A first article inspection (FAI) is a detailed quality check of the first production parts to come off a new or modified tool. It is one of the most important steps in moving from tooling to full production, and one of the most commonly skipped by companies trying to move too quickly.
What a First Article Inspection Involves
A first article inspection involves taking the first parts produced from production tooling and checking them thoroughly against the approved design documentation. This typically includes: dimensional measurement against engineering drawings, visual inspection for surface finish and appearance, functional testing of assembled components, material verification, and packaging and labelling review.
The goal is to confirm that the tooling produces parts that match the approved design before a full production run is committed. If there are problems, they are caught at the point where they are cheapest to fix: before thousands of units are made with the same issue.
Why Companies Skip It
The most common reason companies skip or rush the FAI is timeline pressure. When a product launch date is approaching, spending time on inspection before the full production run feels like a delay. In practice, the opposite is usually true. An undetected problem that gets through to a full production run creates a much larger delay and cost than catching it at FAI.
Who Should Conduct the FAI?
The FAI should be conducted by someone independent of the factory: either the product developer, the client, or a third-party inspector. Self-inspection by the factory is not sufficient because the factory has an interest in approving the parts and moving to production.
Pro-Dev conducts first article inspections through our China team, who are factory-embedded during critical production phases. Our team inspects parts against the approved drawings and engineering specifications and reports back before we authorise the full production run.
