Sourcing from China 8 min read Published 24 Aug 2026

Factory acceptance test checklist for production lines

By the CISH Engineering Team

Reviewed by Frank Guo, Technical Strategy Expert

TL;DR — The factory acceptance test is the last moment your leverage is intact: the machine is in the OEM's plant, the balance payment is in your pocket, and every defect found costs the factory time instead of costing you a sea freight cycle. A real FAT has five parts: documents before travel · build verification against the contract · a sustained run on your product · quality and safety checks · a signed punch list tied to payment. An empty machine humming for a video is a demonstration, not a FAT. The checklist below is the one our engineers work through in China; when the FAT is skipped, the problems don't disappear — they emigrate to your factory floor. (Where FAT ends and site acceptance begins: FAT vs SAT.)

Before you travel: the document pack

Test protocol, agreed in advance — what runs, at what speed, for how long, measured how, passing at what threshold. If the protocol arrives after you do, it was written around what the machine can do.
Contract spec side-by-side sheet — the quoted specification with named component brands (motors, PLC, drives, bearings, pneumatics) against what was built.
Electrical drawings and layout — checked by whoever will maintain the line, for voltage, standards and serviceability.
Your material, shipped ahead — your preforms, your grain, your film, your aggregate. Testing on the factory's ideal material proves the factory's material.
Punch-list template with sign-off fields — so defects become dated commitments, not conversation.

The checklist

1 · Build verification (before anything runs)

Component brands match the contract — open the panels; motor and PLC nameplates photograph well.
Materials as specified: steel grades and finishes where they matter, food-contact surfaces where claimed.
Dimensions and layout against the drawing — including the bits that must fit through your factory door.
Guarding, interlocks and emergency stops present and functional, not zip-tied open for the demo.
Welds, cable management, pipework: ten minutes of looking closely tells you more about the factory than the brochure did.

2 · Dry run

Every drive turns, every actuator cycles, every sensor reads — individually and in sequence.
Controls behave: start-up sequence, speed changes, fault simulation, restart after an e-stop.
No abnormal noise, vibration or heat at the bearings and gearboxes after a sustained empty run.

3 · Performance run — on your product

Sustained run at contract speed — hours, not minutes; long enough for thermal drift and jams to show themselves.
Throughput counted honestly — good units out per hour, with rejects counted against the quality threshold in the protocol.
Changeover demonstrated — if the line will run more than one format, watch the change and time it.
Consumption measured — power, air, water against the utility figures your site was designed around.

4 · Documentation and packing

Manuals, electrical drawings and parts list — in English, matching the machine as built.
Spares and tools per contract, verified physically against the packing list.
Packing plan: export-grade crating, rust protection, and a loading plan that unloads in installation order.

5 · Close-out

FAT report signed by both parties, with measured results — not "test passed".
Punch list with owners and dates; agreement on which items block shipment and which travel.
Pre-shipment payment released against the signed report — the sequencing that makes everything above enforceable. (Payment structuring.)

What a FAT cannot catch

Honesty cuts both ways: FAT proves the machine in the factory's conditions. It cannot prove your site's power quality, your operators, your water chemistry, your building's temperature, or the interfaces to equipment the OEM never saw. That's the job of installation, commissioning and the site acceptance test — the other half of the story in FAT vs SAT, and the reason commissioning is part of our delivery scope, not an optional extra. For how a FAT saved a real project — and what it caught — see the FAT rescue case study.

FAT FAQ

What buyers ask about factory acceptance testing

Five parts: an agreed protocol and document pack before travel; build verification against the contract (component brands, materials, safety); a dry run; a sustained performance run on your own product at contract speed; and a signed report with a punch list tied to the pre-shipment payment.

Someone with the authority to withhold payment and the engineering eye to use it — your engineer, an independent third party, or a partner like CISH attending as your representative. The worst attendee list is nobody: a video FAT run by the seller grades its own homework.

A structured live-video FAT with your protocol, your material and independent verification beats no FAT. For an integrated line or serious money, in-person still wins — panels get opened, welds get looked at, and sustained runs are hard to fake with someone standing there.

That's the FAT working. Defects become a dated punch list, the factory fixes them where fixing is cheap, and shipment waits for the items that block it. Compare the alternative: discovering the same defects in South Africa, with the balance paid and the OEM twelve time zones from your downtime.

Buying a line? Put a FAT between you and the crate.

Our engineers run factory acceptance tests in China as part of every delivery — and as a standalone service for machines you're buying directly.

Talk to an engineer China procurement & sourcing