Batch Yield Calculator
Find your real production yield — and what scrap is actually costing you per batch.
Yield % = (Good Units Produced / Units Started) × 100
Yield
92%
8 scrap units
Scrap Rate
8%
of units started
Actual Cost per Good Unit
$5.43
what scrap really costs you, baked in
What batch yield is
Batch yield is the percentage of units a production run actually produces as good, sellable output compared to the number of units the batch was planned to produce. Not every unit started survives the process — evaporation, trimming, forming loss, and QC rejections all take a bite before finished goods reach the shelf. The formula:
Yield % = (Good Units Produced / Units Started) × 100
The number that should actually drive your pricing decisions is the actual cost per good unit, not the planned cost per unit. Total batch cost doesn't shrink just because some units didn't make it — that cost gets absorbed entirely into the units that did. A batch that looked like it cost $5.00 per unit on paper can easily cost $5.43 or more per unit once scrap is accounted for, and pricing off the planned number quietly erodes margin on every batch.
How to use it
- Units Started (Theoretical Yield): the number of units the batch was planned or expected to produce before any losses — the quantity you set out to make.
- Good Units Produced (Actual Output): the number of units that actually passed QC and are sellable finished goods.
- Total Batch Cost: the total cost of materials, labor, and overhead consumed by the batch — optional, but entering it unlocks the cost-impact numbers, which are usually the more actionable output.
Worked example
Say a batch started with 100 units, 92 came out good, and the batch cost a total of $500 in materials, labor, and overhead:
Yield % = (92 / 100) × 100 = 92% Scrap Rate % = 100 − 92 = 8% Planned Cost per Unit = $500 / 100 = $5.00 Actual Cost per Good Unit = $500 / 92 = $5.43
The batch ran a 92% yield with an 8% scrap rate — 8 units didn't make it. The planned cost per unit looked like $5.00, but because the full $500 batch cost has to be recovered from only 92 good units, the actual cost per good unit is $5.43. That $0.43 gap per unit is what the scrap is really costing — and it's the number that should be feeding pricing and margin decisions, not the theoretical $5.00.
Frequently asked questions
What's a good yield percentage?
It depends heavily on the process and industry — food and cosmetics manufacturers often run 85-95% yield due to evaporation, trimming, or forming loss, while precision assembly can run 98%+. The more useful benchmark isn't an industry average, it's your own batch-over-batch trend: a yield that's drifting down from your historical baseline signals a process, equipment, or supplier problem worth investigating before it compounds.
How is scrap rate different from yield?
Yield and scrap rate are two sides of the same number — yield is the percentage of units started that came out good, and scrap rate is the percentage that didn't (100% minus yield). A 92% yield batch has an 8% scrap rate. Tracking both is useful because scrap rate is easier to translate into a cost or unit count when you're reporting waste, while yield is the more intuitive number for production planning.
Why does actual cost per unit matter more than planned cost?
Planned cost per unit assumes every unit started makes it to good output, so it understates true cost whenever there's scrap. Actual cost per good unit divides the same total batch cost by the smaller number of units that actually passed — the cost of the scrapped units gets absorbed into the ones that survived. Pricing or margin decisions based on the planned number will consistently overstate profitability by exactly the amount scrap is costing you.
Stop losing margin to unmeasured scrap
Nstock ties yield percentages directly to your Bills of Materials and production runs, so every batch captures its true cost automatically — no manual recalculation, no scrap hiding in a planned-cost number that was never real.