First Article Inspection (FAI) Reports for Precision Machining – Ensuring Quality & Compliance

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Some Pioneer Service customers will require a First Article Inspection Report with the shipment of their first order on a new part.  This report provides a detailed verification that all specified requirements on a customer print have been consistently met in production. Years ago, FAI reports were most likely to be requested by medical, automotive and aerospace customers.  Today, they are being requested by customers in a broad spectrum of industries.

Pioneer Service provides Certificate of Compliance (CofC) documentation and material certificates for every production order. In addition, our Quality and Production teams are well versed in providing any FAI documentation for first production orders that is required.  This documentation requires significantly more resources (time and people), so we usually ask that this requirement be specified at the time of quoting so we can include this notation in our documentation at the earliest possible time.

FAI reports may be required when:

• The part is a new design.
• A change in part design.
• A change in manufacturing source, process, inspection method, location of manufacturer, equipment or materials
• Production of this part has not been executed for two years or more (or as specified by customer)

The benefits of a FAI report include:

• Ensure the production process is reliable, repeatable and consistent.
• Ensure a clear understanding of requirements between customer and supplier.
• Develop a clear communication process between customer and supplier.
• Verify the accuracy of customer drawings and part dimensions.
• Validate all equipment used to produce a part.
• Ensure the manufacturing process is capable.

These FAI reports can require additional resources to complete for the supplier and verify for the customer.  They are an excellent way to ensure that there are no issues with the part production. The process has helped to find errors in dimensions, clarify finish requirements, eliminate questions about tolerances, and improve the collaboration for the part in question and on future part designs.

Pioneer Service is AS9100D and ISO9001:2015 certified.  Our production, engineering and quality teams have extensive experience precision machining parts to a wide variety of requirements and providing documentation with those orders. Working with hundreds of clients in the aerospace and military, hydraulics, medical, oil and gas, test and measurement and more, we provide exceptional quality turned components for thousands of products used worldwide.

For more information about the FAI capabilities at Pioneer Service, and our capabilities for producing precision turned components, please contact our sales and engineering team today.