If AM wastes material while parts are cost-effective, there will be no incentive to discontinue manufacturing to prevent wastage. If an AM machine is expensive, machine time will be expensive. Hence, if the material is not significantly expensive, the cost of a part will be governed by the machine time. The cost of the material lost during manufacturing, therefore, will not be high enough to increase the part cost. This is the case with metal AM machines, where the cost of machine time is high compared to the cost of feedstock (e.g., steel). Hence, the loss of the steel does not increase the cost of a part too high. If an expensive material replaces the steel and there is a material loss, the loss will be expensive enough to discourage manufacturing. What if the cost of a metal AM machine becomes low, so the material cost is not insignificant compared to machine time? Then, the cost of the part will be low, which will fluctuate with the material cost. If there is a material loss, the part cost will increase. Since the cost of the machine time is low, the material loss during manufacturing will not make the part expensive. And the material loss will not discourage manufacturing.