1. Home
  2. ASQ
  3. CQE Exam Syllabus

ASQ CQE Exam Topics

ASQ CQE Exam Overview :

Exam Name: Quality Engineer
Exam Code: CQE
Certifications: ASQ CQE Certification
Actual Exam Duration: 150 minutes
Expected no. of Questions in Actual Exam: 120
See Expected Questions: ASQ CQE Expected Questions in Actual Exam

ASQ CQE Exam Objectives :

Section Weight Objectives
I. Management and Leadership 18% A. Quality Philosophies and Foundations
    Describe continuous improvement tools, including lean, Six Sigma, theory of constraints, statistical process control (SPC), and total quality management, and understand how modern quality has evolved from quality control through statistical process control (SPC) to total quality management and leadership principles (including Deming’s 14 points). (Understand)

B.  The Quality Management System (QMS)
    1.   Strategic planning
          Identify and define top management’s responsibility for the QMS, including establishing policies and objectives, setting organization-wide goals, and supporting quality initiatives. (Apply)
    2.   Deployment techniques
         
Define, describe, and use various deployment tools in support of the QMS such as:
        a. Benchmarking
        Define the concept of benchmarking and why it may be used. (Remember)
        b. Stakeholder
        Define, describe, and use stakeholder identification and analysis. (Apply)
        c. Performance
        Define, describe, and use performance measurement  tools. (Apply)
        d. Project management
        Define, describe, and use project management tools, including PERT charts, Gantt charts, critical path method (CPM), and resource allocation. (Apply)
    3.   Quality information system (QIS)
         Identify and describe the basic elements of a QIS, including who will contribute data, the kind of data to be managed, who will have access to the data, the level of flexibility for future information needs, and data analysis. (Understand)

C.  ASQ Code of Ethics for Professional Conduct
    Determine appropriate behavior in situations requiring ethical decisions. (Evaluate)
    
D.  Leadership Principles and Techniques
    Analyze various principles and techniques for developing and organizing teams and leading quality initiatives. (Analyze)
    
E.  Facilitation Principles and Techniques
    1.   Roles and responsibilities
          Describe the facilitator’s roles and responsibilities on a team. (Understand)
    2.   Facilitation tools
          Apply various tools used with teams, including brainstorming, nominal group technique, conflict resolution, and force-field analysis. (Apply)
    
F.  Communication Skills
    Identify specific communication methods that are used for delivering information and messages in a variety of situations across all levels of the organization. (Analyze)

G. Customer Relations
    Define, apply, and analyze the results of customer relation tools such as quality function deployment (QFD) and customer satisfaction surveys. (Analyze)
    
H.  Supplier Management
    1.   Techniques
    Apply various supplier management techniques, including supplier qualification, certification, and evaluation. (Apply)
    2.   Improvement
    Analyze supplier ratings and performance improvement results. (Analyze)
    3.   Risk
    Understand business continuity, resiliency, and contingency planning. (Understand)
        
I.   Barriers to Quality Improvement
     Identify barriers to quality improvement, analyze their causes and impact, and implement methods for improvement. (Analyze)
II. The Quality System 16% A.  Elements of the Quality System
    1.   Basic elements
    Interpret the basic elements of a quality system, including planning, control, and improvement, from product and process design through quality cost systems and audit programs. (Evaluate)
    2.   Design
    Analyze the design and alignment of interrelated processes to the strategic plan and core processes. (Analyze)
    
B.  Documentation of the Quality System
    1.   Document components
    Identify and describe quality system documentation components, including quality policies and procedures to support the system. (Understand)
    2.   Document control
    Evaluate configuration management, maintenance, and document control to manage work instructions and quality records. (Evaluate)
    
C.  Quality Standards and Other Guidelines
    Apply national and international standards and other requirements and guidelines, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), and describe key points of the ISO 9000 series of standards. (Note: Industry-specific standards will not be tested.) (Apply)
    
D.  Quality Audits
    1.   Types of audits
    Describe and distinguish between various types of quality audits such as product, process, management (system), registration (certification), compliance (regulatory), first, second, and third party. (Apply)
    2.   Roles and responsibilities in audits
    Identify and define roles and responsibilities for audit participants such as audit team (leader and members), client, and auditee. (Understand)
    3.   Audit planning and implementation
    Describe and apply the stages of a quality audit, from audit planning through conducting the audit. (Apply)
    4.   Audit reporting and follow-up
    Apply the steps of audit reporting and follow-up, including the need to verify corrective action. (Apply)
    
E.  Cost of Quality (COQ)
    Identify and apply COQ concepts, including cost categorization, data collection, reporting, and interpreting results. (Analyze)
    
F.  Quality Training
    Identify and apply key elements of a training program, including conducting a needs analysis, developing curricula and materials, and determining the program’s effectiveness. (Apply)
III. Product, Process, and Service Design 23% A.  Classification of Quality Characteristics
    Define, interpret, and classify quality characteristics for new and existing products, processes, and services. (Note: The classification of defects is covered in IV.B.3.) (Evaluate)

B.  Design Inputs and Review
    1.   Inputs
    Translate design inputs such as customer needs, regulatory requirements, and risk assessment into robust design using techniques such as failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), quality function deployment (QFD), Design for X (DFX), and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). (Analyze)
    2.   Review
    Identify and apply common elements of the design review process, including roles and responsibilities of participants. (Apply)
    
C.  Technical Drawings and Specifications
    Interpret specification requirements in relation to product and process characteristics and technical drawings, including characteristics such as views, title blocks, dimensioning and tolerancing, and GD&T symbols. (Evaluate)
    
D.  Verification and Validation
    Interpret the results of evaluations and tests used to verify and validate the design of products, processes and services, such as installation qualification (IQ), operational qualification (OQ), and process qualification (PQ). (Evaluate)
    
E.  Reliability and Maintainability
       1.   Predictive and preventive maintenance tools
             Describe and apply the tools and techniques used to maintain and improve process and product reliability. (Apply)
       2.   Reliability and maintainability indices
             Review and analyze indices such as MTTF, MTBF, MTTR, availability, and failure rate. (Analyze)
      3.   Reliability models
              Identify, define, and distinguish between the basic elements of reliability models such as exponential, Weibull, and bathtub curve. (Apply)
      4.  Reliability/Safety/Hazard Assessment Tools
             Define, construct, and interpret the results of failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA), and fault tree analysis (FTA). (Evaluate)
IV. Product and Process Control 25% A.  Methods
    Implement product and process control methods such as control plan development, critical control point identification, and work instruction development and validation. (Analyze)
    
B.  Material Control
    1.   Material identification, status, and traceability
    Define and distinguish between these concepts, and describe methods for applying them in various situations. (Analyze)
    2.   Material segregation
    Describe material segregation and its importance, and evaluate appropriate methods for applying it in various situations. (Evaluate)
    3.   Material classification
    Classify product and process defects and nonconformities. (Evaluate)
    4.   Material review board
    Describe the purpose and function of an MRB and evaluate nonconforming product or material to make a disposition decision in various situations. (Evaluate)
    
C.  Acceptance Sampling
    1.   Sampling concepts
    Interpret the concepts of producer and consumer risk and related terms, including operating characteristic (OC) curves, acceptable quality limit (AQL), lot tolerance percent defective (LTPD), average outgoing quality (AOQ), and average outgoing quality limit (AOQL). (Analyze)
    2.   Sampling standards and plans
    Identify, interpret, and apply ANSI/ASQ Z1.4 and Z1.9 standards for attributes and variables sampling. Identify and distinguish between single, double, multiple, sequential, and continuous sampling methods. Identify the characteristics of Dodge-Romig sampling tables and when they should be used. (Analyze)
    3.   Sample integrity
    Identify and apply techniques for establishing and maintaining sample integrity. (Apply)
    
D.  Measurement and Test
    1.   Measurement tools
    Select and describe appropriate uses of inspection tools such as gage blocks, calipers, micrometers, and optical comparators. (Analyze)
    2.   Destructive and nondestructive tests
    Identify when destructive and nondestructive measurement test methods should be used and apply the methods appropriately. (Apply)
    
E.  Metrology
    Apply metrology techniques such as calibration, traceability to calibration standards, measurement error and its sources, and control and maintenance of measurement standards and devices. (Analyze)
    
F.  Measurement System Analysis (MSA)
    Calculate, analyze, and interpret repeatability  and  reproducibility (gage R&R) studies, measurement correlation, capability, bias, linearity, precision, stability and accuracy, as well as related MSA quantitative and graphical methods. (Evaluate)
V. Continuous Improvement 27% A.  Quality Control Tools
    Select, construct, apply, and interpret the following quality control tools:
    1.   Flowcharts
    2.   Pareto charts
    3.   Cause and effect diagrams
    4.   Control charts
    5.   Check sheets
    6.   Scatter diagrams
    7.   Histograms (Analyze)
    
B.  Quality Management and Planning Tools
    Select, construct, apply, and interpret the following quality management and planning tools:
    1.   Affinity diagrams and force field analysis
    2.   Tree diagrams
    3.   Process decision program charts (PDPC)
    4.   Matrix diagrams
    5.   Interrelationship digraphs
    6.   Prioritization matrices
    7.   Activity network diagrams Analyze)
    
C.  Continuous Improvement Methodologies
    Define, describe, and apply the following continuous improvement methodologies:
    1.   Total quality management (TQM)
    2.   Kaizen
    3.   Plan-do-check-act (PDCA)
    4.   Six Sigma
    5.   Theory of constraints (ToC)(Evaluate)
    
D.  Lean tools
    Define, describe, and apply the following lean tools:
    1.   5S
    2.   Value stream mapping
    3.   Kanban
    4.   Visual control
    5.   Waste (Muda)
    6.   Standardized work
    7.   Takt time
    8.   Single minute exchange of die (SMED) (Evaluate)
    
E.  Corrective Action
    Identify, describe, and apply elements of the corrective action process, including problem identification, failure analysis, root cause analysis, problem correction, recurrence control, and verification of effectiveness. (Evaluate)

F.  Preventive Action
    Identify, describe, and apply various preventive action tools such as error proofing/poka-yoke and robust design and analyze their effectiveness. (Evaluate)
VI. Quantitative Methods and Tools 36% A.  Collecting and Summarizing Data
    1.   Types of data
    Define, classify, and compare discrete (attributes) and continuous (variables) data. (Apply)
    2.   Measurement scales
    Define and describe nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales. (Understand)
    3.   Data collection methods
    Describe various methods for collecting data, including tally or check sheets, data coding, and automatic gaging and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the methods. (Apply)
Official Information http://asq.org/cert/quality-engineer

Updates in the ASQ CQE Exam Topics:

ASQ CQE exam questions and practice test are the best ways to get fully prepared. Study4exam's trusted preparation material consists of both practice questions and practice test. To pass the actual  Certified Quality Engineer CQE  exam on the first attempt, you need to put in hard work on these questions as they cover all updated  ASQ CQE exam topics included in the official syllabus. Besides studying actual questions, you should take the  ASQ CQE practice test for self-assessment and actual exam simulation. Revise actual exam questions and remove your mistakes with the Quality Engineer CQE exam practice test. Online and Windows-based formats of the CQE exam practice test are available for self-assessment.