← Business Metric: Operational (all topics)
First-pass yield & scrap rate
What it is
The proportion of output that meets specification without rework, and the proportion scrapped. Together they measure how much material, energy and time are consumed producing nothing saleable
In high-value processes such as semiconductors and precision castings, yield is the dominant economic variable
Impact on industries
- Yield improvement drops almost entirely to profit, since the cost of the failed output has already been incurred
- It is a direct proxy for process control, and in qualification-gated industries a sustained yield record wins customer approvals
- Rework can mask a poor first-pass rate, so headline quality figures may hide the true cost of failure
- In some processes yield is bounded by physics rather than management, so benchmarks must be technology-specific