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The differences between customer quality engineers and production engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a customer quality engineer and a production engineer. Additionally, a production engineer has an average salary of $89,727, which is higher than the $82,508 average annual salary of a customer quality engineer.
The top three skills for a customer quality engineer include corrective action, product quality and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a production engineer are java, continuous improvement, and lean manufacturing.
| Customer Quality Engineer | Production Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $82,508 | $89,727 |
| Hourly rate | $39.67 | $43.14 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 86,365 | 94,789 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 76% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A customer quality engineer is accountable for all in-process batches with quality issues. You will be responsible for minimizing variations with quality processes and supporting all customer root cause audits, investigations, and visits. Other duties include processing field audits, assisting in new product launches, and participating in the control process and product quality planning. In addition, you are expected to relay customer feedback and expectations on product quality to the quality management team. You are also expected to conduct training the team in identifying and creating methodologies to solve quality issues.
A production engineer is responsible for monitoring the production operations, ensuring everyone's adherence to safety protocols, and evaluating the staff's performance, strategizing on maximizing productivity to deliver efficient results that would drive revenues and increase profitability. Production engineers inspect the reliability of production equipment and machinery, conducting preventive maintenance, and repair inconsistencies to prevent production delays. They also identify areas of improvement with the manufacturing processes and escalate best practices for improvement. A production engineer must be knowledgeable about technological advancements and incorporate ideas to minimize costs without sacrificing the quality of services.
Customer quality engineers and production engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Quality Engineer | Production Engineer | |
| Average salary | $82,508 | $89,727 |
| Salary range | Between $64,000 And $106,000 | Between $64,000 And $125,000 |
| Highest paying City | Santa Clara, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Apple | Cheniere Energy |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a customer quality engineer and a production engineer in terms of educational background:
| Customer Quality Engineer | Production Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 72% | Bachelor's Degree, 76% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between customer quality engineers' and production engineers' demographics:
| Customer Quality Engineer | Production Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.7% Female, 24.3% | Male, 86.7% Female, 13.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.7% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 13.0% White, 66.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.5% Asian, 15.4% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 4% |