Hello, want to start a career as a quality Engineer? Want to know the exact roadmap for quality engineers?

After all, you are here to know about everything Quality Engineer should know. Many of you already start working in Quality Field. And you are eager to know deeper concepts and the meaning of a true Quality Engineer.

We are experienced professionals going through the same phase. And now successfully completed our milestone to position ourselves with all learnings and be the person as a successful Quality Engineer.

Know the skills and knowledge Quality Engineers should have.

Here we are going to learn the importance of Quality engineering in the organization. And also know

What is a Quality Engineer and why are they important?

A quality engineer is a professional who understands the product, process, and service quality. He can develop the operation of quality systems.

A quality Engineer is very important in an organization because he knows the concept related to data analysis, techniques, and methodology to apply to problem-solving and improving the product, process, and management system.

In this guide, you will find the roadmap, tools, skills, and concepts and will be able to start progress in your career by following the steps.

So, without further delay, here are the steps:

Step 1: Know the Industry type you are in

The manufacturing industries play a vital role in the progress of the country. A lot of businesses fall in the segment of manufacturing. Labor statistics classify into hundreds of subsections.

Here are the five types of manufacturing industries that are predominant in the market.

• Metal Manufacturing
• Apparel and textile
• Gadgets, computers, and electronics
• Oil, chemicals & Plastics
• Food Production

Step 2: Organizational Knowledge

Yes, this is the step where you must have organizational knowledge such as the organizational structure. What are the departments in your company and who is leading those departments? The function of those with each structure element.

Also importantly what is exactly organizational knowledge and its type, let’s see below.

What is organizational knowledge?

It is the particular knowledge of an organization you get from collective experience or from the individual experience of the person. This knowledge can be used to attain the organizational objective.

The organization’s knowledge includes employee handbooks, company standards, product knowledge, manuals, intellectual property, customer communications, and lessons learned from success and failure.

“Determine the knowledge necessary for the operation of its processes and to achieve conformity of products and services. This knowledge shall be maintained and made available to the extent necessary. When addressing changing needs and trends, the organization shall consider its current knowledge and determine how to acquire or access any necessary additional knowledge and required updates.

NOTE 1: Organizational knowledge is knowledge specific to the organization; it is generally gained by experience. It is information that is used and shared to achieve the organization’s objectives.

NOTE 2: Organizational knowledge can be based on: a) Internal Sources (e.g., intellectual property, knowledge gained from experience, lessons learned from failures and successful projects, capturing and sharing undocumented knowledge and experience; the results of improvements in processes, products and services); b) External Sources (e.g., standards, academia, conferences, gathering knowledge from customers or external providers).”

Clause 7.1.6. Knowledge, ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems — Requirements

Organizational knowledge is very important because, it will help you in decision making, innovation, learning, and problem solving

So basically every quality engineer has the below types of organizational knowledge.

Types of organizational knowledge

1. Tacit knowledge

It is difficult to get. such as implicit knowledge or wisdom. This is found such as in the human mind and purely based on experience. It is hard to get because if we consider the salesperson. It has good skills and it is hard to get transfer to other. And it is not easy for competitors to duplicate. Therefore the organization has a competitive advantage.

2. Explicit knowledge

It is knowledge in the form of documents and other written media. Good examples of this knowledge are Manuals, Documented procedures, Quality standards, etc.

3. Individual knowledge

Individual knowledge is the best beginning of learnings in any organization. A good organization is one where how knowledge is shared and transferred to others by individuals. It includes personal abilities, skills, learnings, approach to problem-solving, and communications. It will help in how every person is prioritized in an organization and how he will perform the tasks.

Individual knowledge includes the skills, learning, personal abilities, and communication preferences that influence how a person prioritizes, seeks information, and otherwise performs work tasks.

4. Collective knowledge

It is general rules, processes, and procedures on how everyone is interact and shares knowledge in problem-solving. It will guide people on how to communicate and solve problems.

Step 3: Product and Processes

If you want success as a competent quality engineer, then you must have a piece of good knowledge of the product and process in your organization.

Basically, when you start your career in the Quality field, you start with product knowledge.

1. Product

The product is nothing but the final output in the industry. It can be anything Physical or virtual. In Manufacturing the final outcome such as the car, axel, door, clutch, gear, Rod, etc. In the Software industry, it may be software.

A product is any item or service you sell to serve a customer’s need or want.

Now the best part is how you will get the product information.

You should understand the product by knowing the requirement of the customer. What are the characteristics we are achieving on the product so that this product is meet our customer fitment?

• Know the product characteristics or customer requirement
• Product drawings (Engineering Drawings)
• Which material was used for it… read more about Chemical elements and their effects on the material.
• What are the defects in the products?
• What is the function of this product (Fitment at next process / at customer end)
• How we are handling the product (Packaging/storage)

Product knowledge is very crucial before going into process depth.

2. Process

Every quality engineer should know about the processes in the industry which he is working with.

What is Process?

Let’s see from the definition perspective. The process is the set of activities where inputs convert to output.

So to get expertise in the process, You need to go through the on-the-job training process. Please learn how the raw materials or incoming parts pass through our manufacturing processes and how the outcome is produced. This is nothing but the product from the particular process.

Work as an entry-level unskilled Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET). Learn different types of equipment and will get to see what kind of product is being made and how.

Spend your break time just by walking around the assembly line or process line. Talking to people who are in charge of other operations. And to find out what is being done in each process step.

To learn more, do a job in the biggest factory/industry that is making very complicated products from many materials.

for example; Automotive plants, use almost every manufacturing process at some point.

Here is what you need to learn from a process point

1. Process flow: How processes are linked
2. What are the steps in the processes
3. Process characteristics: These are responsible to get our product as per requirement
4. Operating procedures (SOP)
5. Inspection methods: Different types of equipment and instruments
6. Documentation on process lines and what is the purpose of them
7. Process standards and process yields and outputs.

Step 4: Quality Engineer Skills and Competences :
Roadmap of Quality Engineer

This is the most important step as you need to learn as a quality engineer. Here in this step, you see all skills and competencies that you should learn in detail.

Basically, some of the topics we already covered in the above steps but still to link with a full roadmap you will see them below.

As per the ASQ (American Society for Quality) you must know the content as a Certified Quality Engineer. We will list down all topics which are mentioned in the ASQ body of knowledge.

You must know these skills and tools to stand out as Quality Engineer in Organization. Don’t waste your time, let’s jump to the topics.

The content is divided into 7 categories.

1. Management and Leadership

1. Quality Philosophies and Foundations
   1. Continuous improvement tools,
   2. lean, Six Sigma, theory of constraints
   3. statistical process control (SPC)
   4. Total Quality management
   5. leadership principles (including Deming’s 14 points)
2. The Quality Management System (QMS)
   1. Strategic planning
   2. Deployment techniques
      1. Benchmarking
      2. Stakeholder
      3. Performance
      4. Project management
   3. Quality information system (QIS)
3. ASQ Code of Ethics for Professional Conduct
4. Leadership Principles and Techniques
5. Facilitation Principles and Techniques
   1. Roles and responsibilities
   2. Facilitation tools
6. Communication Skills
7. Customer Relations
8. Supplier Management
   1. Techniques
   2. Improvement
   3. Risk
9. Barriers to Quality Improvement

2. The Quality System

1. Elements of the Quality System
   1. Basic elements
   2. Design
2. Documentation of the Quality System
   1. Document components
   2. Document control
3. Quality Standards and Other Guidelines
4. Quality Audits
   1. Types of audits
   2. Roles and responsibilities in audits
   3. Audit planning and implementation
   4. Audit reporting and follow-up
5. Cost of Quality (COQ)
6. Quality Training

3. Product, Process, and Service Design

1. Classification of Quality Characteristics
2. Design Inputs and Review
   1. Inputs
   2. Review
3. Technical Drawings and Specifications
4. Verification and Validation
5. Reliability and Maintainability
   1. Predictive and preventive maintenance tools
   2. Reliability and maintainability indices
   3. Reliability models
   4. Reliability/Safety/Hazard Assessment Tools

4. Product and Process Control

1. Methods
2. Material Control
   1. Material identification, status, and traceability
   2. Segregation of Material
   3. Material classification
   4. Material review board
3. Acceptance Sampling
   1. Sampling concepts
   2. Sampling standards and plans
   3. Sample integrity
4. Measurement and Test
   1. Measurement tools
   2. Destructive and nondestructive tests
5. Metrology
6. Measurement System Analysis (MSA)

5. Continuous Improvement

1. Quality Control Tools
   1. Flowcharts
   2. Pareto charts
   3. Cause and effect diagrams
   4. Control charts
   5. Check sheets
   6. Scatter diagrams
   7. Histograms (Analyze)
2. Quality Management and Planning Tools
   1. Affinity diagrams and force field analysis
   2. Tree diagrams
   3. Process decision program charts (PDPC)
   4. Matrix diagrams
   5. Interrelationship digraphs
   6. Prioritization matrices
   7. Activity network diagrams (Analyze)
3. Continuous Improvement Methodologies
   1. Total Quality Management (TQM)
   2. Kaizen
   3. Plan-do-check-act (PDCA)
   4. Six Sigma
   5. Theory of constraints (ToC) (Evaluate)
4. Lean tools
   1. 5S
   2. Value stream mapping
   3. Kanban
   4. Visual control
   5. Waste (Muda)
   6. Standardized work
   7. Takt time
   8. Single-minute exchange of die (SMED) (Evaluate)
5. Corrective Action
6. Preventive Action

6. Quantitative Methods and Tools

1. Collecting and Summarizing Data
   1. Types of data
   2. Measurement scales
   3. Data collection methods
   4. Data accuracy and integrity
   5. Descriptive statistics
   6. Graphical methods for depicting relationships
   7. Graphical methods for depicting distributions
2. Quantitative Concepts
   1. Terminology
   2. Drawing statistical conclusions
   3. Probability terms and concepts
3. Probability Distributions
   1. Continuous distributions
   2. Discrete distributions
4. Statistical Decision Making
   1. Point estimates and confidence intervals
   2. Hypothesis testing
   3. Paired-comparison tests
   4. Goodness-of-fit tests
   5. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
   6. Contingency tables
5. Relationships Between Variables
   1. Linear regression
   2. Simple linear correlation
   3. Time-series analysis
6. Statistical Process Control (SPC)
   1. Objectives and benefits
   2. Common and special causes
   3. Selection of variable
   4. Rational subgrouping
   5. Control charts
   6. Control chart analysis
   7. Pre-control charts
   8. Short-run SPC
7. Process and Performance Capability
   1. Process capability studies
   2. The Process performance vs. specifications
   3. Process capability indices
   4. Process performance indices
8. Design and Analysis of Experiments
   1. Terminology
   2. Planning and organizing experiments
   3. Design principles
   4. One-factor experiments
   5. Full-factorial experiments
   6. Two-level fractional factorial experiments

7. Risk Management

1. Risk Oversight
   1. Planning and oversight
   2. Metrics
   3. Mitigation planning
2. Risk Assessment
3. Risk Control
   1. Identification and documentation
   2. Auditing and testing
4. Failure and Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA)

Hope all the details are covered in this article. In future articles, you will learn the detailed concept for each tool and topic. If you want to get updates on the latest content please subscribe to our newsletter, It is free.

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