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WBTO, LLC · Employer form
Chemicals · NAICS 325

Quality Inspector

Entry-Level Quality Inspector Skills · about ten minutes. There are no right answers and nothing is attributed to your company.

Draft, pending employer validationThis skill list is a draft until five employers have rated it. Your answers are what make it final.

Who is answering

Your industry: Chemicals · NAICS 325
Recorded with your answers. Not your industry? Pick a different one.

The skills

Rate the level you need a new hire to arrive with — not what an experienced person eventually reaches.
0 — None. Not part of this job
1 — Awareness. Has seen it; you would train it from scratch
2 — Competent. Can do it with help or normal supervision
3 — Proficient. Can do it on their own, to your standard
One tap per skill. If you do not know, leave the row untouched — blank and 0 mean different things and we treat them differently. Tapped the wrong one? The × clears it.
SkillWhat it meansLevel needed
Works safely in and around production: wears the required PPE, recognizes machine, chemical and lifting hazards on the floor, follows lockout/tagout and hazard communication rules, and keeps the inspection area clean and orderly.
Does the arithmetic the job runs on: fractions and decimals, unit conversions including inch to metric, percentages, significant digits and rounding, and the geometry the job's own prints or specs call for, so a raw reading becomes the number the spec uses and can be judged against its tolerance.
Looks the product over against the written workmanship standard, approved sample or proof for the job, catches the defects this plant's own processes leave, and manages fatigue and distraction so the tenth one gets the same look as the first.
Knows how the product in front of them was made, process step by process step through this plant, and what defects each of those steps typically leaves behind.
Knows which check applies at which point in the flow, from incoming material through first run and in process to final release and checks made at a supplier, and works to the inspection or control plan written for that stage.
Pulls a sample that fairly represents the lot or batch, following the sampling plan or procedure written for that job, how much to take, from where, and what result accepts or rejects it, and knows when the plan calls for checking every piece or batch instead.
Picks an instrument fine enough for the tolerance being checked, about a tenth of it or better, allows for temperature and the conditions on the floor, and cleans, handles and stores it so it holds its accuracy.
Checks the calibration sticker and due date before using any gage, pulls and quarantines anything out of calibration, and understands traceability and what has to happen to product that was measured with a bad gage.
Understands that two people checking the same item should get the same answer, knows what bias, repeatability and reproducibility mean, and can take a turn as one of the checkers in a study someone else runs.
Calculates mean, range and standard deviation, plots and reads X-bar and R, I-MR and attribute control charts, tells control limits from specification limits, and stops and escalates when the chart shows a run, a trend or an out-of-control point.
Runs the routine tests this plant does on its own product, follows the written test method, gets a reading that repeats, and recognizes when a result or a test has to go to an outside lab.
Tags, segregates and writes up material that does not meet spec, grades the defect as critical, major or minor, tells the operator and supervisor in a way that gets the problem fixed rather than argued, and routes the report to the material review board for disposition.
Fills out the inspection report completely and legibly, records as-found dimensions rather than just pass or fail, stamps acceptance only for characteristics actually checked, and corrects an entry the right way with a single line-out, initial and date.
Keeps lot, heat, serial and date-code identity attached to material all the way through inspection, applies FIFO, shelf-life and age control, and checks certificates of compliance and analysis against what the job actually requires.
Knows what the quality system requires of them day to day: where the controlled procedure and its current revision live, what goes into the approval or release package the customer requires, and what an internal auditor will ask to see.
Takes part in containing a quality problem and finding its cause using 5 Whys, a fishbone diagram or an 8D, and supports the fix through error-proofing and 5S at the inspection station.

Employability skills

Oregon publishes ten employability skills, the same statewide. Tick the three that matter most for this job.
SkillWhat Oregon calls it with studentsTop 3
Open to Change
Problem Solver
Team Player
Good Communicator
Good with Technology
Sensitive to Others
Go-Getter
Handles Setbacks
Self-Understanding
Sensitivity to Differences

Three last things

Credentials and proficiency

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