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The differences between manufacturing consultants and quality 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 manufacturing consultant and a quality engineer. Additionally, a manufacturing consultant has an average salary of $86,698, which is higher than the $79,672 average annual salary of a quality engineer.
The top three skills for a manufacturing consultant include business process, enterprise resource planning and gap analysis. The most important skills for a quality engineer are corrective action, continuous improvement, and ISO.
| Manufacturing Consultant | Quality Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $86,698 | $79,672 |
| Hourly rate | $41.68 | $38.30 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 40,993 | 96,838 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Manufacturing Consultants play an essential role in a company through their outside expertise and experience. They provide solutions and implement actions during the product development process and establish the infrastructure needed for manufacturing. Their duties typically include creating specifications for various components and assembly steps, determining production benchmarks, and optimizing manufacturing efficiency, reliability, and throughput. They are also responsible for providing support in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) development and training and formulating lean manufacturing methods.
A quality engineer's responsibilities include ensuring that the manufacturing processes are efficient and accurate, documenting findings that would raise concerns, conducting quality tests while observing parameters, and implementing changes as necessary to meet the highest quality standards. Quality engineers need to have excellent problem-solving and observation skills to detect any irregularities and possible malfunctions. They also must be able to communicate effectively with the clients for feedbacks and corrective adjustments, address complaints, and immediately resolve any inconsistencies made.
Manufacturing consultants and quality engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Manufacturing Consultant | Quality Engineer | |
| Average salary | $86,698 | $79,672 |
| Salary range | Between $55,000 And $135,000 | Between $61,000 And $103,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Intel | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a manufacturing consultant and a quality engineer in terms of educational background:
| Manufacturing Consultant | Quality Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 68% | Bachelor's Degree, 70% |
| Most common major | Business | Mechanical Engineering |
| Most common college | New York University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between manufacturing consultants' and quality engineers' demographics:
| Manufacturing Consultant | Quality Engineer | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 78.2% Female, 21.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.8% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 11.6% White, 67.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.7% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 11.5% Asian, 13.9% White, 65.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 4% | 4% |