What Does a Quality Technician Do?

A career as a quality technician can include working in a variety of settings. The skills of a quality technician are needed in a wide range of industries, from healthcare equipment providers to food preparation and packaging. While the settings can differ considerably, the fundamental job duties remain basically the same. Some common job duties include inspecting products for quality, performing tests on products, maintaining testing equipment, training personnel on production and collecting data to implement in product improvement.

Perhaps the most essential part of a quality technician's job is inspecting products for quality. No matter what industry the individual is a part of, he will inevitably be responsible for ensuring that all products meet quality standards. In some industries like healthcare equipment, there may also be certain government regulations that must be met as well. Some individuals may inspect multiple products, while others may only focus on one or two. As a result, a quality technician is ultimately responsible for ensuring that products are manufactured correctly and are free from flaws.

Another important aspect of this job is routinely performing tests on products. For example, if a quality technician was working in the automotive industry, he might conduct high speed car crashes using test dummies, with the goal of measuring and ensuring the tested vehicle's safety. This aspect of the job makes sure that products are safe for public use.

In order to keep testing accurate, it's also essential to perform routine maintenance on the testing equipment. Keeping this equipment functional is critical to creating safe, quality products. As a result, the person must understand the basics of the testing equipment and be at least somewhat mechanically inclined.

Another job duty that some quality technicians are responsible for is training company personnel on production. This typically involves showing other employees the basics behind the production process. In technology driven industries, this also means keeping everyone up to date on advances in technology. Doing so keeps personnel on the same page and production running as smoothly as possible.

An additional aspect of this career is continually collecting data for product improvement. An example would be recording the costs of production on a particular product after experimenting with different production techniques. As the data continues to build over time, the quality technician would share the information with his manager. In turn, production costs would be minimized and product quality would be maximized.