ESAM first article process

In 1998 ESAM changed from a "dedicated line" process to what we term the "ESAM Process." When we built the new factory in 2000 we created an environment of flexibility which is key to that process.

Part of that creation is our First Article (F/A) process. Each new assembly build starts with our F/A group. The F/A operators create standard ESAM Assembly Instructions (AI's). These F/A's and AI's go through a quality engineering and test engineering inspection prior to shipment to our customer. The shipment is accompanied by an F/A checklist.

The AI's are a key factor to our flexibility. They are created using IPC/WHMA 620 A Class II workmanship standards. All of our employees go through "new hire" training to learn these documents. Once training is complete, employees can move from job to job without the need to learn individual customer documentation every time a new job is started. This means that whether an assembly is produced everyday, or just once a year, it is built correctly everytime.