First Article Inspection review for aerospace suppliers

The part passed. The package didn’t.

First Article Inspection packages come back for paperwork, not parts. Asteron reviews a package against AS9102 Rev C and your customer’s specific requirements, then shows you what will come back, why, and how to fix it. Every finding traces to the region of the document it was read from.

Request a package reviewRead a sample findings report
ABCD1234Ø1.500Ø0.7500.1881.062 REF1.250 ±.010Ø0.375 ±.002.060 ±.010 X 30° CHAMFERR.030 MAX.030 X 45°.015 X 45°BREAK .005-.015.030 X 45°.015 X 45°6332151617181920212223242526272829NOTES1DIMENSIONS AND TOLERANCES IN INCHES.2MATERIAL: ALUMINUM ALLOY 2024-T351 BAR.3UNSPECIFIED TOLERANCES: .XX ±.010, .XXX ±.005.4BREAK ALL SHARP EDGES .005-.015.5REMOVE ALL BURRS AND LOOSE MATERIAL.6NO BURRS PERMITTED IN BORE.7ANODIZE PER MIL-A-8625F TYPE II CLASS 1.8MASK BORE PRIOR TO ANODIZE.9IDENTIFICATION MARKING PER MIL-STD-130.10MARK PART NUMBER AND SERIAL NUMBER ON FLANGE FACE.11SURFACE ROUGHNESS VALUES IN MICROINCHES Ra.12PART TO BE FREE OF CONTAMINATION AND FOREIGN OBJECT DEBRIS.13MATERIAL CERTIFICATION REQUIRED WITH EACH LOT.14PRESERVE AND PACKAGE TO PREVENT DAMAGE IN TRANSIT.REVDESCRIPTIONDATEEBORE TOL WAS 0.375 +/-.00502 NOV 2025FADDED NOTE 814 MAR 2026BUSHING, FLANGEDDRAWNR.H.DATE14 MAR 2026MATERIALAL 2024-T351FINISHANODIZE TYPE IISCALE2:1SHEET1 OF 1ILLUSTRATIVE — SYNTHETIC PACKAGENOT DERIVED FROM CUSTOMER DATA117-4021REV F · SN 3471
Characteristic 27Undeclared nonconformance
Drawing requirement
Ø.375 ±.002
Recorded result
0.3783
Declared on Form 3
Not declared

Characteristic review

29 of 29 characteristics read · 1 finding

Extract
CharZoneRequirementResult
05Note 5REMOVE ALL BURRSOK
15B1Ø1.500 ±.0051.4982
16A10.188 ±.0050.1871
17B3Ø.750 ±.0050.7513
18C21.250 ±.0101.249
26A21.062 REF1.0621
27C3Ø.375 ±.0020.3783
29B1.060 ±.010 X 30° CHAMFER0.067

21 rows not shown · values read from Form 3 fields 5, 6, 8 and 9 · illustrative, synthetic package

A1

A compliant package can still be returned

Most packages come back for failures against the standard itself: a blank field, a characteristic unaccounted for, a nonconformance that was never declared. Asteron checks those first, and they are the bulk of what it finds. The returns that surprise people are the ones below. AS9102 sets the floor, each prime layers its own supplier quality requirements on top, and a package can satisfy the standard completely and still come back for something only that customer asks for.

Form 1 field 18 may be left blank for a COTS part.

A certification traceability number is required in that field.

PUBLISHED SUPPLIER FAI REQUIREMENTS · AIRFRAME PRIME

A second reviewer in Form 1 field 22 is not required.

Field 22 must name someone other than the person in field 20.

PUBLISHED SUPPLIER FAI REQUIREMENTS · AIRFRAME PRIME

Marking unused fields “N/A” is not an AS9102 requirement.

Every unused field must be marked before the package is accepted.

SUPPLIER QUALITY REQUIREMENTS · TIER-1 SYSTEMS SUPPLIER

AS9102 is the first article inspection requirement.

Where the standard and this customer’s clause conflict, the clause takes precedence, and the customer is the sole authority for interpreting FAI requirements on the order.

LOCKHEED MARTIN QUALITY CLAUSE Q2A · REV 17 · §1.C

AS9102 does not require identifying design characteristics embedded inside material and process specifications.

Those characteristics are treated as essential and must be accounted for on a compliance matrix, referenced in and attached to Form 3.

LOCKHEED MARTIN QUALITY CLAUSE Q2A · REV 17 · §3.A

AS9102 leaves the objective evidence included in the package to the supplier’s determination.

A ten-item minimum is specified, including planning paperwork showing in-process verification steps and photographs of any characteristic requiring visual verification.

LOCKHEED MARTIN QUALITY CLAUSE Q2A · REV 17 · §4.P

AS9102 treats the purchase order as optional supporting information.

The purchase order must be in the package, and the reviewer confirms its quality requirements have been met before the package proceeds.

FAIR / LAIR CONTENT REVIEW FORM · ENGINE PRIME

AS9102 requires only a reference to the process used.

The router or traveller must be in the package, showing every operation completed, signed off, and run in the planned sequence.

FAIR / LAIR CONTENT REVIEW FORM · ENGINE PRIME

AS9102 leaves reuse of prior results to the re-accomplishment test.

Carrying results across from another part is governed by the customer’s own read-across regime, and is not permitted at all on a laboratory article report.

FAIR / LAIR CONTENT REVIEW FORM · ENGINE PRIME

AS9102 defines no review checklist for the receiving customer.

One engine prime reviews every submitted package against 115 numbered questions. Any answer of “No” raises a flag the supplier must close in writing.

FAIR / LAIR CONTENT REVIEW FORM · ENGINE PRIME

“Full understanding of Buyer’s requirements requires the concurrent use of AS9102 and Q2A.”

LOCKHEED MARTIN QUALITY CLAUSE Q2A · REV 17 · RELEASED 25 AUGUST 2025 · FOREWORD

A finding raised on a blank field cites the customer requirement that demands it, never the standard. Asteron tracks which requirement belongs to whom, because that distinction is the difference between a useful finding and an argument with your customer.

A2

What comes back

One finding, in full. Every finding names the requirement, the observed value, the comparison that failed, where each value came from, and what to do about it. Nothing is asserted without a source you can open.

Finding 003 · characteristic 27Likely rejection
Requirement
Ø.375 ±.002

Drawing 117-4021 Rev F · balloon 27 · zone C3

Recorded result
0.3783

Form 3 · characteristic 27 · field 9

Comparison
0.3783 is outside .373 to .377
Nonconformance
Not declared

Form 3 field 11 blank · Form 1 field 19 reads No

Tolerance source
Current revision

Rev E revision note records the superseded tolerance ±.005 and was not applied

Remedy

Record the nonconformance reference in Form 3 field 11 for this characteristic, set Form 1 field 19 to Yes, and attach the nonconformance documentation to the package.

Whether the part is acceptable is an MRB decision your organization owns. The finding is only that the condition is undeclared.

AS9102C FORM 3 FIELD 11 · FORM 1 FIELD 19 · IAQG SCMH 3.2.1 §4.5 · ILLUSTRATIVE, SYNTHETIC PACKAGE

Traceable
Every value carries the document, page and region it was read from. A skeptical engineer confirms it in seconds.
Actionable
The remedy names the field to change and the artifact to attach, not a category of problem.
Bounded
Where the answer belongs to your quality organization, the finding says so and stops.

A full findings report on this package, with all 29 characteristics and the extraction regions behind each one, is available to read. Read the sample report

A3

Why this is harder than it looks

A review that flags a conforming package costs a quality engineer an afternoon. Do that twice and the report stops getting opened. Most of the work here is not finding defects. It is knowing which obvious-looking defects are not defects at all.

  • LOOKS WRONGThe drawing number does not match the part number.

    IS CORRECTIt routinely does not. They identify different artifacts and diverge as a matter of course.

  • LOOKS WRONGForms 2 and 3 are empty, so the package is incomplete.

    IS CORRECTOn a partial FAI that is correct, and flagging it wastes a reviewer’s afternoon.

  • LOOKS WRONGA result reading “Basic” is a blank the supplier forgot to fill.

    IS CORRECTFor an untoleranced basic dimension, one prime instructs exactly that entry. It is the right answer.

  • LOOKS WRONGForm 2 lists no material, so the certification is missing.

    IS CORRECTFor a part machined from a casting, the material details live in the casting’s own FAIR. Restating them is explicitly not required.

  • LOOKS WRONGA characteristic recording “Pass” instead of a measurement is a defect.

    IS CORRECTProcess, marking and test requirements state no measurable value, so an attribute result is correct. In one published package, 31 of 65 rows are legitimately Pass.

  • LOOKS WRONGThe revision block gives the bore tolerance as ±.005, so 0.3783 conforms.

    IS CORRECTThat line records what the tolerance was before Rev E. Reading a superseded value out of a revision history is the fastest way to miss the only real defect in a package.

  • LOOKS WRONGNo FAI was done for the raw material or the tooling on this order.

    IS CORRECTOne prime excludes raw material, tooling and product returned for repair outright, on top of the standard’s own exclusions. Flagging them raises a finding against the customer’s own clause.

  • LOOKS WRONGThe only FAI in the package was performed for a different customer.

    IS CORRECTWhere that FAI is compliant and recent, one prime accepts it as evidence for this order. The package is complete as submitted.

Each of these is documented against the prime, consortium or committee source that contradicts the naive check, and every new check is measured against all of them before it is switched on.

B1

How a package is reviewed

Counts below are from the synthetic package shown at the top of this page. You send one package that has already gone to your customer, and name the customer. What comes back is a findings report: every characteristic accounted for, every finding sourced to the region of the document it was read from, and a remedy for each one.

  1. 01

    Ingest

    Package assembled from submitted documents. Drawing, Forms 1 to 3, inspection results, material certifications, certificates of conformance.

    7 documents

  2. 02

    Extract

    Balloons located. Characteristics read from the drawing. Requirement values and tolerances captured per characteristic, each with the region it came from.

    29 characteristics · 29 regions

  3. 03

    Verify

    Each characteristic compared against Form 3 and the dimensional results, and against your customer’s own requirements. Match, mismatch, or missing.

    28 match · 1 mismatch

  4. 04

    Report

    Findings grouped by missing, incomplete, mismatch and potential nonconformance, each carrying one of four states: likely rejection, needs correction, needs review, or unable to verify.

    1 finding · likely rejection

What we need from you

A submitted package
One FAI package that has already gone out. Drawing, Forms 1 to 3, inspection results and certifications, exactly as you submitted them. PDF, Excel or a QMS export.
The customer
Which prime or tier-1 it went to. That is what the customer-specific findings are checked against.
Their requirements
Your customer’s supplier quality requirements document, if you have it to hand. Helpful, not required.
Accepted or rejected
Either. A package that came back clean is as useful as one that did not, and you keep the report regardless.
Scanned drawings
Accepted. A drawing with no text layer is read from the image and reported at lower confidence rather than skipped.
Rev B and Rev C
Both handled, including packages that mix the two within a single document.
Nothing to install
No integration, no access to your quality system, no seat licenses.
B2

A package is not a stack of PDFs.

It is a record of the relationship between a part, its requirements, the evidence that proves them, the supplier that produced it, and the customer that accepted it.

PART RECORD · 117-4021 REV FAS9102C · FAIR-504
CHARACTERISTICCHAR 27
Requirement
Ø.375 ±.002
Result
0.3783
Zone
C3
Method
CMM
DRAWINGCHAR 27
Document
117-4021
Revision
F
Characteristics
29
Region
sheet 1 · zone C3
EVIDENCECHAR 27
Form 3 row
27 · field 9
Recorded
0.3783
Material cert
88-4471
C of C
REQUIREMENTCHAR 27
Drawing
Ø.375 ±.002
Standard
AS9102C F3 · 11
Superseded
Rev E · ±.005
Customer
PACKAGEFAIR-504
Identifier
FAIR-504
Standard
AS9102 Rev C
Scope
Full FAI
Serial
0003471
SUPPLIERSTRUCTURE
Identity
Facility
Process
History
DISPOSITIONSTRUCTURE
Submitted
Response
Correction
Resubmission
VERIFICATIONCHAR 27
Method
CMM
Comparison
outside .373–.377
Declared
No
State
Likely rejection

The same record exists for each of the 29 characteristics on this part.

  1. 01
  2. 02
  3. 03
  4. 04
  5. 05
  6. 06
  7. 07
  8. 08
  9. 09
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29

Fields shown without a value are structure, not data. They carry nothing until a document or a customer response supplies one.

First Article Inspection is where this record begins.

Asteron starts with First Article Inspection because it is one of the few places where the engineering definition, supplier evidence and customer requirements all have to reconcile.

Once those relationships are structured, the same record can support the work that follows: recurring inspection, certifications, nonconformance review, supplier quality and production history.

RECORD COVERAGE · 117-4021 REV FESTABLISHED TODAY
PARTCHARREQUIREMENTEVIDENCESUPPLIERCUSTOMEROUTCOME
FIRST ARTICLE
MATERIAL CERTIFICATION
NONCONFORMANCE
CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMANCE
SOURCE INSPECTION
RECURRING INSPECTION

structured for this part today the field exists and holds no evidence yet

One traceable record of what was required, what was built, what was measured and what was accepted.

B3

Built for review, not judgment

  1. 01EVIDENCE, NOT INFERENCE

    Every finding is connected to the source evidence used to produce it: the document, the page, and the region the value was read from.

  2. 02FOUR STATES, NOT TWO

    A system forced to choose between finding and silence gets tuned toward noise or toward uselessness. Uncertainty is surfaced rather than guessed.

    Likely rejection
    Objectively verifiable, and named as a defect by more than one prime or consortium source.
    Needs correction
    A real defect, but severity depends on context not visible in the package.
    Needs review
    Something a reviewer should look at. Not a claim that it is wrong.
    Unable to verify
    The evidence required to judge it is missing or unreadable. Reported as a gap.

  3. 03READ-ONLY

    Asteron does not approve a FAIR, certify compliance, or modify a quality system. It produces a review artifact. The quality organization remains authoritative.

Handling

01Not training data
Nothing sent to Asteron trains a model. The model provider is configured for zero retention, so prompts and documents are not stored on their side either.
02Commercial scope, screened at intake
ITAR, export-controlled and CUI material is out of scope. Intake screens documents before processing, including markings that exist only inside a scanned image where a text search finds nothing.
03Encrypted at rest, deleted on request
Packages are encrypted at rest and removed on request, without a reason being required. The processing mode is shown before anything is uploaded.
04Source documents unchanged
Asteron does not alter a submitted document and does not write into a quality system. A mutual NDA is available before anything is sent.

Current controls are architectural rather than certification claims. Asteron does not currently represent itself as SOC 2 or CMMC certified.

Send us a package you have already submitted.

One FAI package that has already gone out, the name of the customer it went to, and their supplier quality requirements if you have them to hand. No charge, no commitment, and no NDA needed to start.

Accepted packages are as useful to us as rejected ones. If the package came back clean, that is what the report says.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

  1. 01We review the package against AS9102 Rev C and against what we hold for that customer.
  2. 02We walk the findings with you live, characteristic by characteristic, with the source open beside each one.
  3. 03You keep the report. If we did not find anything worth your time, we will say so.

Not a report dropped in your inbox. You will be talking to the person who did the review.

Request a package review

Or write to hello@asteronindustries.com. Nothing is sent until you send it.