Interview Presentation for Quality Engineer Role Next Week!

[Bigsamt]

Ladies and gentlemen, next week I have my second interview for a quality engineer role next week in a polymer extrusion company which I am super excited about. Part of the process will be a 15 minute presentation with a MAXIMUM of 5 slides below is the scenario -:

Dear Quality Engineer
I trust your Customer Site Visit went well. I am very interested in hearing about the next steps (quality specific) on this significant project.
Please can you prepare a brief presentation and give me an idea on how we plan to support this project. Send me the slides in advance and we can review together at a future date.
In addition to the Quality next steps, Identify any major Quality milestones & propose actions to mitigate any known Quality risks (at this early stage).
Kind regards
Quality Manager

My question for you as quality experts is, what kind of information would you want to see in a 5 slide presentation to emphasise issues which are critical to quality and represent the voice of the customer?

Thank you in advance for any tips, Sam.

 

[qpled]

best of luck with your interview! I do not know how detailed this presentation needs to be on the specific products the company produces, but you can include plans for complying with Customer Requirements including: Monitoring/Measuring/Testing and test data requirements, Packaging, Shipping, materials declaration and MSDS, mil spec compliance (if applicable), other environmental certifications such as REACh, calibration of equipment used for extrusion, handling of customer concerns/issues and requirements you will pass down to your suppliers. I hope this helps!

 

[Al Rosen]

Map the process and identify the risks and mitigation for each step. Create a slide for each step that you identified a risk.

 

[Bigsamt]

best of luck with your interview! I do not know how detailed this presentation needs to be on the specific products the company produces, but you can include plans for complying with Customer Requirements including: Monitoring/Measuring/Testing and test data requirements, Packaging, Shipping, materials declaration and MSDS, mil spec compliance (if applicable), other environmental certifications such as REACh, calibration of equipment used for extrusion, handling of customer concerns/issues and requirements you will pass down to your suppliers. I hope this helps!

Thanks for the feedback qpled, it is much appreciated! In this scenario I am meant to assume that a customer has ordered a product very similar to a current one but with a unique material characteristic that we, as the supplier, have not manufactured before.

I was considering talking through the PPAP timeline and focusing particularly on the areas were the new material characteristic would require slightly different processing from the current material (for example in the mixing process and the need for new metrology). 5 slides just doesn't seem to be a lot of room to manoeuvre!

Sent from my Lenovo TAB S8-50F using Tapatalk

 

[Bigsamt]

Map the process and identify the risks and mitigation for each step. Create a slide for each step that you identified a risk.

Thank you so much Al. I will absolutely include process mapping and risk mitigation! Appreciate your feedback!

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[Golfman25]

Thanks for the feedback qpled, it is much appreciated! In this scenario I am meant to assume that a customer has ordered a product very similar to a current one but with a unique material characteristic that we, as the supplier, have not manufactured before.

I was considering talking through the PPAP timeline and focusing particularly on the areas were the new material characteristic would require slightly different processing from the current material (for example in the mixing process and the need for new metrology). 5 slides just doesn't seem to be a lot of room to manoeuvre!

Sent from my Lenovo TAB S8-50F using Tapatalk

5 slides requires you to be brief but to the point. Not drone on and on. Figure our the biggest challenges you'll likely face and focus on solutions for them. How will you work thru them so the company can eventually cash the check. Good luck.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Given the short time allotted for presentation and the limitation of five PP slides, there's no benefit to rehash processes the organization does routinely. From your description of the information shared with you to date, it seems to me the most crucial aspect of the proposed process is Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). I suggest you focus on the "pain point."
It might be appropriate to

1. list potential risks,
2. assign (guess?) a probability of occurrence,
3. suggest preventive measures to reduce/eliminate risk
4. assign net cost of each preventive measure
5. Evaluate all factors for optimum course of action

The Quality motto: better to prevent error than repair it!

 

[Marc]

<snip> a product very similar to a current one but with a unique material characteristic that we, as the supplier, have not manufactured before. <snip>

Assuming this is a manufactured product: Question 1 for me would be: What type of material change?

1. Is it a visual material aspect and does the final user actually touch it?
2. Is it an internal part which the final user doesn't see?
3. Or is it a material change, such as a structural part where strength or elasticity is a factor?

I mention these because they are important when you consider telling a customer "how we plan to support this project".

 

[Mike S.]

This may be a bit off-subject, but it seems to me that these made-up scenarios where you really don’t have much context from which to base your response, are not a very good use of interview time. Probably makes someone on the interview team feel good, though.

I’m not a HR guru, but is this really among interviewing best practices?

 

[hogheavenfarm]

I have seen these exact same techniques used to get "free" ideas from quality professionals that will be applied with some modifications to it. One company I observed doing this continued the practice for a few years. They even asked for a "trial period" of two weeks (using your vacation time at your other job) to enact these improvements before considering hiring permanently. I often wonder how many peoples brains they picked clean in the process. I avoid giving any advise that is not paid for.