Lean Thinking aims to minimize resources and time in all activities. This is achieved by focusing on what?

• A. Maximizing inventory
• B. Outsourcing all activities
• C. Eliminating non-value-added activities
• D. Increasing production speed regardless of quality

Answer: (C)

Lean Thinking centers on removing waste to reduce the resources and time spent on a process. The most effective way to do this is to focus on eliminating non-value-added activities—those steps that don’t contribute to what the customer actually values. By stripping away these activities, processes flow more smoothly, cycle times shorten, and quality improves because effort is redirected to the essential, value-adding steps.

Why the other options don’t fit: simply increasing inventory hides problems and ties up capital, which contradicts the lean aim of reducing waste; outsourcing everything can weaken control and introduce new inefficiencies or risks; raising production speed without regard to quality tends to increase defects and waste rather than cut it. The emphasis should be on cutting out activities that do not add value from the customer’s viewpoint.