Before a digital FAI pilot, collect a clear baseline of how AS9102 first articles are handled today: current FAI volumes, lead time, touch time, rejections, defect and escape data, re-inspection rates, and rework cost. Also capture data on process, systems, and document flows to compare the pilot fairly and avoid over- or under-stating impact.

Deciding between partial and delta FAI is driven by AS9102, customer / contractual requirements, and your internal FAI procedure. In practice, you trace the change back to affected characteristics, operations, tools, or materials and then determine whether to re-verify a subset of features (partial) or a narrower subset or single characteristic (delta). In mixed-system plants, you also need clear configuration control so you do not miss characteristics when deciding the FAI scope.