Quality calculator

First Pass Yield Calculator

Track how much of a process cohort passes without recovery work. Enter unique incoming units, first-attempt acceptances and the first-pass target for that operation.

What this calculator does

  • Compare units accepted on their first attempt with all units entering the same process cohort.

Formula used

  • First-pass yield = first-pass accepted units ÷ entered units × 100
  • Units missing first pass = entered units − first-pass accepted units
  • Share missing first pass = units missing first pass ÷ entered units × 100
  • Target margin = first-pass yield − required first-pass yield

Inputs explained

  • Units Entering Process: Unique units entering the process during the closed study cohort.
  • First-Pass Accepted Units: Units accepted without rework, rerun, retest or offline repair.
  • Target First-Pass Yield: Required first-attempt acceptance percentage for this process.

How to use the result

  • Best suited to operation First-Pass Review, rework prevention tracking.
  • The remaining units may later recover, remain rejected or be scrapped. One-operation yield does not equal rolled yield across a route.

Current U.S. benchmarks

  • U.S. manufacturing runs at 75.7% of capacity (Federal Reserve, Aug 2026). New factory orders are up 8.5% year over year (Census).

Common questions

  • Does a successful retest count as first pass? No, a repeated test is excluded from this first-attempt measure. Record it in a separate recovery or final acceptance metric.
  • Can I add reworked units to the numerator? No, keep only first-attempt acceptances. Adding recovered units changes the metric to a final yield measure.
  • Are all units missing first pass scrap? No, some may be recoverable. This count identifies first-attempt misses without claiming their eventual disposition.
  • Can I average first-pass percentages across operations? An average does not give route-level rolled yield. That calculation requires stage yields and a consistent unit-flow basis.
  • What is a good first-pass yield (fpy)? Typical First-pass yield (FPY) runs 90-95% (% of units passing without rework); 95-98% is good, and 99%+ is world-class. Single-process reference. Rolled throughput yield across a multi-step line will be materially lower; judge each step against this band, not the whole line.

Related guides

Last reviewed 2026-10-06.