ONE QUALITY RECORD, TWO COMPANIES

EquatorOps is the shared quality workspace for a specification owner, its contract manufacturer, and the quality team working between them.

BUILT FOR THE SPACE BETWEEN TWO COMPANIES

Quality software is normally built for one company. Your procedures, your approvals, your records. That works until the product is designed, built, and tested by a different company on the other side of the world. Then the most important information lives in the gap between two systems that cannot see each other.

EquatorOps is built for that gap. The manufacturer proposes a change, the specification owner reviews the exact version that was proposed, both parties sign what they actually reviewed, and the record of who agreed to what is one record rather than two email threads and a spreadsheet.

THREE ROLES, ONE VIEW

Each participant sees the shared program, scoped to what their role is responsible for.

Specification owner

Product and design authority, regulatory decisions, approval of changes that affect the device, and visibility into what the factory is actually doing.

Contract manufacturer

Manufacturing procedures, validations, executed production records, proposed process changes, and corrective actions, contributed directly rather than emailed.

Quality consultant

Diagnostic findings, on-site verification, evidence review, action coordination, and audit preparation across both organizations.

EVIDENCE, NOT A FILE COUNT

A checklist can tell you a document exists. The question an auditor asks is whether the record is current, approved, traceable, and supported by objective evidence.

EquatorOps evaluates a design file against the requirement rules that apply to it and reports what blocks release. An empty validation section is not a missing row in a spreadsheet. It is a blocker, named, with the rule it violates and the section it belongs to.

DESIGN CONTROL · READINESS

Heating Pad · Design History File

Readiness, sections & members, traceability, reviews, baselines

Draft

Not release ready: 1 blocker, 0 warnings

MISSING_REQUIRED_MEMBER

INPUTS

4 members · 0 blockers

Ready

OUTPUTS

6 members · 0 blockers

Ready

VALIDATION

0 members · 1 blocker

Blocked
Requirement rule Severity Observed / Min Status
DHF::INPUTS::RECORD At least one design input must be recorded. Blocker 4 / 1 Satisfied
DHF::VALIDATION::RECORD Validation evidence is required before release. Blocker 0 / 1 Unsatisfied
DHF::VERIFICATION::TRACE EDGE Design inputs should be satisfied by outputs. Warning 4 / 1 Satisfied

Illustrative view of design file readiness. Configuration reflects the device family and regulatory framework agreed for the engagement.

EACH PARTY SIGNS WHAT IT REVIEWED

When a change is submitted for review, its content is sealed. Approvers are assigned by party, each one re-authenticates at the moment of signing, and the approval binds to that exact sealed revision.

If the content changes, the prior approvals do not carry forward. That is the difference between a signature that records agreement and a signature that merely records a click.

CHANGE CONTROL · APPROVALS

CC-0042 · Thermal cutoff supplier change

Review revision 3 · sealed at submission · both parties required

Approved

Specification owner · approved

Signed by the specification owner's quality approver

Meaning: APPROVE · review revision 3 · re-authenticated at signing

Manufacturer · approved

Signed by the manufacturer's quality approver

Meaning: APPROVE · review revision 3 · re-authenticated at signing

SEALED REVISION

Content frozen at submission

Rev 3

AUDIT CHAIN

Verified to current head

Verified

Illustrative multi-party change approval. Required approvers and parties are configured per engagement.

WHAT THE WORKSPACE DOES

Documents & records

Controlled documents separated from executed evidence

Revision status, approval state, and controlled-copy handling, with procedures and templates distinguished from the records they produce. Source, revision, date, and ownership are preserved on every record.

Design control

Design files organized by lifecycle phase

Planning, inputs, outputs, review, verification, validation, transfer, changes, risk, and post-market, each with its own members, readiness state, and requirement rules. Design History Files, Medical Device Files, Device History Records, and technical files are separate archive types.

Traceability

Requirements traced to the evidence that satisfies them

A trace matrix connecting design inputs to outputs, risk controls to verification, and requirements to the records that close them, with the gaps visible rather than inferred.

Change control

Multi-party change review with assigned approvals

Proposed changes carry an impact assessment across affected parts, documents, and processes. Review content is sealed at submission and each required party signs that exact revision.

Quality events

Nonconformances, CAPA, and complaints that stay connected

Findings carry severity, disposition, ownership, and CAPA linkage. Complaints connect to the investigation, the resulting NCR or CAPA, and the closure decision, so the chain survives the personnel who created it.

Signing & audit trail

Electronic signature and tamper-evident history

Signing requires re-authentication, supports a second factor, and records a server-authored signature manifestation that persists with the record. Field-level history is captured in a verifiable chain.

Audit output

An assembled evidence package for the auditor

Record identity, chronological history, signature manifestations, and chain verification exported as a coherent offline package, rather than a folder of screenshots assembled the week before an inspection.

Coordination

A shared inbox and assigned work across both companies

Open items, readiness gaps, training, calibration, inspections, and remediation status in one view, with work assigned to the person responsible at whichever company owns it.

QUALITY INBOX

Open quality items across the engagement

One view for the specification owner, the factory, and AsianOPS

SourceOpenOwner
Design archives not ready1Spec owner
Open design reviews4Spec owner
Open nonconformances2Factory
Open CAPA2Factory
Calibration due3Factory
Pending signatures2Both parties

Illustrative shared quality inbox. Sources shown depend on the modules configured for the engagement.

HOW IT FITS YOUR EXISTING SYSTEMS

EquatorOps can operate two ways, and the right one depends on how much time you have and how settled your current records are.

As a coordination layer. Your factory's signed and controlled records remain the official source documents. EquatorOps provides the shared organization, traceability, and coordination view across both companies. This is the usual starting point when an audit is close and a system migration would be a distraction.
As the shared record of record. Controlled documents, approvals, change control, and quality events live in the workspace itself, with signing and audit history maintained there. This suits a new program, a new factory relationship, or a company ready to consolidate a scattered document estate.

Engagements are set up and provisioned by our team around your device family, your factory, and the regulatory roles you and the manufacturer actually occupy. The workspace is included in the diagnostic engagement.

SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN PROGRAM IN MIND

The most useful demonstration is one framed around your device and your factory. A short call is enough to set that up.