How to become a skilled Quality Engineer 1

[cmmacares]

I am Chemical Engineer planning to specialize Quality Engineering since I feel I am passionate and motivated working on process improvement and data analysis (is that enough to say that this should be my specialization?).

I am working currently as QA Specialist in a Natural Personal Care Industry, I need advice on how will I fast track this specialization (quality engineering) in this kind of industry while my professional experiences are in Manufacturing (Semicon) and Quality Control(Food). I am currently looking for quality engineering courses, unfortunately in my country there's no available course for that.. is an online degree worth it? or should I find short courses, piece-wise of topics related to quality engineering?

Please advise..

 

[Rich2001]

Short courses to hone your skills -

Six Sigma - The foundations taught in 6 Sigma Green and Black belt course will give you a head start on your quest. Seeing, and using the tools are different, find somewhere to use and practice the tools, even if you don't have a six sigma project.

SPC - Knowing and understanding SPC.

Auditing - Learn how to audit, look at taking an internal ISO auditor course.

Root Cause Analysis - Learn a how to preform a RCA, Problem solving skill are needed throughout all industries.

http://www.thinkreliability.com/

provide some free webcast, examples and templates. 6SProductivirty.com has an exercise on practicing your RCA skills.

http://6sproductivitycomcom.fatcow.com/?p=478,

basically read an incident report and developing a RCA from the available data.

Human Relations - The Dale Carnegie course are top rate.

On top of the short course is your reading - Read about Lean, Six Sigma, game theory, system thinking

Look at the BOK for the ASQ Certified Quality Engineer program and develop a plan to become certified.


Richard

http://www.6sproductivitycom.com

 

[tomwalz]

Hard to add much to Rich2001's post.

All I can think of is "gett o know the processes "all the way back". Swanson Foods has inspectors who go out into the fields to look at peas and carrots for the TV dinners.

Be aware that many quality problems are actually designed in.

I have found SPC or SPQC (Statistical Process Quality Control) essential for problem avoidance.

Tom



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[cmmacares]

Hi all! I'm so overwhelmed with all the replies.. great help everyone!

I find personal care industry as my chosen industry where I want to grow and mature professionally. Though I'm just a QA specialist, I am enjoying and very interested learning the process. I'm just worried, that I might not be able to explore my love for data analysis and process improvement especially that we are producing our products through tollers, so basically we don't have a facility. 10 or more years from now, I wanted to become specialist in Quality Engineering -- I've had a good training in SPC from a wafer fab company.. and a process analysis in the beverage industry. I hope I will not be able to waste these experiences now that I've changed industry.

Quitting or resigning should not be an option, since I find my employer a promising company 5 years from now.

If reading and attending to seminars will not be enough.. would anyone suggest on how will I be able to use and apply those learnings?

I wonder if there's an available part-time jobs for application of 6 sigma, spc, rca.. etc. related to quality engineering?

Would you advice me to take a master's degree like Management Engineering, Manufacturing or Industrial Eng'g? OR short courses are enough already?

Keep the thread moving everyone!

Great help!

 

[Lizzyrocks]

Look into the "In2Inthinking" network.

 

[tomwalz]

Spend a lot of time on the line.

Go on sales calls.

Get involved with complaints and returns.

What you need are years of experience as wide and varied as you can get.

Fortunately you seem bright and well motivated so you will gather more in a few years than many will in a lifetime.

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.