DPPM is a quality metric that expresses defective parts per million units produced, shipped, or received.
DPPM stands for defective parts per million. It is a quality metric that expresses how many defective units are found for every one million units produced, shipped, inspected, or received.
In manufacturing, DPPM is commonly used to track product quality, supplier performance, incoming inspection results, customer returns, and process improvement trends. A typical calculation is the number of defective parts divided by the total number of parts evaluated, multiplied by 1,000,000.
DPPM usually counts defective units, not the number of individual defects. For example, one part with multiple defects is generally counted as one defective part for DPPM purposes. This differs from metrics such as DPMO, which may count defects per opportunity depending on the quality method being used.
DPPM is most useful when the counting rules, inspection scope, time period, and disposition criteria are clearly defined. Without those boundaries, comparisons between lines, suppliers, plants, or reporting periods can be misleading.