How Quality Engineer Ryan Hoving boosts performance at the lab

Quality Engineer Ryan Hoving upholds standards at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. His work enables scientific experiments and facility operations to proceed safely and on schedule. This accelerates research outcomes in critical fields like energy and security technologies.

Hoving grew up in Lemont, Illinois, not far from Argonne. This sparked his interest in the facility.

“I began my engineering career in industry and worked my way up,” he said. ​“I always kept in mind the goal of eventually working at Argonne.”

Early on in his career, Hoving learned the importance of saying ​“yes” to new challenges. A manager asked him if he knew how to use the Adobe Illustrator graphic design software and, if so, he could use it to edit art files. Hoving expressed his eagerness to learn, which he proved in short order.

“The research being done at Argonne is legitimately changing the world, one innovation at a time. That’s why I’m so passionate about process improvements — I want to save us time and money so we can deliver quality results faster.” — Ryan Hoving, quality engineer at Argonne

“Learning Illustrator opened a door to a project I otherwise would not have been part of,” he said. ​“It was that project that earned me a nomination for an Innovator of the Year award.”

He learned that outside of one’s comfort zone is where true growth happens. That approach has served him well in every subsequent step of his career.

In 2022, Hoving took his can-do attitude and engineering expertise to his new job at Argonne. He started in drafting and design engineering but eventually transitioned to working in quality assurance (QA).

“It’s rare that someone starts off saying, ​‘I’m going to be a QA engineer,’” he says. ​“But I found I loved the process of engineering and making that process more efficient, which naturally led me to QA.”

During his time at Argonne, Hoving has worked with various teams on different kinds of projects, including Nuclear Quality Assurance (NQA-1) assessments, cost savings projects and gap analyses. Each project presented new challenges, and Hoving was eager to take them on.

“Working across teams gave me the chance to connect the dots and see the bigger picture of what groups need to move forward,” he said. ​“My goal is to simplify processes for my Argonne colleagues — to make it easier for them to ensure their projects uphold our standards.”

Hoving learned that the more he understands a process, the more potential problems he’s able to anticipate and prevent.

“The idea is to build quality into the process,” he continued. ​“If we can make someone’s process more efficient, QA checks become less cumbersome.”

Hoving’s work has increased the efficiency of many essential parts of the engineering processes at Argonne. For example, he’s gotten NQA-1 suppliers proactively approved, accelerating timelines for design component orders.

“This allows scientific studies to run efficiently,” he said.

Other examples include cost savings ideas that come through the Argonne Optimization Team (AOT), which save money and time and build a culture of continuous improvement across several groups.

“With a large organization like Argonne, work can become siloed, especially when it comes to work optimization projects,” Hoving explained. ​“Efforts like the AOT help us bring visibility to the work being done.”

He helps bring efforts together to ensure the greatest impact to the lab.

“I work to understand the pain points, remove barriers and build in compliance into the process without creating additional burdens to the researcher,” he continued. ​“All of us pushing together can make a big impact.”

Hoving is known for consistently demonstrating exceptional initiative and a strong commitment to mission success. His colleagues appreciate his reliability and collaborative approach. One described him as ​“a standout contributor to Argonne’s operational excellence.”

“The research being done at Argonne is legitimately changing the world, one innovation at a time,” Hoving said. ​“That’s why I’m so passionate about process improvements — I want to save us time and money so we can deliver quality results faster.”

Argonne accelerates the science and technology that drive U.S. prosperity and security. Argonne staff are thinkers, builders, problem-solvers and caretakers — every person and every role contributes to the laboratory’s impact on the world.

Hoving appreciates being part of a workplace that puts its Core Values into action every day. Particularly important to him is integrity.

“Integrity is the foundation of quality work,” he said. ​“And quality work is how we make an impact.”

Author Bio

Jenna V. Wray is a freelance science writer who covers the contributions of engineers, physicists and technicians at the Advanced Photon Source and Argonne National Laboratory. She has also produced addiction-recovery content for treatment centers across the country. She has been writing, editing and producing content on science and other topics since 2018.