This guidance document suggests general practices and establishes standard terms for the prevention of Foreign Object Damage (FOD) to aerospace products and operating environments. Aerospace products include aircraft, missiles, launch vehicles, unmanned aerospace systems, satellites, engines, manufactured parts associated with aerospace products, etc. Operating environments include fabrication, manufacturing, assembly, test, hangars, ramp, airport operations, launch, flight, etc.

Purpose

This document provides guidance for the prevention of Foreign Object Damage (FOD) to aerospace products being designed, developed, manufactured, assembled, operated, repaired, modified, refurbished and maintained. This document is designed to reduce or eliminate the risk from Foreign Objects (FO), when not properly controlled or accounted for, from becoming Foreign Object Debris (FOd) that can lead to Foreign Object Damage (FOD) of products or systems.

The objective of this document is not only to promote aerospace safety and the preservation of private and national assets, but to give the reader clear guidance to effectively implement programs compliant to published national standards and government instructions relative to FOD Prevention.

An effective FOD Prevention Program identifies potential problems, mitigates risks, promotes awareness, provides effective employee training, and uses industry best practices and lessons learned for continued improvement. Users are encouraged to apply the contents of this document to suit their particular product or program. This document is a guide to the implementation of a FOD Prevention Program. However, to implement activities or controls to achieve the appropriate level of risk protection, some activities and controls need to happen as defined by the company. These important activities and controls are emphasized in this document by the term “should”.