Uncontrolled configuration
Files, software, the physical aircraft, and known changes do not point to one current baseline.
Ask: who can identify and release the intended build?DIAGNOSTIC GUIDE / FIRST LOT
Seven Risks Before the First Lot
Most first-lot failures begin as unowned assumptions. The practical move is to surface each risk before material, tooling, and delivery expectations make it expensive.
Bring the part, volume, material or process, and deadline. The build desk screens the route before anyone commits capacity or lead time.
RISK REGISTER
Use each risk as a decision prompt.
Prototype-only parts
A component worked once but lacks a repeat source, approved alternate, incoming basis, or ownership.
Ask: which part can stop the lot before work begins?Tribal build knowledge
Critical alignment, fastening, routing, bonding, calibration, or adjustment lives only with one person.
Ask: where does technician judgment become product variation?Missing tooling
The build depends on improvised supports, fixtures, gauges, programming setups, or test equipment.
Ask: what must be repeatable outside the engineer’s hands?Unmapped inspection
The team knows quality matters but has not connected requirements to points in the build where they can still be verified.
Ask: which condition becomes invisible after the next operation?Undefined acceptance
There is no explicit answer for what result, record, and authority make the unit acceptable.
Ask: who can release the aircraft, based on what evidence?Informal change
A bench fix, substitute, or rework method becomes the new product without effectivity or approval.
Ask: how does a necessary fix enter the controlled package?PRIORITIZE
Severity is not the only sorting rule.
Prioritize by consequence, likelihood, detectability, lead time, reversibility, and the point at which the decision becomes expensive to change.
OWNER TEST
A risk is not controlled because it appears on a list.
It needs an owner, decision date, closure evidence, effectivity, and a clear consequence if it remains open.
RELEASE QUESTION
What must close before the lot begins?
Do not require every possible improvement. Require the minimum product, material, process, inspection, test, and authority basis needed to run a bounded build without hiding unknowns.
Run the readiness scorecard