National
| Median wages (2008) |
$15.02 hourly, $31,240 annual |
| Employment (2006) |
491,000 employees |
| Projected growth (2006-2016) |
Decline slowly or moderately (-3% to -9%)
|
| Projected need (2006-2016) |
73,000 additional employees |
51-9061.00 - Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Inspect, test, sort, sample, or weigh nonagricultural raw materials or processed, machined, fabricated, or assembled parts or products for defects, wear, and deviations from specifications. May use precision measuring instruments and complex test equipment.
Sample of reported job titles:
Inspector, Quality Inspector, Quality Technician, Quality Assurance Inspector, Quality Control Inspector, Quality Auditor, Picker / Packer, Quality Assurance Auditor, Quality Control Supervisor, Quality Control Technician
Tasks
- Discard or reject products, materials, and equipment not meeting specifications.
- Analyze and interpret blueprints, data, manuals, and other materials to determine specifications, inspection and testing procedures, adjustment and certification methods, formulas, and measuring instruments required.
- Inspect, test, or measure materials, products, installations, and work for conformance to specifications.
- Notify supervisors and other personnel of production problems, and assist in identifying and correcting these problems.
- Discuss inspection results with those responsible for products, and recommend necessary corrective actions.
- Record inspection or test data, such as weights, temperatures, grades, or moisture content, and quantities inspected or graded.
- Mark items with details such as grade and acceptance or rejection status.
- Observe and monitor production operations and equipment to ensure conformance to specifications and make or order necessary process or assembly adjustments.
- Measure dimensions of products to verify conformance to specifications, using measuring instruments such as rulers, calipers, gauges, or micrometers.
- Analyze test data and make computations as necessary to determine test results.
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Tools & Technology
Tools used in this occupation:
| Accelerometers — Capacitive acceleration instruments; Magnetic induction acceleration instruments; Piezoelectric acceleration instruments; Resonance acceleration instruments |
| Calibrated resistance measuring equipment — Digital resistance meters; Resistance meters; Resistivity meters |
| Gauges or inspection fixtures — Functional gauges; Optical gauges; Pin gauges; Plug gauges |
| Integrated circuit testers — Backplane testers; In-circuit testers; Manufacturing defect analyzers MDA; Printed circuit board PCB testers |
| Leak testing equipment — Bubble leak testers; Calorimetric leak testers; Mass flow leak testers |
Technology used in this occupation:
| Analytical or scientific software — Data analysis software; Design of experiments DOE software; Minitab software; Tolerance analysis software |
| Industrial control software — Coordinate measuring machine software; CyberMetrics GAGETrak Calibration Management Software; Statistical process control SPC data collection devices; Wilcox Associates PC-DMIS Inspection Planner |
| Label making software — Inspection marking systems |
| Spreadsheet software — Microsoft Excel |
| Word processing software — Microsoft Word |
