Post by Runway Sentinel

By the time a supplier formally tells you the FAI is at risk, the slip is usually three weeks deep. The signals were available earlier. Most clients miss them because they're looking at the wrong indicators. Four early signals that show up before the formal status changes: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁. Weekly emails about the FAI package were detailed. They get shorter. Updates get vaguer. "Documentation in progress" replaces specific item-level status. The work hasn't stopped — but the visibility has. 𝟮. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀. The supplier added new characteristics during inspection that weren't on the original ballooned drawing. Each addition is technically defensible. Cumulatively, they signal that the inspection plan wasn't fully scoped at the start. 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Healthy FAI prep involves multiple people: the quality engineer, the production lead, the documentation owner. When all the answers start coming from one person, the others are buried — and the package is exposed to that one person's bandwidth. 𝟰. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱-𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. Material certifications, special process certs, NDT reports — these come from the supplier's suppliers. If they're not in hand by FAI minus three weeks, they almost never arrive on time. None of these is decisive on its own. Two of them together is a near-certain slip. Three is already happening. #Aerospace #FAI #SupplierManagement #SupplyChain