A First Article Inspection or FAI is the inspection of one to three pieces from the beginning of the production run. The FAI is not limited to a single piece as the name might imply and these pieces do not specifically have to be the first ones. They can also be randomly selected from an initial lot. Pieces that are inspected in the FAI must come from the mass production stage and is different than inspection an approval sample.

During FAI, mass-produced pieces are audited to ensure that all it's properties and measurements are in line with the customer's product specifications, this information should be provided with the purchase order. Once FAI has been conducted, production can then be resumed and the rest of the order can be fulfilled.