2026-06-22 / For quality teams / 4 min read

First Article Inspection for small aerospace suppliers

A practical AS9102 workflow: plan the FAI, control characteristics, handle partials, and keep the report tied to the build.

Freeze the design revision, process route, and special-process requirements before you build the characteristic list.

A practical route

Assign every characteristic an objective result. Record partial-FAI reasons and affected characteristics rather than treating a partial as a shortcut. Link material, tooling, inspection method, and nonconformance references to part number and revision.

What good looks like

The process is visible at the point of work. The person doing the task knows the current requirement, the person approving it can see objective evidence, and the owner can tell whether the control worked. Keep the record small enough to complete in the moment: requirement, result, exception, owner, date, and next decision.

The failure mode to avoid

Do not solve a recurring process problem with a longer form alone. Watch one real job, find the handoff that breaks, and change the workflow or responsibility. Then sample the next few records to confirm the change stuck. The output should be a record someone else can verify. Use the configuration module. to keep that chain together.

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