PartProof

Idea

AS9102 First Article Inspection Report software for the small aerospace and defense machine shop that has no CMM, no CAD license, and no dedicated quality engineer. A shop uploads a customer's PDF drawing, gets an AI-ballooned Form 1 free with no signup, then subscribes to generate compliant Form 2 and Form 3 reports by photographing gauge and caliper readings and speaking the values on the shop floor. It replaces the Word template and Excel spreadsheet that most small certified shops still use for this exact task.

Market gap

Every existing AS9102 tool assumes a buyer the small shop is not. Net-Inspect is the portal aerospace primes require suppliers to submit into, sold and priced to the prime's supply chain, not chosen by the small shop itself. DISCUS Software is a floating-license enterprise suite sold through a sales inquiry with no public price. GroundControl markets "floor-speed execution" but its core workflow leans on CMM integration (Micro-Vu, Zeiss, Hexagon) and discloses no public pricing, meaning sales-assisted deals. Ideagen's InspectionXpert is the closest thing to self-serve, starting around $125/month, but it is still a CAD-drawing ballooning tool priced and packaged like enterprise metrology software.

Meanwhile 43 percent of AS9100-series certified companies have 0 to 25 employees, the segment least likely to have a CMM or a quality engineer on staff. Forum threads from machinists at these shops describe building their own FAIR forms in Word and Excel because that is what fits their budget and workflow. Timing: aerospace and defense build rates are climbing and reshoring policy is pushing more first-time FAIRs down to small subcontractors who have never had to produce one before, right as the AS9102 Rev D update raises documentation expectations further.

Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Bottom-up:

• Base: approximately 10,500 US AS9100-series certified companies in 2026. Source: simpleQuE reported 9,044 US AS9100:2016 certifications as of May 2023 and 16.7 percent five-year US growth; extrapolating that trend to 2026 lands around 10,000 to 10,500.
• 43 percent of AS9100-series certified companies have 0 to 25 employees, per statistics simpleQuE cites from the Americas Aerospace Quality Group (AAQG) Spring 2024 meeting. That is roughly 4,500 shops in the "no dedicated quality engineer" segment. This is the TAM population.
• SAM: assume 55 percent of those 0-to-25-employee certified companies are precision machining or fabrication job shops generating FAIRs on an ongoing basis, versus assemblers, distributors, or companies with infrequent new part introductions. That is roughly 2,475 shops.
• Blended ACV: most target shops land on the $79/month Starter plan ($948/year), with a minority upgrading to the $199/month Growth plan ($2,388/year) as volume grows. Blended estimate: approximately $1,100/year per shop.
• TAM: 4,500 shops x $1,100/year is approximately $5.0M ARR.
• SAM: 2,475 shops x $1,100/year is approximately $2.7M ARR.
• SOM Year 1: 3 percent of SAM (about 75 shops) x $1,100/year is approximately $83,000 ARR. Year 2 target: 10 percent of SAM (about 250 shops) is approximately $275,000 ARR.

Monetization strategy

Flat monthly SaaS subscription per shop account, billed by number of FAIRs generated per month, not by seat. A shop pays whether one person or the whole floor uses it, because the buyer is the shop's ability to win and keep contracts, not headcount. Customers keep paying because every new part number from an existing aerospace or defense customer requires a fresh FAIR, so usage is recurring by contract structure, not by habit that can lapse.

Pricing strategy

• Starter: $79/month. Up to 10 FAIRs/month, PDF upload with AI auto-ballooning, Form 1/2/3 generation and export, unlimited users at one location. This is the anchor entry point, priced below InspectionXpert's roughly $125/month starting tier and matching what a shop already budgets for the Word/Excel approach it is replacing.
• Growth: $199/month. Up to 40 FAIRs/month, everything in Starter, plus CMM text-file import (Mitutoyo, Zeiss, Hexagon formats) and a Net-Inspect-compatible export for shops whose customer mandates submission through that portal. This is the anchor most shops with steady aerospace work settle into.
• Shop Plus: custom pricing. Unlimited FAIRs, multi-location, ERP/MES data import, API access, dedicated onboarding, for shops that outgrow 20 employees.

Lead magnet

A free, no-signup "AS9102 Form 1 Generator." A visitor uploads a PDF drawing and gets back a properly formatted, AI-ballooned Form 1 (Part Number Accountability) PDF in under two minutes, no account and no credit card required. It proves the auto-ballooning is accurate on the visitor's own drawing before any pricing conversation happens.

Social proof that the problem exists

• Practical Machinist forum thread "First Article Inspection Software or Documentation": shop owners describe using a blank form built in Word for simple parts and an Excel spreadsheet for more involved ones, and note that HighQA's Inspection Manager costs roughly three times a Solidworks-based approach, which is why they stuck with manual methods. https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum/threads/first-article-inspection-software-or-documentation.382354/
• Practical Machinist forum thread "Let's see your first article inspection forms?": multiple machinists post their own homegrown FAIR templates, evidence that building your own form is common practice rather than an edge case. https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-first-article-inspection-forms.248376/
• Current "Quality Engineer, AS9102 First Article Inspection" job postings on Indeed consistently list "advanced to expert level" Excel proficiency as a required skill alongside AS9102 knowledge, confirming that even in 2026 hiring, shops still expect FAIRs to be hand-built in spreadsheets rather than generated by software. https://www.indeed.com/q-first-article-inspection-as9102-jobs.html
• simpleQuE's analysis of AS9100-series certifications shows 43 percent of certified companies have 0 to 25 employees, the segment least likely to afford or need enterprise CMM-integrated quality software, meaning the underserved shop is not a fringe case but close to half the certified population. https://www.simpleque.com/small-businesses-dominate-the-aerospace-industry-an-analysis-of-as9100-series-certifications/

Competitors

• Net-Inspect (net-inspect.com): the cloud FAI and quality data platform many aerospace primes require suppliers to submit into. It is the buyer-mandated portal, not a tool a small shop chooses on its own, and it is priced and sold at the prime-supply-chain level.
• DISCUS Software (discussoftware.com): a desktop and floating-license FAI and quality management suite with no published pricing, sold through a sales inquiry, built for established quality departments.
• Ideagen Quality Control, formerly InspectionXpert (inspectionxpert.com): ballooning software that generates AS9102 and PPAP reports, starting around $125/month with quote-based seat pricing beyond the entry tier.
• GroundControl (gndctl.com): a newer workflow platform combining auto-ballooning, GD&T recognition, and CMM integration (Micro-Vu, Zeiss, Hexagon), marketed at "floor-speed execution" for machine shops. No public pricing, sales-led.
• HighQA Inspection Manager and Solidworks Inspection: CAD-adjacent ballooning tools. Forum users report HighQA costs roughly three times a Solidworks-based approach, and both assume the shop already holds a CAD software license.

What competitors offer now

Every named competitor is built around one of two assumptions: an enterprise quality department with budget and an IT-style software sale (Net-Inspect, DISCUS, GroundControl), or a shop that already pays for CAD seats and treats ballooning as an extension of the CAD workflow (InspectionXpert, HighQA, Solidworks Inspection). None offers self-serve signup, flat transparent pricing, and a workflow that assumes the shop has neither a CMM nor a CAD license, which per the certification data describes close to half the certified population.

What can be done differently to attract customers

Enter through the free Form 1 Generator with no signup and no CAD requirement, a PDF is enough, so the auto-ballooning quality sells itself before any pricing conversation. Price flat and self-serve at roughly two thirds of InspectionXpert's entry point, with credit card checkout and no sales call, matching how these shops already buy shop-floor software. Build the paid product mobile-first: an operator photographs a caliper or gauge reading and speaks the value, and the app auto-fills the Form 3 characteristic row, so a shop never needs a CMM or a dedicated data-entry hire to produce a compliant FAIR. For the shop that gets pulled into a customer's Net-Inspect requirement, offer a direct Net-Inspect-compatible export so the shop can build the FAIR in a tool designed for them and still hand the prime what it demands.