Factory First Article Inspection

First Article Inspection is one of the primary methods for the "inspection and testing of vendor components."The testing of a pre-production sample is considered essential in the process of approving an order or contract; the first article inspection should determine if the product meets acceptance requirements and quality control requirements. Customers who perform such inspections are recommended to identify this in the contract, and to use specific forms to document the results.

The purpose of the First Article Inspection is to give objective evidence that all engineering, design and specification requirements are correctly understood, accounted for, verified, and recorded. The purpose of this standard is to provide a consistent documentation requirement for aerospace components FAI.

FIRST ARTICLE INSPECTION (FAI): A complete, independent, and documented physical and functional inspection process to verify that prescribed production methods have produced an acceptable item as specified by engineering drawings, planning, purchase order, engineering specifications, and/or other applicable design documents.


With the use of modern computers in the manufacturing environment, First Article Inspections are no longer being used with the traditional three form layout on paper but instead recorded digitally and stored on servers for easy access and organization. Recording the first article digitally eliminates errors with the help of software that keeps tracks of the FAIs and generate reports (FAIR) immediately after successful completion of an FAI.