Project
Sample approval: what to check on a first article before releasing a batch
A first article is not a formality. It is the only point where a wrong assumption costs one part instead of a hundred.
Project
A first article is not a formality. It is the only point where a wrong assumption costs one part instead of a hundred.
Sampling exists because drawings are imperfect. A drawing can define a part and still leave out the thing that matters: how the edge reads under a light, whether the colour is right in the actual store, whether the part fits the frame that the customer did not send. A first article surfaces all of that while it is still cheap.
| Stage | Duration | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Drawing check | 1–2 days | The drawing is buildable and internally consistent |
| First article / sample | 3–7 business days | The part is right: dimensions, finish, colour, fit |
| Customer approval | As long as the customer needs | The customer agrees it is the right part |
| Production | 7–15 business days | Repeatability at volume |
| Packing and shipping | 2–4 days | The parts arrive undamaged |
The two lead times are quoted separately because they answer different questions. Sampling is fast because it is one part; production is longer because it is a batch with setup, inspection and packing.
An approval should be written and should reference something physical or specific. Three things are enough.
A verbal approval is not an approval. We will not release a batch on it, because the person who said yes may not be the person who receives the parts, and memory of a phone call is not a specification.
It happens, and the useful question is which kind of wrong it is.
| Problem | Whose drawing or process | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Does not fit the customer frame | Usually the drawing, sometimes the frame | Re-measure the frame; the customer confirms the corrected dimension |
| Finish not as expected | Ambiguous specification | Approve a physical sample of the finish, then remake |
| Colour wrong in the store light | Swatch approved in the wrong light | Approve in the actual lighting, then remake |
| Dimension out of tolerance | Our process | We remake at our cost |
| Design flaw found on handling | Design | Change the design, quote the change as a revision |
For a multi-store or multi-unit programme, the first article approval is more valuable than for a single part, because it locks the standard for everything that follows. What gets locked: the colour swatch, the finish definition, the drawing revision, the sheet grade and the packing method. A store opened two years later is then compared against a retained sample rather than against someone memory of the pilot.
As long as the customer needs, and it is the step most often on the critical path. If a programme has a fixed date, work backwards: opening date, less build-up, less freight, less packing, less production, less sampling, less drawing approval. Most date failures are caused by the approval step being scheduled after the order rather than inside it.
Not for a simple flat part to an unambiguous drawing. For anything with a visible finish, a colour, a fit into a customer frame or a bonded assembly, a first article is almost always cheaper than a batch that has to be remade.
Usually yes, and usually credited against the production order. It is a real part made on the same machines, and charging for it is what makes the sample honest rather than a demonstration piece.
Yes, with their address and a reference, and we will say plainly what it is so it is not mistaken for the production delivery.
That is a design change, not a defect, and it is quoted as one. The approved drawing revision is what protects both sides from that becoming a dispute.
As many as the first article needs. For a set of parts that assemble, the first article is the set, because the fit between them is the thing being tested.
The most common schedule loss on a project with artwork is not production time — it is three approval loops run one after another when they could have run at once. Fit is approved in week one, colour in week two, print in week three, and production starts in week four having lost two weeks to sequencing rather than to work.
They can be combined, and the way to combine them is to decide which one can carry a dependency. Fit has to be right before anything is printed on the part, because a printed part that does not fit is scrap; but colour and print artwork can be signed off on flat swatches and printed panels while the fit sample is in transit. The sequence that works looks like this:
| Day | What happens | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drawing confirmed; DFM note returned; fitted sample released to production | DFM note, quotation, schedule |
| 2–3 | Colour swatch matched and printed test panel produced | 3 swatches at ΔE ≤ 2, one printed panel |
| 3–7 | Fit sample machined, bonded and inspected | First article plus dimensional report |
| 7 | Single approval meeting covering fit, colour and print together | One signed record, one revision number |
| 8 | Production released against the approved revision | Video of first-off before the batch runs |
The condition that makes this safe is that the colour and print approval must be against a retained physical standard, not against a photograph. Once a swatch is signed and kept, a printed panel produced six weeks later can be checked against it; a signed JPEG cannot be checked against anything, because every screen and every batch of ink differs. If you approve colour by photo, you have not approved colour — you have approved a rendering of it.
For multi-site projects the same loop covers the whole rollout, as long as the approved sample travels. We keep the signed first article and the retained swatch in the job file, and each later batch is compared against those two objects rather than against the previous batch. That is the difference between a rollout that stays consistent and one that drifts by a visible amount across twenty stores.
Send the frame dimensions with the drawing and the first article will tell you the truth before the batch does.