Meet Charlie Hoole, Senior Quality Engineer

Charlie is the key contact for customer quality assurance, which includes quality management systems, quality concern reporting, and Advanced Product Quality Planning for the Prototype Project Industrial Team.  

Tell us more about your role at Ricardo?  

My key responsibilities include leading the quality concern reporting on Ricardo’s largest ever marine application project. The multi-year project involves our global engineering and manufacturing teams, with my role being responsible for facilitating problem solving activities, from containment to root cause analysis and countermeasure implement and validation.  

Amongst other things, I coordinate a large multidiscipline team of problem log owners, ensure they progress their issues by implementing regular cross-functional problem log status reviews. I am then solely responsible for communicating the quality concern key performance indicators (KPIs) in regular weekly meetings with the customers.  

How has this experience and project helped you build your expertise and skills?  

For me, this project has enabled me to build my skills and experience in several new areas, working in collaboration, alongside global in-house teams, as well as the customer to support and strengthen relationships and solve complex challenges.  

This has included leading the quality concern reporting on the project, which has allowed me to take ownership of implementing a new problem log SharePoint process to track all quality concerns. The new SharePoint increases visibility of the 8D problem solving process, I have been using it to facilitate driving a cross-functional team to manage the risks throughout the prototype build phase and understand how those risks impact later project phases.

This level of quality concern reporting/tracking is not typical in the prototype stage of a project. However, my contribution to advanced problem-solving methodologies to investigate and resolve quality issues, and continuous improvement initiatives, will result in a higher visibility of lessons learned. This will allow effective problem resolution and full visibility through to the series production phase. 

I’m the primary liaison for customer quality assurance matters, interacting directly with the customer on quality engineering activities. I provide both the customer and the wider project team with an overview of all open issues and higher-level details on all the “High Priority” issues that present a major risk to system function/durability or are causing build/test stops with a programme timing risk.  

How important are role models, especially female engineers, in supporting the next generation coming into the profession?  

I genuinely thoroughly enjoy the work I do and take great pride in the fact that the quality role I do makes a real difference to the product and customer satisfaction. While the role can sometimes be challenging and requires pushing people to ensure quality standards are met, it is extremely rewarding to know that the work I do makes an impact on the project and will make the teams lives easier. I like to think that the enjoyment and enthusiasm I have for my work is contagious and helps general moral among all the teams I get the opportunity to work with. I think this makes me a good role model and someone who others can relate to easily.  

My journey to where I am today hasn’t always been easy, but I’m very determined. From my experience and sharing it with others, I hope to prove that anyone, with the right level of support, can find something they enjoy, excel at, and succeed in.  

Inspiring others from a young age and supporting new upcoming Engineers is important, it’s how I got interested in a career in Engineering. My dad did an electrical engineering apprenticeship when he left school, doing several engineering and mechanical based jobs and later ending up as a motorcycle mechanic. I grew up around motorcycles and this helped develop a passion for all vehicles.

My ambition to start getting involved in engineering as a career was inspired by my foster carer, who was passionate about classic cars. She would regularly sit with me around the kitchen table reading engineering magazines, Haynes manuals for all her old vehicles, and encouraged me to start challenging myself with what I could achieve if I was interested in it. Her influence is what now inspires me to hopefully be that person for others, showing the younger generation the enjoyment of being interested in cars, motorcycles, and all other things mechanical.