I think there is a big misunderstanding out there concerning 1st articles and their intent.
First of all AS9102 is not required by AS9100. It may be imposed by your customer, but not by AS9100. More and more customers are requiring AS9102 1st articles from their suppliers.
Second, AS9100C requires the organization to have a process for and to perform "Production Process Verification". Using a representative item from a first production run, the organization is supposed to verify that the process, documentation, and tooling are capable of producing parts and assemblies that meet requirements. This is more than just inspecting a production part for compliance. A thorough first article has to include a complete evaluation of the documentation that was used to produce the part, the fixturing/tooling used, as well as raw material, etc.
A couple of important points here.
If your organization is such that you manufacture lots of prototypes or "one offs", then you never have to worry about first articles because you never develop a production run. You have to make sure that your parts are inspected to assure compliance and you never need to worry about verifying a production process, because you don't have one. Each part or small batch/lot is unique.
An AS9102 first article has a considerable amount of rigor associated with it and is not merely and inspection of the finished part to be sure it complies. A thorough AS9102 first article also requires a complete review of the process that produced the part to be sure it includes all of the requirements and, if changed, is re-evaluated for the change to be sure the change did not have a detrimental affect.
On a coating/plating process I would expect not only dimensional and visual requirements to be evaluated and reported, but I would also want to see and be assured that the process planning be used to produced this part had complete and adequate information for the process to be repeated. That the holding fixtures were identified and had any special requirements called out. That the proper masking was called for in the planning, if necessary, and that its application was specified. I might want to see or have the supplier assure me that they evaluated the raw material. Perhaps I would require a report on the periodic testing results, etc. You really want to roll over every rock in the process to make sure that every detail has been assured at least once.
In short, I would want to know that the part came out correct and that the process can be relied upon to continue to produce the same part.
Good luck
