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IE 361 – mini paper
Karla Abrahamson
Kara Johnson
9/22/00
So you want to be a Certified Quality Engineer?
There is no doubt that quality is important in successful companies today. Because
quality is so important, many firms invest a great deal of money in Quality Control and Quality
Assurance engineers and personnel. But how important is it for their people to be “certified” and
what does that mean? The American Society for Quality (ASQ) defines certification as,
“...formal recognition by ASQ that an individual has demonstrated a proficiency within and a
comprehension of a specified body of knowledge at a point in time. It is peer recognition, and not
registration or licensure.” (www.asq.org/standcert/cert.html). This could be compared to
graduating with honors as it is a mark of excellence showing extra effort on the part of the
certified person, but everyone in industry does not yet require it. Being “certified” has relative
meaning to people. For example, certification might mean a great deal to one company, giving
their “certified” quality engineer a higher level of respect, where in another company there might
not be much difference between a certified and a non-certified quality engineer.
Reasons to become a certified quality engineer include increased credibility, increased
distinction from other employees, and increased salary. Larry Galloway and Mike Savage
developed the Institute of Certified Quality Consultants because of credibility concerns, saying
that they realized many consultants are “gouging the industry, and don’t have a clue what they’re
doing,” proving the importance of certification to assure acceptable competence among
consultants (www.qualitymag.com/articles/1999/jan99/0199f2.html). ASQ also shows that a
quality engineer without certification makes an average of almost $4,000 less than a quality
engineer with certification, so there are obvious monetary benefits to being certified
(www.asq.org/standcert/cert.html). In general, certification is an investment in a professional’s
career and in the future of their employer by encouraging development to reach long-term goals.
Thus, certification is desirable and programs to become certified need to be more widely
encouraged.
There are numerous quality certification programs available, including ASQ CQE,
ANSI-RAB-NAP-QMS registration, and quality engineering degrees from accredited universities.
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The value of each program depends on individual or company goals the “certify-ee” is looking to
obtain.
ASQ has a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) program, requiring applicants to meet
certain education, experience, professionalism, and examination requirements. Candidates should
have an advanced degree from a school with accreditation accepted by ASQ and eight years* onthe-job experience, of which three have to be in a decision-making position (*varies depending
on educational level). Proof of professionalism is necessary, either being a member of ASQ,
being a Professional Engineer (PE), or having signatures of two members from recognized
professional societies, which "verifies that you are a qualified practitioner of quality sciences.”
(www.asq.org/standcert/cert.html).
Applicants must also pass a written 160-question, five-hour national exam which covers
six main areas. "Management and leadership in quality engineering" includes knowledge of
professional conduct and ASQ ethics as well as general project management skills. The "Quality
systems development, implementation, and verification" section examines things like
documentation systems and quality audits. "Planning, controlling, and assuring product and
process quality" is comprised of material control, sampling, and measurement systems. Safety
and hazard assessment are important issues tested in the "Reliability and risk management"
section. "Problem solving and quality improvement" involves corrective and preventative
actions, and planning tools such as affinity diagrams and prioritization matrices. Finally,
"Quantitative methods" are most heavily weighted in the exam and include probability and
statistics, collection and summarization of data, probability distributions, measurement and
modeling relationships between variables, and statistical decision making (www.asq.org/
standcert/certification/cqe.html#cqerequire).
Another program in which a quality engineer can be labeled “certified” is through
registering for an ANSI-RAB-NAP-QMS accreditation. These acronyms stand for American
National Standards Institute, Registrar Accreditation Board, National Accreditation Program, and
Quality Management Systems. Accreditation costs $10,000 for an initial certificate and $5,000
for additional quality certifications. After submitting the application package and fees, RAB
auditors observe the candidate complete an ISO 9001/2 registration audit and review the
applicant’s compliance with “ANSI-RAB NAP QMS Criteria for Accreditation.” They write an
official report that is reviewed by the ANSI-RAB-QMS Accreditation Council and “winners” get
a certificate and are “entitled to use ANSI-RAB mark” (www.rabnet.com/qr_steps.shtml).
Although this is not a “quality engineer certification program”, this is still a renowned
certification process that many quality engineers attain.
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With an advanced degree from an accredited university such as the University of
Michigan at Dearborn (epd.umd.umich.edu/programs/certprgm/topic6.html), one can also become
a “certified" quality engineer from the skills acquired by completing the following focus
electives:
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Design and analysis of experiments
Robust design
Machinery diagnostics
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Reliability analysis
The University of Wisconsin – Madison (UWM) also has a 25-year history of quality research
which has developed into a quality engineering program as of 1991. UWM’s program is similar
to Michigan's coursework, but with emphasis on areas including quality improvement, business
and statistical methods, and organizational dynamics/change strategies. In order to graduate with
a quality engineering specialization, students must have a GPA of at least 3.20 and 30 quality
course credits. UWM explains that having a quality engineering background improves
competitiveness in the job market because UWM and other universities' quality graduates have
the understanding and can apply the skills that they learned to improve quality and
responsiveness, reduce costs, and increase productivity for their companies
(www.engr.wisc.edu/ie/research/qe.html).
The Quality Assurance Institute (QAI) which “provides criteria for acceptable
performance in the field” and “...a common ground for communication among professionals” lists
skills needed to become a certified quality analyst (www.qaiusa.com/certification/index.html).
This includes knowledge in the areas of: communications, human resource principles, training
and development, quality management, quality assurance, quality control techniques, quantitative
methods, auditing and control, testing, vendor control, standards, disaster recovery, management
techniques, change management, principles of information systems, and ethics. The QAI does
not provide an official “quality engineer certification program”, but the characteristics presented
to become a certified quality analyst could apply to an engineer as well.
Because there are so many ways in which people become certified, many professionals
believe the different programs need to be standardized. Efforts are being made to standardize
quality requirements for certification, as evident from a meeting in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
discussing ISO 10011. They moved to create a competency-based qualification process and
promote continuing professional development. This new process would be certification-industrywide, but specifics as to when or how this program will take effect have not been stated.
(www.qualitymag.com/articles/1997/aug97/0897nv.html).
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So, why should you become certified? Dan Henry of Laser Specialists, Inc. says that "a
week after we got our registration [certification], we got a phone call from an international
customer with a German parent, and started a 21-week production run for them a week later.
That wouldn't have happened before." (www.qualitymag.com/articles/1996/mar96/0396f3.html).
Take it from him or Richard Shoop, director of quality for Promotional Trim Conversions, Inc.,
who's improvements after being registered included a project that "more than double[d] our
revenues." The bottom line is that certification will make businesses more money. "One of the
biggest obstacles that I had when I went into business was convincing people that I understood
their business and that I could help them make more money," says Kathy Hoath, vice president of
Not-So-Basic Training. Certification helped her gain trust and credibility with customers that
may not have utilized her services otherwise. Basically, certification is needed to go in to
industry and conduct quality processes or audits that customers will take seriously.
Certification is so important that companies' recruitment and selection processes specify
the need for certification in their job descriptions. Certification is preferred or even required in
over 75% of job postings on http://danenet.wicip.org/asqc1217/Jobs.html, Dane County,
Wisconsin's community website. Examples of positions available for Quality Engineers and other
personnel include, but are not limited to, Quality Systems and Lab Manager, Systems Quality
Engineer, Supplier Quality Engineer, Manufacturing Quality Engineer, and Quality Manager.
Another testament to the importance of certification can be found in a recent article where
California legislature proposed a bill to no longer require registration of quality engineers because
it costs too much money, takes too much time and paperwork, and is a lot of bureaucracy. ASQ
is not pleased with this and has formally opposed the proposal (http://orion.asq.org/articles/
publicaffairs/050598california.html). Publication of this will bring about more awareness of
ASQ certification programs and/or certification programs in general as well as emphasizing the
need for and improvement of these programs.
In summary, a good certification program leads to good quality engineers and auditors. If
there are good quality engineers and auditors, companies will meet higher quality standards. If
companies create higher quality products and services, their customers will be happier, they will
increase profits, and can certify more personnel. This cycle reflects well on the original
certification program. So go get certified!
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References
http://danenet.wicip.org/asqc1217/Jobs.html
http://epd.umd.umich.edu/programs/certprgm/topic6.html
http://orion.asq.org/articles/publicaffairs/050598california.html
www.asq.org/standcert/cert.html
www.asq.org/standcert/certification/cqe.html#cqerequire
www.engr.wisc.edu/ie/research/qe.html
www.qaiusa.com/certification/index.html
www.qualitymag.com/articles/1996/mar96/0396f3.html
www.qualitymag.com/articles/1997/aug97/0897nv.html
www.qualitymag.com/articles/1999/jan99/0199f2.html
www.rabnet.com/qr_steps.shtml