Advice for Career and Education

[AdamM]

Hello everyone,
My name is Adam, and I'm excited to join this community of quality assurance professionals. I currently work as a Quality Assurance Specialist, where I have taken on the challenge of building our Quality Management System (QMS) from scratch. This has involved outlining our quality policy and objectives, writing reports and assessments, and creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for production and administration teams.
My journey in QA has been largely self-taught and built on practical, on-the-job experience. I've had the opportunity to dive into ISO 9001 formatting and utilize concepts from systems engineering and product support engineering. However, my knowledge has mostly come from learning secondhand and through trial and error, without formal training or mentorship from a QA professional.
I am passionate about quality assurance and eager to solidify my foundational knowledge in this field. I'm seeking advice on the best educational paths, certifications, and resources that could help me grow and excel in my QA career. Any guidance on next steps, whether it's courses, books, or practical advice, would be greatly appreciated.
It seems that enrolling in some QA training courses, as well as acquiring and studying copies of the Certified Six Sigma Green Belt Handbook, as well as the Certified Quality Engineer Primer from the Quality Council of Indiana, would be my first steps. Then acquiring a green belt in Six Sigma, as well as a CQE would be my best mid term goals. But I'm very much open to hearing alternative, or expanded ideas regarding what I believe to be the next best course of action.

Thank you for reading, and I’m look forward to your responses.
Best regards,
Adam

 

[Randy]

Get a general business background, if you can't talk money all that other stuff can end up being pretty decorations on a wall.

 

[AdamM]

Get a general business background, if you can't talk money all that other stuff can end up being pretty decorations on a wall.

Excellent point. I'll look into some classes. Thank you.

 

[John Predmore]

Hello @AdamM - welcome to the Cove. What is your primary goal in "building our Quality Management System (QMS) from scratch".

If you joined an already viable operating business organization, what do they have now as a starting point? Is your goal to achieve ISO 9001 certification? Maybe there is a customer requirement to have a formal QMS structure, which could be aligned with ISO 9001 or one of the others (depending on which industry you operate in). Maybe your goal is to reduce rejects or improve profitability? Maybe your goal is to make your company more competitive on the basis of product quality. All are worthy goals. These goals are different focuses - while not mutually exclusive, success usually follows focus. Writing quality policy and SOPs is different knowledge base and skill set from Six Sigma projects, for example. It would be helpful to people at the Cove giving advice to know where you are starting and what are your motivations. Is this a one-person initiative or do you have top management support in this initiative? Do you have a budget? A staff? A target date?

 

[AdamM]

Hello @AdamM - welcome to the Cove. What is your primary goal in "building our Quality Management System (QMS) from scratch".

If you joined an already viable operating business organization, what do they have now as a starting point? Is your goal to achieve ISO 9001 certification? Maybe there is a customer requirement to have a formal QMS structure, which could be aligned with ISO 9001 or one of the others (depending on which industry you operate in). Maybe your goal is to reduce rejects or improve profitability? Maybe your goal is to make your company more competitive on the basis of product quality. All are worthy goals. These goals are different focuses - while not mutually exclusive, success usually follows focus. Writing quality policy and SOPs is different knowledge base and skill set from Six Sigma projects, for example. It would be helpful to people at the Cove giving advice to know where you are starting and what are your motivations. Is this a one-person initiative or do you have top management support in this initiative? Do you have a budget? A staff? A target date?

Thank you for replying!

They’ve been in operation for several decades and have had no QA department to speak of. No documentation of procedures or issues. I’m creating the department and QMS from tribal knowledge and my own experience. I want to get as close to ISO standardization as possible during creation so there is less work on the backend should that be the company’s goal. There is no customer requirement. The main goal is to establish a foundation of procedure and knowledge to build from to solidify our position in the market and build form there. Circumstances have revealed that the old way of doing things will not last in the current market. This operation has roughly 150 employees, and I am the only QA employee. Management was initially supportive, but after revealing several issues through RCA, they seemed to back off, as some issues point directly to management.

It's a company still stuck with garage shop mentality, but they seem to be coming around to taking accountability. Sort of…

I’m mostly looking into these certifications for myself. I have a few years of product support engineering and a smidge of systems engineering experience. No degrees. I Spent 3 years in a similar role as the only QA employee and reduced returns from roughly 25%, to below 5% annually while also doing R&D and increasing sales.

I feel like I have a knack for QA, but want more training to better solidify my own future.

Also, my title should say “Advice for Career and Education.” I can’t seem to change it.

 

[Randy]

The main goal is to establish a foundation of procedure and knowledge to build from to solidify our position in the market and build form there.

The business has been in existence for decades? Your foundation is already built!

I Spent 3 years in a similar role as the only QA employee and reduced returns from roughly 25%, to below 5% annually while also doing R&D and increasing sales.

You did it or was it a combined team that accomplished it? 1st thing, take "I" out of the process.

Step back and develop priorities at work and your development, figure out what's really important and move on from there, right now your playing with water & sand. Here's an example.

 

[gakiss2]

In my opinion, the practical experience is significantly more valuable than ta degree or certificate. Maybe you could talk your manager into setting you up with some Six Sigma certificate course.

So, back to the earlier advice about business. I feel it is not likely your management will spend money, resources on a quality system without some return in mind. It is true that most business only get interested in a formal QMS when a customer requires it or someone in sales convinces them it will increase revenue / profit.

Here is a potential strategy for you to consider. Make some basic improvements to your system (that don't cost anything) then use those improvements and your ingenuity to do something like your previous reject reduction. When they notice the improvement, explain how your Quality System was pivotal in making the gains. This may inspire them to0 invest a bit more. Meanwhile, see if you have any luck convincing the Sales team of the advantages of being certified.

Best of Luck

 

[AdamM]

The business has been in existence for decades? Your foundation is already built!


You did it or was it a combined team that accomplished it? 1st thing, take "I" out of the process.

Step back and develop priorities at work and your development, figure out what's really important and move on from there, right now your playing with water & sand. Here's an example.

In a lot of ways, yes, but no documentation. And several SMEs have left due to recent events.

And that's an excellent point. I absolutely did all the writing, but without the SMEs' experience, skill, and ability to convey, I wouldn't be writing much of anything. Stay humble. I dig it. Take care of the big ticket items first.

In my opinion, the practical experience is significantly more valuable than ta degree or certificate. Maybe you could talk your manager into setting you up with some Six Sigma certificate course.

So, back to the earlier advice about business. I feel it is not likely your management will spend money, resources on a quality system without some return in mind. It is true that most business only get interested in a formal QMS when a customer requires it or someone in sales convinces them it will increase revenue / profit.

Here is a potential strategy for you to consider. Make some basic improvements to your system (that don't cost anything) then use those improvements and your ingenuity to do something like your previous reject reduction. When they notice the improvement, explain how your Quality System was pivotal in making the gains. This may inspire them to0 invest a bit more. Meanwhile, see if you have any luck convincing the Sales team of the advantages of being certified.

Best of Luck

That's reassuring to hear. In a lot of ways I agree. Working more practically in a field and seeing what works in reality always suited me more than theory in a classroom. But now I'm thinking I would benefit from a combination of the two.
I was actually just told that they are planning the 2025 budget, and to look into certifications and such to tack onto it.
Any advice for something, cert or degree wise that transfers well, has great practical application, and that employers look favorably on?

 

[Randy]

In a lot of ways, yes, but no documentation.

I look at 20-30 or more different management systems every year and a common problem....TOO MUCH DOCUMENTATION!!!
You only need what you really need. There a great line from a fun movie "More isn't always better Linus, sometimes it's just more"

Any advice for something, cert or degree wise that transfers well, has great practical application, and that employers look favorably on?

Purely dependent upon how their breakfast was. 99.99999% of the time a degree or certificate doesn't really cover the actual work expectations and serve as eye-candy (You'll spend a great deal of time in this part of a job description "any other duties assigned from time-to-time". Then there are times when a degree or certificate is an absolute (like with I and a couple others here do for a living..........Me? 3rd party auditing and that's it anymore so all the different certificates are an absolute)

 

[Jen Kirley]

Welcome Adam!

Does your organization have a business plan? If so, will they let you see it? I have found that most business plan templates contain a great deal of what is in ISO (2015 version anyway).

I'm with @John Predmore. What is the purpose of this certification? What are all those procedures for - who will use them? Like @Randy, I find a whole lot of management systems have way too much documentation. Most of it gets stored and creates busy work for people who feel they don't have time for it.

What do your customers want? That is the point of ISO 9001 - that plus the other interested parties, which would be (based on your product/service) shareholders, regulators, insurers, community members, etc.

What does management want? The point of ISO is to help the leadership succeed to provide your interested parties what they want. This would hopefully result in profits, though of course we have to be careful not to hurl too much of resources into the effort and make the QMS see more costly than it's worth.