There are five key ideas supporting Lean process improvement. Let’s take a look at those now.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as, “The regard that something is held to deserve; importance or worth.”
In terms of Lean, value means what we want out of a product, service, or process. In other words, it is a desirable result that has some worth. Any process should put out more than it consumes. For example, if producing a widget costs $20 but you’re only selling it for $15, you are not creating value.
There are two basic ways to increase value: increase revenue or decrease cost. Both of these can be done with Lean processes.