Early Stage Qualification (ESQ)

What is ESQ?

ESQ offers an innovative model of engagement for TRaC's clients, both existing and new.

Regulatory compliance for global markets is without doubt complicated, increasing and definitely not going away. There is tendency to treat compliance separately to a product's development. Back end loading of qualification testing and certification tends to be the norm in the development cycle.

ESQ works closely with design teams at an early stage in product development cycles to build-in the attributes that will operate in parallel with the other elements of the project and steer it away from the compliance and approvals pitfalls. ESQ will help customers achieve first time success when projects reach the testing, approvals and certification phase.

Why ESQ? 

The ESQ methodology has one objective: make compliance part of a company’s process, to deliver products to market quickly and successfully, not the process that slows it down or in some cases stops it.

Large and complex projects can pose a significant challenge to complete and deliver to market. With modules and subsystems being completed by separate groups and integrated by others, complete sections of a product can move within the supply chain and overall compliance responsibility can be lost. When full systems come together for the first time during final qualification, just ahead of shipment or deployment, the result is rarely good.

ESQ engages clients early on in a project to provide strategic guidance, from initial concept and throughout the whole development cycle, focusing on the best approach to bring products to market.

The Financial Implications

‘Test and Fix’ iteration cycles are expensive, but not as expensive as missing a deadline to market. Lost sales opportunities can be a costly consequence of poor compliance management.

The Knowledge Transfer

We are Subject Matter Experts who provide a continuous resource for compliance issues through ESQ. We will help clients through the critical stages ahead of the qualification process before providing expertise that performs the final testing and certification.

Compliance Activity and ESQ

Throughout a product's development there are key areas that influence it's certifaction sucess. Without the benefit of the ESQ route to market, issues that can lead to failure become established at the very early stages of the development cycle.

ESQ identifies seven key stages in a products development and ensures that the required amount of compliance knowledge and direction is applied at the right time.

1. Market research

Contact with regulatory authorities and in country testing regimes.

2. Concept

Compliance requirements, test standards and certification schemes required by the technologies used.

3. Product development

Compliance review, supply chain management, test suites and de-risk testing to identify failure mitigation. Review required compliance documentation and labelling.

4. Prototype

Carry out qualification testing, freeze the design and build standard, move toward any certification requirements. Carry out in country testing as required.

5. Market testing

Product is approved for intended markets.

6. Product Launch

Product is able to access required markets on time and legally.

7. Product life cycle

Production control, standards updates, changes to the product, changes to markets, emerging markets and technologies.

Providing safety, reliability and functional engineering consultancy to the Defence, Aerospace, Health and Transport industries connecting programme managers with unsurpassed resource.

ESQ has the knowledge base, skills and experience to work as part of a large programme delivering compliance at every stage.

ESQ provide expertise in emerging technologies.

ESQ Services - Market Sectors are initiated at programme management level, and we will recommend controls to be implemented and coordinated across the related sub activities

This provides the overall programme with a level of system compliance not usually available in the tier 1, 2 or 3 suppliers managing activities individually and in isolation.

ESQ engages with customers at the “initiating” stage of a project, when the overall approach to controlling the project is being agreed. Reducing R&D and Engineering costs whilst getting to market faster.

ESQ focuses on compliance criteria and stage gates, ahead of, and during the ‘product development’ and ‘test & validation’ stages of a programme.

ESQ is a proven asset for prime contractors, system integrators, or the primary stakeholder responsible for delivery of the project/programme.

ESQ supports major product delivery programmes or infrastructure launches where our one or more areas of our technical expertise are:

• Widely accepted as major technical challenges
• Identified risk areas for complete project failure
• New or alien concepts to the programme delivery team

ESQ provide Subject Matter Experts from the test side of the business to deliver system compliance solutions.

Click here to find out more about ESQ Services - Market Sectors

Click here to find out more about ESQ Subject Matter Experts