Interview Question: How do you sort problems?

[jackylpt]

Hello, everyone,

I got a interview yesterday about the position of quality engineer in automotive area. The quality manager ask me a question is "how do you sort problems? " My answer is "As a quality engineer , you first learn about where are problems belong to, such as process, material, equipment and so on, then you do the root cause analysis......"

But I found that quality manager seems it is not satisfied. Does anybody know this problem and give me suggestion?


thanks again

Michael

[ralphsulser]

Maybe the manager was looking for a prioritzing process and pareto analysis to separate the vital few from the trivial many.

[Wes Bucey]

Originally Posted by ralphsulser

Maybe the manager was looking for a prioritzing process and pareto analysis to separate the vital few from the trivial many.

I tend to agree the QM is looking for a prioritizing system first (major, minor, urgent, non-urgent) in a type of triage. Then a second sort according to capability and capacity to cure a problem. These are subtle "manager-type" nuances. Others might talk about the need to break down complex problems into simpler components.

If I had been undergoing the interview, I would have covered concepts first and gotten agreement from the interviewer that I was on the right track before plunging into where in a system of sub processes the problem lay and certainly, "root cause" would have come long after determining whether a "problem" had economic or quality impact.

This is certainly a clever way to separate "detail-oriented" from "big picture" folk.