Resource Library/Aegis Quality Kits/FAI and Production Readiness Kit
FAI and Production Readiness Kit
First article planning, AS9102 package checks and the readiness review before the first production run.
Start with the handbook: it sets out the workflow, who does what, the weekly rhythm, a 30-day setup plan and one worked example that runs through every tool below.
The kit, step by step
Each tool is free on its own page, with its own worked example from the same story.
- 1
Checklist · AQL-D07First Article Inspection Planning Checklist
Decide whether a job needs a first article and how much of one, then plan it before the part is made: requirements, the production process, the ballooned characteristics, gauges, materials, special processes, people and records, with a shop-wide log from trigger to customer approval.
- 2
Checklist · AQL-D08AS9102 FAI Package Completeness Checklist
Review a first article package before it is signed and sent: the part record, materials, special processes and tests, every characteristic, the ballooned drawing and the records behind it, with count reconciliations that find the missing line in minutes.
- 3
Checklist · AQL-D09Production Readiness Review Checklist
Decide, on evidence, whether a new or changed part is ready to make product: thirty-eight readiness checks across thirteen areas, a record of the decision and its conditions, and a summary that shows what is blocking the launch.
- 4
Workbook · AQL-D16Key Characteristics Monitoring Register
Every key characteristic with its limits, control method and reaction plan; every measured value; and capability worked out from the values, so you know which KCs are capable, which are not, and which have too little data to say.
- 5
Template · AQL-E07Control Plan Template
A control plan in the columns aerospace customers expect, with a line check that flags missing reaction plans, methods, gauge studies and capability on key characteristics before a reviewer does.
- 6
Checklist · AQL-E09Production Traveler Review Checklist
Two reviews of the document that carries a job through the shop: one before the traveler is released to the floor, so it says what the drawing and the order require, and one when the job is complete, so the record shows every operation done, every part accounted for and every exception authorized.
- 7
Workbook · AQL-E11Inspection Planning Worksheet
Plan the inspection of every ballooned characteristic before the first part is made: where it is verified, by which method and gauge, how often, what gets recorded and what happens when it is out, with a check that every gauge can resolve its tolerance.
- 8
Checklist · AQL-E12First-Piece Inspection Checklist
Release every setup on evidence: nineteen setup checks, the first piece measured characteristic by characteristic with fail and near-limit flags, a suggested decision, and a shop-wide log that shows which setups keep needing a second try.
Read the handbook online
All 22 chapters are free to read on the site. Start with the overview.
- 1Why launches and first articles go wrong
- 2The kit and how the tools connect
- 3The workflow
- 4Who does what
- 5First article inspection in plain words
- 6Order review and first article planning (D07)
- 7Inspection planning and key characteristics (E11, D16, E07)
- 8The traveler (E09)
- 9Tooling, equipment and programs (E10)
- 10The production readiness review (D09)
- 11First piece at every setup (E12)
- 12Running the first article
- 13Reviewing and submitting the package (D08)
- 14After approval: into steady production
- 15The weekly and monthly rhythm
- 16Measures that matter
- 17Setting it up in thirty days
- 18Worked example: one new part through the whole kit
- 19For your plant manager: one page
- 20Quick reference
- 21Situations we meet often
- 22Where the kit touches AS9100D, AS9102 and AS9145
The problem it solves
In most small aerospace shops the first article is treated as an inspection event: the part is made, the inspector measures it, the forms are filled in. When it goes wrong, it goes wrong for reasons decided weeks earlier: a change nobody recognized as a trigger, a part made on a prototype route, a gauge that could not resolve the tolerance, a fixture still being adjusted, a balloon missing from Form 3, a plater the customer never approved. The cost is a second first article, a late first shipment and a customer who checks everything twice. This handbook is the operating manual for the FAI and Production Readiness Kit. It treats the first article as the last step of a launch, sets out one workflow from the order to steady production, who does what, which tool to use at each stage, the weekly and monthly rhythm, and how to set it up in thirty days.
Who uses it
Quality managers and quality engineers who own first articles; manufacturing engineers, program managers and planners who launch new parts; the plant manager who chairs the readiness review.
When
When first articles come back rejected or take two attempts; when you are launching more new parts than before; when a customer's scorecard or audit finds first article or change-control gaps; or before a surveillance audit, where first articles are among the records auditors sample most.
Need more than one resource, or not sure where to start? Book a complimentary 30-minute Aegis Quality Guidance Call. We'll find the tools that fit your situation and a sensible place to start. No sales pressure, no obligation.
These tools help you run the work by hand. When you want the whole picture of your quality system from the records you already keep, that's what the AeroAssure Audit Defense Pack and the IA9100 Transition Gap Analysis do.