First Article Inspection for Shippers

You can have warehouses use Flexe's First Article Inspection service to add missing item properties to your inventory during the receiving process.  

IN THIS TOPIC

• Who Is FAI For? 
• Adding FAI to Your Reservation
• Terminology

First Article Inspection (FAI) is a service offered by Flexe, and provided by the warehouse for your reservation. When product in your Item Master is delivered to your warehouse for the first time, FAI can help with identifying and inputting certain inventory properties.  

Here are the properties that can be added through FAI:

• Eaches per carton
• Cartons per pallet
• Cartons per layer, and layers per pallet (TiHi)
• Ship Alone status (for the each and for the carton)
• Ship As-Is status (for the each and for the carton)

Note: If your warehouse has inventory control permissions enabled, FAI can also be used to add dimensions, weights or barcodes for your inventory. 

If you already have some or all of these inventory properties saved in Flexe, the warehouse can enter or override remaining properties for you. You'll still be able to edit properties after they're entered by the warehouse, as well. However, keep in mind that the system does not keep a record of previously entered inventory properties. 

Who is FAI For?

Note: At this time, FAI is only available for fulfillment reservations--specifically inbound container deliveries/unloads. 

The best use case for this feature is if you’re importing inventory with limited knowledge of how it should be stored in your warehouse, or how it should ship to your customers. If you need more information about your warehouse storage preferences, please reach out to your Flexe Logistics Analyst or contact us at [e-mail].

Adding FAI to Your Reservation

If FAI is something you’re interested in adding to your reservation, reach out to your Flexe Logistics Analyst as a first step.

Once FAI is enabled, here's how you can use it for your reservation: 

1. Upload inventory to your Item Master in Flexe to the best of your ability. 

Go to the Item Master page in Flexe, and add inventory by single SKU, or via CSV Import. To learn more about this process, refer to the Item Master SOP.

Some fields are required-- so even if you’re unsure about specific properties, fill them in anyway.

2. Schedule a container unload with your warehouse.

Use the Inbound Deliveries feature in Flexe to schedule a container delivery for the items you'd like to send to your warehouse.

Once the inbound container is received, the warehouse will input all supported FAI inventory properties in your Item Master, which you can view and access at any time in Flexe. 

Note: FAI can also be systematically enabled for new product in your Item Master, or for product with no activity for 3+ months. 

Terminology

First Article Inspection (FAI): First Article Inspection (FAI) is a service offered by Flexe, and provided by the warehouse for your reservation. When product in your Item Master is delivered to your warehouse for the first time, FAI can help with identifying and inputting certain inventory properties.  

Item Master: A list of your inventory including but not limited to the SKU, physical and shipping properties, TiHi and more.

Inbound Delivery: Refers to the process warehouses use to receive inventory or a purchase order (PO). 

SKU: Stock Keeping Unit; a unique identifier for an item down to size, color and style (if applicable).

Ship Alone: Product defined as unable to ship with any other product. Each item assigned as Shipalone will need its own shipping label, as it cannot ship with any other item.

Ship As-Is: Product that can be shipped “as-is,” meaning that only a shipping label needs to be applied to the item packaging to ship it with any carrier. If multiple ship as-is items are assigned to an order, each item needs its own shipping label.

TiHi: Used for coordinating pallet dimensions--specifically the cartons per layer, and layers per pallet. The "Ti" refers to the number of boxes/cartons that can be stored on each pallet layer or tier; while the "Hi" refers to the number of layers or tiers high the pallet can be.