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Is It Right for You? Supplier Quality Professional Certification - CSQP

Step 1. Is this the right certification for you?

Here are the minimum expectations, requirements, experience, and the exam specifics for a Certified Supplier Quality Professional.

Work Experience

Work experience must be in a full-time, paid role. Paid intern, co-op or any other course work cannot be applied toward the work experience requirement.

Candidates must have eight years of on-the-job experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Supplier Quality Professional Body of Knowledge. A minimum of three years of this experience must be in a decision-making position. "Decision-making" is defined as the authority to define, execute, or control projects/processes and to be responsible for the outcome. This may or may not include management or supervisory positions.

Candidates who were previously certified by ASQ as a quality engineer, quality auditor, software quality engineer, or quality manager, experience used to qualify for certification in these fields often applies to certification as a Supplier Quality Professional.

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

  • Diploma from a technical or trade school — one year will be waived
  • Associate degree — two years waived
  • Bachelor’s degree — four years waived
  • Master’s or doctorate — five years waived

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

Expectations
These are the minimum expectations of a Certified Supplier Quality Professional.

  • Will have a fundamental understanding of supply chain vision/mission, supplier life cycle management, review supplier agreements or contracts and communicate the deployment of strategy expectations.
  • Will be able to identify and evaluate risk management strategy and initiate prevention strategy techniques. Be able to identify risks in terms of on-time delivery and quality and mitigate those risks.
  • Will be able to identify and analyze supplier quality tools and develop verification/validation as well as verify the effectiveness of mitigation.
  • Will be able to identify and apply supplier selection comparison and evaluation and assess design and requirements for product/service qualification.
  • Will be able to interpret technical specifications, supplier capabilities, collaborate with suppliers, develop process and service qualification planning, understand part approval qualification process and collaborate on validation requirements.
  • Will be able to understand supplier performance metrics based on acceptable criteria for product/service.
  • Will be able to assess nonconforming products, processes or services, evaluate root cause analysis and collaborate with suppliers to implement and maintain corrective/preventive actions for continuous improvement.
  • Will be able to describe and apply supplier audit reporting, communication, development, remediation, project management basics, team processes, compliance with requirements and supplier categorization.
  • Facilitate supplier onboarding, communication and collaboration through effective coaching/influencing using quality tools.
  • Will be able to understand and apply ASQ Code of Ethics, integrity and compliance with policies.

Body of Knowledge

The topics in this body of knowledge (BOK) include additional detail in the form of subtext explanations and cognitive level. These details will be used by the Exam Development Committee as guidelines for writing test questions, and are designed to help candidates prepare for the exam by identifying specific content within each topic that may be tested.

The subtext is not intended to limit the subject-matter or be all-inclusive of what might be covered in an exam, but is intended to clarify how the topics relate to a supplier quality professional's role. The descriptor in parentheses at the end of each entry refers to the maximum cognitive level at which the topic will be tested. A more comprehensive description of cognitive levels is provided at the end of this document.

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.

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