A few months after earning my MSEM degree from NEU, I had a rewarding opportunity that came my way. The director of manufacturing at the Wilmington site approached me and offered me a role as a Product Quality Engineer (PQE). Since stepping into the role as a PQE in late 2019, my journey of professional and personal growth has been an ongoing adventure. In this position at ADI, a PQE essentially takes on the responsibility of overseeing all quality-related aspects of products throughout their entire lifecycle. It doesn’t require one to be an expert in every field or topic, but rather demands awareness of all these processes, systems, requirements, and their implications.
On a day-to-day basis, my work involves leading quality resolution projects from their initial stages to successful closure. I also manage quality issues in collaboration with core teams spanning multiple organizational divisions. Additionally, I play a pivotal role in investigating customer complaints, ensuring the proper identification of failure mechanisms, and often spearheading investigations into the root causes of escapes and occurrences. It’s crucial to ensure that appropriate corrective actions are not only identified but also developed and systematically implemented, both for the specific issue at hand and across the board where applicable.
These efforts necessitate the leadership of cross-functional teams, the use of structured 8D problem-solving methodologies, and the facilitation of meetings with failure analysis (FA), engineering, fab, foundry, probe, assembly, test, planning, chute-yield and many other teams. A PQE’s goal is to thoroughly investigate customer complaints, drive effective corrective actions, and enhance the overall quality performance of our products. This also involves reviewing FA and 8D reports as necessary, as well as drafting reporting, to ensure that ADI is continuously improving and delivering the best quality to our customers.