In today’s aerospace manufacturing environment, compliance to standards such as AS9100 is often not optional. A critical part of the AS9100 process involves first article inspection reports.
Despite the name, the inspected article may not necessarily be the “first” produced, but a sample from the first production run provided to the customer.
First article inspection (FAI) is a process to validate your manufacturing process can produce an item that meets the requirements as designed. In the aerospace and defense industries in the U.S. most companies are conducting AS9102 first article inspections.