Appointment in writing
We are named as your ESD coordinator, with the responsibility that comes with the role.
ESD-koordinátor
ESD coordinator: the role the standard requires
Appoint internally or hand it to us – both work, for different reasons.
What the standard says
A named person, not a department
DIN EN IEC 61340-5-1 requires an ESD coordinator: a named person who is accountable for the ESD control programme. It is one of the shortest requirements in the standard and one of the most consequential, because everything else hangs off it. A programme plan without someone responsible for it is a document; with someone responsible for it, it is a programme.
The same standard lists what that programme has to contain – training, product qualification, compliance verification, grounding and equipotential bonding, personnel grounding, the EPA itself, packaging and marking. Somebody has to hold those together, decide the intervals, assess the results and answer for them. That is the role.
It is also the fastest thing to check in an audit. "Who is your ESD coordinator?" takes one question, and the answer is either a name and an appointment in writing, or it is a problem.
The current edition and what changed: DIN EN IEC 61340-5-1:2025.
The role
What the role carries over a year
Not every week – but all of it over twelve months, and demonstrably:
- The programme plan
Written, current, and matching what actually happens in the plant. When production changes, the plan changes – a new area, a new process, a more sensitive component. - Test intervals and their enforcement
Deciding how often what is verified, and noticing when it was not. The interval is a decision the coordinator makes and documents, not something the standard hands over. - Training and records
Initial training before the first handling, recurrent refreshers, and a defined method that verifies understanding – with records that can be produced. - Assessing measurements
Not just collecting readings but reading them: what is drifting, what was borderline last time, where a trend is heading for the limit. - Following up findings
From internal audits, customer audits and walk-throughs – with actions that get closed rather than listed. - Being the contact
For the staff who ask whether something is allowed, for customers who ask for evidence, and for the auditor who asks for both.
The decision
Appoint internally or bring in from outside
Both work. They fail for different reasons, so the honest comparison matters more than a recommendation:
| Internal appointment | External coordination | |
|---|---|---|
| Available from | After months of building up knowledge – the standard, the test methods, the measuring practice | From the day the appointment is signed |
| Knows your production | Completely – that is the real advantage of an internal appointment | Learns it, and brings the comparison with dozens of other plants |
| Cover during absence | Has to be organised: holiday, illness, resignation | Part of the arrangement |
| Keeping standard knowledge current | Own effort – editions, test methods, customer requirements | Included; the 2025 edition is our daily business |
| Independence in an audit | Assesses their own work | An outside view, which is what a customer auditor values |
| Cost | A share of a salary, plus training and measuring equipment | Agreed scope – from a few days a year upwards |
In practice the combination is often the best answer: we take the role while your own person is trained into it, and hand over when they are ready.
External coordination
What we take on as your ESD coordinator
The control programme plan
We draw it up, keep it current and adapt it when your production changes – including the conversion to the 2025 edition.
Képzésmenedzsment
Initial and refresher training, the choice between classroom and online, and the records behind both.
Megfelelőség-ellenőrzés
Test plan, measurements with calibrated equipment, assessment against the limits, and the recurring rhythm behind it.
Audittámogatás
At customer, certification and internal audits – on the day, and with the preparation beforehand.
Egy kinevezett kapcsolattartó
For your staff, your customers and your auditors. Cover during absence is part of the arrangement.
Scope and days on site are agreed individually – from a few days a year to permanent support. On request the documentation runs in our ESD-Manager software.
The other way
Training your own coordinator
A coordinator inside the plant sees what no visitor sees: the shortcut on the late shift, the trolley that has been standing outside the marked area for months, the new colleague nobody told. That is an argument for the internal appointment that no external service can replace.
We train for the role – the standard and its limits, EPA design, measurement practice, the programme plan, and what an audit actually asks. On request we hold the role in the meantime, so the programme does not pause while the knowledge is being built.
And the knowledge has to stay current, which is exactly the point of the refresher: with the 2025 edition in a transition period until June 2027, a coordinator trained on the 2017 edition is working from a superseded document.
Frequently asked questions
Does the standard really require an ESD coordinator?
Yes. DIN EN IEC 61340-5-1 requires a named person who is accountable for the ESD control programme. Not a department, not "quality management in general" – a person, in writing. Without that appointment the programme is incomplete, and it is one of the first things a customer auditor asks for, because it is the quickest thing to check.
What does the coordinator actually have to do?
Keep the control programme plan current, define the test intervals and see that they are kept, arrange initial and refresher training and hold the records, assess the results of measurements, follow up findings from audits and walk-throughs, and be the contact for customers and auditors. Not all of that every week – but all of it over a year, and demonstrably.
Can one of our own people take the role on the side?
They can, and in a small plant that often works. Two things decide whether it does: whether the person is given real time for it, and whether there is cover when they are away. A coordinator role that exists only on paper is worse than none, because it creates the appearance of a programme without the substance – and that is exactly what an audit exposes.
What does external coordination cost?
It depends on the scope you need: the number of sites and EPA areas, how many days on site, and whether documentation, measurements and audit support are included. We agree that individually – from a few days a year up to permanent support – and you get a quote before anything starts.
Do you take responsibility, or do we?
We are named as the ESD coordinator and are accountable for the programme in that role: the plan, the intervals, the records, the assessment. What stays with you is the operational reality – that the measures are actually followed in the EPA. Nobody from outside can enforce that; what we can do is see it and say it.
How long does it take before it works?
The appointment is immediate. The state of the programme decides the rest: where a plan, records and measurements already exist, the handover takes weeks. Where nothing exists, we usually start with an audit, because writing a programme plan for a production nobody has looked at produces a document rather than protection.
We would rather train our own coordinator. Do you do that too?
Yes, and we would encourage it – a coordinator inside the plant sees things no visitor does. We train the role and, on request, take it on in the meantime, so the programme is not on hold while the knowledge is being built. Refresher training keeps it current afterwards, which matters especially now with the 2025 edition.
Talk it through
Tell us how many sites and EPA areas are involved and whether a programme already exists. You get a proposal for the scope – and an honest word on whether external coordination is the right answer for you at all.