Quality Technician Certification

Step 1. Is this the right certification for you?

Here are the requirements, experience and exam specifics for a Quality Technician. If you already know that this is the certification you want to pursue, move on to exam preparation.

Education and/or Experience

You must have at least four years of higher education and/or work experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Quality Technician Body of Knowledge.

If you are now or were previously certified by ASQ as a Quality Engineer, Quality Auditor, Reliability Engineer, Software Quality Engineer or Quality Manager, experience used to qualify for certification in those fields applies to certification as a Quality Technician.

If you have completed a degree* from a college, university, or technical school with accreditation accepted by ASQ, part of the four-year experience requirement will be waived as follows (only one of these waivers may be claimed):

• Certification through the Quality Technology program of a community college or vocational school—one year will be waived.
• Associate degree—two years waived.
• Bachelor's, master's, or doctorate—three years waived.

*Degrees or diplomas from educational institutions outside the United States must be equivalent to degrees from U.S. educational institutions.

Minimum Expectations for a Certified Quality Technician

• Must be able to define quality concepts and quality processes, including six sigma basics, cost of quality, etc.; must be able to apply quality tools; must be able to interpret information and data; must be able to apply team concepts both as a member and leader.
• Must be able to define statistical techniques, including basic elements of design of experiments (DOE) and reliability; must be able to determine what data to collect for a specific technique, how to apply it to various statistical methods, and how to analyze results.
• Must know which measurement and test equipment (M&TE) tools are appropriate for various tasks and how to assess tool accuracy and precision; must understand the concept of standards traceability for M&TE.
• Must understand and be able to apply basic inspection and testing techniques, including various types of sampling plans; must be able to read and interpret blueprints (drawings), including geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T).
• Must understand and be able to apply various quality audit types and their components, tools, and techniques.
• Must understand and be able to apply the elements of corrective and preventive actions, including root cause analysis, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), and the control of nonconforming material.

Examination

Each certification candidate is required to pass a written examination that consists of multiple choice questions that measure comprehension of the Body of Knowledge. The Quality Technician examination is a one-part, 100-question, four-hour exam. It is offered in English.

Examinations are conducted twice a year, in March and October, by local ASQ sections and international organizations. All examinations are open-book. Each participant must bring his or her own reference materials. Use of reference materials and calculators is explained in the seating letter provided to the applicants.

Please Note: The Body of Knowledge for certification is affected by new technologies, policies, and the changing dynamics of manufacturing and service industries. Changed versions of the examination based on the current Body of Knowledge are used at each offering.

Are you ready to get started? Prepare for the exam. >>>