in too often, the cost shows up in cycle time, quality, downtime, and overall equipment effectiveness. This event puts those issues at the center of the conversation. Because the format is virtual, the session is accessible to teams across plants, regions, and functions. Whether you are evaluating new automation opportunities or trying to improve an existing welding workflow, you will be able to join from anywhere and bring the discussion back to your own operation. Expect a practical, manufacturing-focused conversation rather than a high-level overview of automation trends. The topic is specific by design: smarter feeding for welding cells, and how a more connected pick-to-weld mindset can improve performance where it counts. What to Expect The session will walk through the core ideas behind a pick-to-weld approach and why it matters in automated welding environments. You can expect a structured discussion of the link between part presentation and downstream welding performance, with attention to the production realities that teams deal with every day. Topics are likely to include: How feeding affects welding cell efficiency, including the hidden impact of inconsistent part delivery Common bottlenecks in robotic welding workflows, especially where manual adjustment or repositioning interrupts automation Ways to think about part flow more systematically, from pick point to weld-ready placement Operational considerations such as repeatability, cycle time stability, and reducing avoidable handling steps Where smarter feeding can support scale, especially when moving from isolated automation to more dependable production cells You should also expect the event to be useful across technical and operational roles. Some attendees will come from robotics and automation, others from welding, manufacturing engineering, plant leadership, or continuous improvement. The session is well suited to cross-functional teams because pick-to-weld decisions affect more than one department. As a virtual event, it also creates a low-friction way to expose your team to a focused manufacturing topic without travel or schedule disruption. If you are trying to align engineering and operations around a better approach to cell performance, this is a useful setting to build shared understanding. Why Attend If your welding cells are underperforming, it is easy to focus only on the robot, fixture, or weld process. This event offers a chance to step back and examine a factor that often drives results earlier in the sequence: how parts are picked, moved, and presented to the cell. That perspective can help you identify improvement opportunities that are easy to miss when teams look at welding in isolation. You will leave with a clearer view of how upstream handling choices influence consistency at the point of weld. That matters whether you are troubleshooting an existing line, planning a new cell, or comparing automation strategies for future investment. Attending can help you: See feeding as a performance lever, not just a support task Identify sources of variability that may be limiting robotic welding results Ask better questions when evaluating workflows, equipment, or process changes Spot opportunities to reduce intervention, rework, and wasted motion Build a stronger case for smarter automation design across manufacturing teams For organizations working in industrial robotics and advanced manufacturing, this is also a timely topic. As automation programs mature, success depends less on isolated machine capability and more on how well the full process works together. Pick-to-weld is a practical lens for that bigger conversation. Practical Details This is an online / virtual event, making it easy to attend from your desk, home office, or plant floor meeting space. There is no travel requirement, which makes it especially convenient for distributed teams or busy production schedules. The event takes place on Thursday, September 24 at 3:00 PM UTC. If you work with colleagues across time zones, it is worth forwarding the details early so the right technical and operations stakeholders can attend together. A few useful things to keep in mind: Format: virtual session Topic focus: smarter ways to feed robotic welding cells through a pick-to-weld approach Relevant fields: industrial robotics and advanced manufacturing Best fit: attendees involved in welding automation, cell design, production performance, or manufacturing improvement If this topic sits anywhere near your responsibilities, from automation planning to production troubleshooting, this session should be time well spent. It is a focused opportunity to think more rigorously about one of the most important and often underexamined pieces of welding cell performance.
Who should attend
This session is for people who want robotic welding cells to run with more consistency, less intervention, and better overall flow. - You work in **manufacturing engineering** and want a sharper understanding of how part feeding influences weld quality, cycle time, and cell performance. - You are involved in **industrial robotics or automation** and need to think beyond robot motion to the full process of getting parts weld-ready. - You manage or support **welding operations** and are looking for ways to reduce variability, manual handling, and production interruptions. - You lead **plant, operations, or production improvement initiatives** and want practical insight into where upstream material presentation can unlock downstream gains. - You are evaluating or expanding **advanced manufacturing investments** and want to ask better questions about workflow design, not just equipment capability. - You work across teams, such as engineering, maintenance, welding, and operations, and need a shared framework for discussing what makes an automated welding cell truly efficient. If you have ever looked at a welding cell and thought, "the robot is only part of the story," this event is very likely for you.