Aerospace manufacturing creates tons of Muda--96% scrap rates.

"The amount of metals to be procured for the production of an aircraft (Material Buy Weight) is significantly greater than the actual amount of that same metal present in the delivered aircraft (Material Fly Weight).

"For example, contractors must acquire almost 240,000 pounds of titanium to produce a single F-22A - for which the titanium content of the finished components totals less than 10,000 pounds. In other words, 4.2 percent of the total amount of titanium purchased for one F-22A is present in the completed aircraft. The remaining 95.8 percent of the purchased titanium ends up as scrap to be sold for recycling. Overall, scrap rates for these aircraft range from a 'low' of 80 percent (20 percent Fly/Buy ratio) for steel and titanium for the C-17 to a high of 96.2 percent (3.8 percent fly/buy ratio) for aluminum for the F-22A.

"Aircraft designers seek to design components with high strength but with minimal weight. To achieve this, designers often choose metal plates and forgings for structural components. However, forgings and mill suppliers generally ship components in rough finished forms due to limitations in providing near-net shapes. Instead, parts undergo finished machining to gain the proper dimensional tolerances and to meet weight requirements for the airframe. As a result, 80 to 95 percent of the metal may be machined from the rough forging and end up as scrap. Given today's manufacturing processes, scrap of this magnitude is unavoidable. However, DOD and industry initiatives are focusing on the reduction of scrap by using advanced manufacturing techniques to create near-net shape components with wrought properties. Currently, military aircraft prices generally are not adjusted for costs recovered by contractors from the sale of scrap metals. Nevertheless, costs associated with recovered scrap reduce overhead rates which ultimately affect the prices the Department pays for its aircraft...

"The C-17, F/A-18, F-22A and F-35 use specialty metals and aerospace alloys of steel, aluminum and titanium. In December 2005, representative prices for aerospace alloys for these three metals were: steel, $3 per pound; aluminum, $5 per pound; titanium, $55 per pound. In the same period, the estimated scrap prices for these three metals were: steel, $0.14 per pound; aluminum, $0.65 per pound; titanium, $15 per pound."

--From the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy's report "China's Impact on Metals Prices in Defense Aerospace," located at http://www.acq.osd.mil/ip/docs/china_impact_metal_study_12- 2005.pdf.