Defect Rate (DR)

Percentage of defective items received or produced out of total items

FORMULA

DR = (Defective Items / Total Items) × 100


Alternate Calculations

PPM(Defective Items / Total Items) × 1000000
By TypeCalculate separately for critical, major, minor defects

What is Defect Rate?

Defect Rate measures the percentage of items that fail quality standards, either incoming from suppliers or produced internally. This metric indicates quality control effectiveness and manufacturing process health. Lower defect rates indicate better quality and reduce rework, returns, and warranty costs. World-class manufacturers target defect rates of 1% or less (Six Sigma targets 3.4 defects per million).

Chart

Edit the data below to update the chart. Download as PNG or SVG — free, no sign-up required.

5,300total · Week 4Defect Rate
CSV or tab-separated format · edit to update chart live · 4 rows

Sample Data

weektotaldefectsrate
Week 15,000450.9
Week 25,200390.75
Week 35,100380.75
Week 45,300320.6

Required Data Columns

Total UnitsDefective Units