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Elements of an Effective ESD Control Program |
How to we develop and maintain a program that puts these basic principles into practice?
How do we start? What is the process? What do we do first? Ask a dozen experts and you
may get a dozen different answers. But, if you dig a little deeper, you will find that most of the
answers center on similar key elements. You will also find that starting and maintaining an
ESD control program is similar to many other business activities and projects. Although each
company is unique in terms of its ESD control needs, there are at least 6 critical elements to
successfully developing and implementing an effective ESD control program. |
1. Establish an ESD Coordinator and ESD Teams. |
As the problem-solving style of the decade, the team approach particularly applies to ESD
because the problems and the solutions cross various functions, departments, divisions and
even suppliers in most companies. Team composition includes line employees as well as
department heads or other management personnel. ESD teams or committees help assure a
variety of viewpoints, the availability of the needed expertise, and commitment to success. An
active ESD committee helps unify the effort and brings additional expertise to the project.
Committee or team membership should include representation from areas such as
engineering, manufacturing, field service, training, and quality.
Heading this team effort is an ESD Program Coordinator. Ideally this responsibility should be
a full-time job. However, we seldom operate in an ideal environment and you may have to
settle for the function to be a major responsibility of an individual. The ESD coordinator is
responsible for developing, budgeting, and administering the program. The coordinator also
serves as the company's internal ESD consultant to all areas. |
2. Assess Your Organization, Facility, Processes and Losses |
Your next step is to gain a thorough understanding of your environment and its impact on
ESD. Armed with your loss and sensitivity data, you can evaluate your facility, looking for
areas and procedures that may be contributing to your defined ESD problems. Be on the
lookout for things such as static generating materials and personnel handling procedures for
ESD-sensitive items. |
3. Establish and Document Your ESD Control Program Plan |
After completing your assessment, you can begin to develop and document your ESD control
program plan. The plan should cover the scope of the program and include the tasks,
activities and procedures necessary to protect the ESD sensitive items at or above the ESD
sensitivity level chosen for the plan. Prepare and distribute written procedures and
specifications so that everyone has a clear understanding of what is to be done. Fully
documented procedures will help you meet the administrative and technical elements of ANSI
ESD S20.20 and help you with ISO 9000 certification as well. |
4. Build Justification to Get the Management Support Top Management |
To be successful, an ESD program requires the support of your top management, at the
highest level possible. What level of commitment is required? To obtain commitment, you will
need to build justification for the plan. You will need to emphasize quality and reliability, the
costs of ESD damage, the impact of ESD on customer service and product performance. You
may even need to conduct a pilot program if the experience of other companies is not
sufficient to help prove your point. |
5. Define A Training Plan |
Train and retrain your personnel in ESD and your company's ESD control program and
procedures. Proper training for line personnel is especially important. They are often the ones
who have to live with the procedures on a day-to-day basis. A sustained commitment and
mindset among all employees that ESD prevention is a valuable, on-going effort by everyone
is one of the primary goals of training. |
6. Develop and Implement a Compliance Verification Plan |
Developing and implementing the program itself is obvious. What might not be so obvious is
the need to continually review, audit, analyze, feedback and improve. Auditing is essential to
ensure that the ESD control program is successful. You will be asked to continually identify
the return on investment of the program and to justify the savings realized. Technological
changes will dictate improvements and modifications. Feedback to employees and top
management is essential. Management commitment will need reinforcement. |
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