Workflow

Flow 16 — First article inspection acceptance

Freeze one exact approved product configuration into a versioned inspection plan, execute every characteristic, independently review report completeness and record final QA acceptance or rejection.

Overview

Inventory meaning

FAI creates quality and controlled-evidence records only. It does not receive, reserve, move, release or adjust stock; it does not release a product baseline, authorize customer delivery or send a customer/authority message.

Responsible roles

Product Engineer → different Configuration Manager → different Quality Inspector → different Quality Engineer → different QA Head → read-only stakeholders

Process

1
Plan v1
Author characteristics against exact approved design sources and CLEAN evidence.
Product-assurance plan · Inventory unchanged
2
Configuration review
A different Configuration Manager rejects or approves the frozen source and scope.
Design gate · no baseline release
3
Inspection report
A separate inspector completes every characteristic; failures require matching NCRs.
Measured evidence · Inventory unchanged
4
Quality review
A different Quality Engineer rejects for a new version or accepts completeness.
Report gate · no product release
5
Final QA decision
A fifth actor accepts a passing report or rejects the FAI.
Quality acceptance · no delivery authority
6
Immutable register
Retain all rejected plan/report versions, actors, evidence, audit and outbox facts.
Read-only assurance chain
READ ONLY

Role handoff

Product Engineer → different Configuration Manager → different Quality Inspector → different Quality Engineer → different QA Head → read-only stakeholders

Detailed reference chapters

First article plan, report and acceptance Product configuration and released baselines Nonconformance and CAPA governance Controlled documents and evidence

Detailed steps

1
As Product Engineer, open Quality → First article inspection and select the design-owning site, exact active approved item revision, optional released BOM, optional matching released product baseline/product unit and optional approved supplier. Define scope, reason, article identity and every inspection characteristic with CLEAN plan evidence.
2
Submit plan v1. As a different Configuration Manager, reject it with evidence; confirm v1 remains immutable, then have Product Engineering create and submit plan v2. Approve v2 after revalidating that the released baseline contains the exact hardware revision and BOM.
3
As a different Quality Inspector, complete exactly one result for every approved characteristic. Confirm incomplete or duplicate results are rejected and every FAIL requires an open NCR for the same site and item. Submit report v1 with CLEAN evidence.
4
As a fourth user holding Quality Engineer authority, reject report v1 and confirm it remains immutable while the case returns to inspection. Submit report v2, then accept its completeness with separate review evidence.
5
As a fifth user holding QA Head authority, confirm a failed report cannot be accepted. For a passing report, capture any manually required external acceptance reference and accept with CLEAN evidence, or reject the FAI.
6
As Supplier Quality Engineer or Auditor, read the complete source snapshot, characteristic results, NCR links, actor separation, document links, audit/outbox chronology and confirm current_stock, stock_ledger and product-baseline status did not change.

Field-by-field practice data

Use a disposable training tenant

Create a first-article plan for one approved training item revision and released BOM. The page shows sample set A; the workbook includes independent A, B and C values.

Download all workflow samples (.xlsx)

Field names match the current application labels. Select existing approved records where shown, leave optional values blank unless they genuinely apply, and never copy fictitious TRAIN values into live work.

Product Engineer

Create the FAI plan

Open /quality/first-article

Select the exact design sources and describe the first-article scope before independent Configuration approval.

Exact field name	Requirement	Sample value A	How to use it
Design-owning site	Select existing	`COM-01`	Select the Engineering authority site.
Approved item revision	Select existing	`TRAIN-A-ACTUATOR-ASM rev A`	Select the exact approved revision.
Released BOM (optional)	Conditional	`TRAIN-A-ACTUATOR-ASM BOM A`	Required when characteristics depend on assembly structure.
Reason	Required	`FIRST_PRODUCTION`	Use the actual FAI trigger.
Scope	Required	`FULL`	Use full or partial only with approved rationale.
Article / work reference	Required	`TRAIN-A-WO-FAI-001`	Reference the exact article source.
Article serial (optional)	Conditional	`TRAIN-A-ASM-001`	Use when the article is serialized.
Project reference	Required	`TRAIN-A-PROJECT`	Retain programme provenance.
Classification	Required	`RESTRICTED`	Match the design evidence.

Expected result: The plan snapshots design context; it creates no stock or baseline-release authority.

End state

One accepted FAI retains exact configuration provenance, immutable rejected/replaced versions, complete characteristic evidence and five-person authority separation while stock, baseline release and customer delivery remain independently governed.