CMQ-OE Study Areas

In general, ASQ tests a candidate's knowledge of the seven core domains listed below. Understandably, candidates are expected to be familiar with the topics prior to attempting the validation.

• Strategic Plan Development and Deployment

  This section mainly tests the understanding of strategic planning models, the business environment, and strategic plan deployment. In particular, candidates should be familiar with market forces, risk analysis, stakeholder analysis, internal analysis, the role of technology and legal factors, resource allocation and deployment, quality, and organizational performance.

• Quality Management Tools

  There, the candidate will be tested on the various quality management tools including process improvement tools, basic management tools, innovation & creativity tools, and lean instruments. The candidate will also be expected to have a good understanding of measurement and metrics, which encompasses areas such as statistics, sampling techniques, and trend analysis.

• Supply Chain Management

  Under such a topic, candidates are expected to have a sound understanding of all aspects of supply chain management. This includes supplier selection, supplier communication, supplier performance and improvement, supplier certification, and supplier logistics.

• Customer-Focused Organizations

  This objective mainly assesses the candidate's knowledge of the different types of customers, customer segmentation, and customer relationship management including customer satisfaction and loyalty, principles for services, dealing with external and internal customers, and finally, focus group output.

• Management Elements and Methods

  This portion tests all areas of management including human resource management, finance management, risk management, and knowledge management. It also checks the candidate's knowledge of communications skills, project management, quality system, quality models, and theories.

• Training and Development

  This domain evaluates the candidate's ability to create training plans and develop training materials, use different tools along with techniques to identify training needs and assess training effectiveness.

• Leadership

  The candidate's knowledge of leadership techniques, teamwork, organizational structures, and ASQ code of ethics will be tested here. Furthermore, the candidate's understanding of the challenges faced by leaders, the roles and responsibilities of leaders alongside managers, change management techniques, types and roles of teams, team development stages, and team evaluation will be looked at.

How much CMQ-OE Exam Cost

The price of the CMQ-OE exam is $568 USD.

ASQ CMQ-OE Certification Exam Structure and Guidelines

By and large, candidates have the option of sitting for the official exam in person or the computer-delivered test. The paper version is a four-hour exam comprising 165 multiple-choice questions that may be delivered in both English and Mandarin. On the other hand, the duration of the computer-delivered evaluation is 4 hours 18 minutes and it encompasses 180 multiple-choice questions. However, only 165 items will be scored and the remaining 15 will be not. It is also important to note that the computer-delivered exam is only conducted in English. Both versions are open-book exams and therefore candidates are permitted to take reference materials. ASQ does not have a predetermined passing score for the exam. The score varies each time a Body of Knowledge (BoK) is created and is determined through a procedure called “cut score study”, where a group of experts determines the passing score. More so, candidates are charged an exam fee of USD 568 whereas members of ASQ are charged only USD 468. If a candidate fails the exam, he/she can resit for the test at a retake rate of USD 368. All in all, the vendor provides a range of learning materials for candidates to prepare for the actual evaluation. These include study guides, textbooks, sample questions, etc.

Reference: http://asq.org/cert/manager-of-quality

CMQ/OE Exam Structure

The ASQ CMQ/OE test includes different multiple-choice questions that will assess their knowledge of the topics from the exam syllabus. The number of items, though, differs based on the way the exam is delivered. Therefore, if the candidates take a computer-delivered test, they will have to solve 180 questions. This type of exam is delivered in the English language only. Plus, out of the total number of questions, only 165 are scored. The remaining ones are unscored queries and they are used for statistical purposes. The total time allotted for the candidates will be 4 hours and 18 minutes. If the examinees want to take this test with paper and pencil, then they will have to solve 165 inquiries only. Still, the type of questions remains multiple-choice. As for the allotted time, the candidates will have only four hours to answer as many questions as possible. Notably, this type of validation is delivered in both English and Mandarin. Another important aspect to mention is that all exams are open books. This means that the examinees can bring and use any type of materials they want.