Quality engineer
Quality Engineer / Quality Engineer (English Quality Engineer) is the professional title for engineers who have completed a technical degree and may have a recess, experience or training in quality control.
Main tasks
Quality engineers have very diverse areas of responsibility. In general, they are responsible for guaranteeing product quality and process reliability in the company. They control compliance with quality norms and set certain quality standards. In addition, they identify potential for improvement and work on optimizing processes, products and certain services in the company.
When a company develops a new product, quality engineers are responsible for maintaining the quality standards for that product. These standards also include environmental compatibility. For example, quality engineers are responsible for ensuring that textiles in the textile industry are resistant to tearing or that the paint on a car does not rust over time. If defects occur in the product, you are responsible for identifying and eliminating them. Depending on the cause, training courses for employees can also be organized to eliminate errors. In customer relationship management (CRM), quality engineers process customer complaints and warranty claims. Activities relating to safety are also not uncommon for the engineers. Safety aspects play an important role, especially in the chemical industry or in plant engineering. New products are sampled for the customer by the quality engineer.
The entire spectrum of activities of engineers includes a large number of tasks. In summary, this includes the following activities: tracing technical defects, identifying malfunctions, checking and analyzing whether quality standards (see EN ISO 9000 ff.) Are being adhered to, instructing and supporting development teams to ensure compliance with quality goals with appropriate solution proposals, preparation of risk analyzes , analysis of the production process from the point of view of the quality department, initiation of improvement measures for products or processes, preparation of checklists, execution of tests, determination of periods by when the problems must be eliminated, monitoring of the respective process (e.g. development processes), calculation of quality indicators , Analysis of customer-related quality requirements, planning and implementation of quality assurance measures and finally the planning and implementation of internal audits
The tasks can be divided into
- Quality Engineering These employees are mainly involved in the product development process up to the sampling for the customer and the handover to series production
- Quality Assurance These employees are responsible for customer problems (complaints) during the ongoing series delivery. If the customer has complaints, the QA engineer determines the causes together with the affected areas (production, logistics, ...), defines short-term and long-term remedial measures with the team and reports them to the customer in the form of an 8D report . Furthermore, he is responsible u. a. for continuous improvement measures and requalifications of the products.
conditions
Before you can call yourself a quality engineer, several requirements must be met. Depending on the industry and company, there is a large variation in requirements. The designation of engineer is protected and anyone wishing to acquire the title of engineer must have completed a technical or scientific degree. As a rule, a successfully completed technical degree in the respective field of the industry is required. During engineering studies, you can focus on quality modules. There is also the master’s degree in quality engineering, which is aimed at bachelor’s degrees in technical studies.
For engineers who cannot demonstrate any quality knowledge from their bachelor's or master's degree, there is usually the option of completing further training or additional qualification as a quality engineer. Some universities offer further training courses with additional qualifications as quality engineers, such as B. the Wilhelm-Büchner Hochschule or Beuth-Hochschule für Technik. The advanced training with a certificate only applies to people who usually have a technical university degree. In exceptional cases, students of economics with appropriate and sufficient attendance at technical modules can also complete the advanced training. After all, economic modules are also part of the training to become a quality engineer.
Another possibility is work experience such. B. to collect in quality assurance .
In addition, companies can request experience in sales, development, production or service. As you can see, there is not just one way or one linear career path to becoming a quality engineer.
You also have to know what a product is supposed to do and know its properties well. You also have to know many guidelines and standards and master numerous quality tools and models such as FMEA , SPC or Six Sigma . Each branch of industry has different programs and presents specific challenges for engineers. Quality engineers mostly come from the following technical disciplines: medical technology , civil engineering , industrial engineering , mechanical engineering , electrical engineering , materials science and materials technology .
Soft skills
Decisive skills that quality engineers have to bring with them to companies are, for example, analytical skills. But soft skills such as communication skills and assertiveness also play an essential role. Due to their daily tasks, it is important that quality engineers have a certain organizational talent. These skills are essential and of significant importance in order to work together successfully in an interdisciplinary team. A pronounced quality awareness and a customer-oriented way of thinking help the engineers to better understand and implement the wishes of the customers. In international companies, good English skills, willingness to travel and flexibility are also important.
Promotion and further training opportunities
Quality engineers have the opportunity to become self-employed and open an engineering office. So you can take care of the external quality assurance . If you can demonstrate further training as an auditor , you can conduct audits as an external quality engineer . But for this to happen, a further training course as a quality management officer (QMB) must first be completed. As a QMB you work in the management sector and are responsible, for example, for the improvement and further development of quality management systems and quality controlling. Then you can be trained as an auditor. Further training to become an auditor is clearly defined in quality management by the ISO standard. You can be trained as an internal auditor in-house or as an external auditor with the help of certified training locations such as TÜV .
Similar professions
There are similarities and overlaps in terms of activities with other professions. These include the quality technician, quality auditor and risk manager . The profession of quality engineer is not the same as that of quality manager. However, both professions have certain interfaces that are primarily about quality issues. In some small, medium-sized or large companies there is even no difference at all between the two professions. In spite of this, unlike engineering, the profession of quality manager is not technology-oriented. If there is a subdivision in the respective company, then the managers are responsible for evaluating quality issues and handling quality. One of its tasks is e.g. B. quality cost reporting. The quality manager can give the quality engineer orders so that he can take care of the implementation. The manager is one step above the engineer in the hierarchy of a company.
Branch
Quality engineers work in companies in all sectors of the economy. Some areas in which they are of significant importance for maintaining quality are, for example: chemical industry, textile industry, pharmaceutical industry, automotive industry, food industry, health care, social facilities, technical services.
Gender distribution
The quota of women in quality engineering is around 30%.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörg Winterbauer: Job description: Quality engineer. (No longer available online.) February 2014, archived from the original on May 28, 2016 ; accessed on May 28, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Quality engineer . (No longer available online.) Staufenbiel.de, archived from the original on May 28, 2016 ; accessed on June 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Nadja Eder: Job description: Quality engineer. (No longer available online.) October 1, 2015, archived from the original on May 28, 2016 ; accessed on May 28, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.wb-fernstudium.de/akademische-weiterbildung/engineering-management/qualitaetsmanagement/ Retrieved on May 28, 2016
- ↑ http://www.beuth-hochschule.de/q-fachingenieur/ Retrieved on May 28, 2016
- ↑ Jörg Winterbauer: Job description quality engineer. (No longer available online.) February 2014, archived from the original on May 28, 2016 ; accessed on May 28, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Connie M. Borror: The Certified Quality Engineer Handbook . 3. Edition. Amer Society for Quality, 2008, ISBN 978-0-87389-745-7 , pp. 696 .
- ↑ Quality engineer . (No longer available online.) Staufenbiel.de, archived from the original on May 28, 2016 ; accessed on June 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Career and further training as a quality engineer. Karista.de, accessed on June 1, 2016 .
- ↑ Job as a quality engineer - working in engineering. Karista.de, accessed on June 1, 2016 .
- ↑ Brief description. Federal Employment Agency, accessed on May 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Quality engineer . (No longer available online.) Staufenbiel.de, archived from the original on May 28, 2016 ; accessed on June 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Job as a quality engineer - working in engineering. Karista.de, accessed on June 1, 2016 .
