What is Lean primarily focused on eliminating?

Lean is primarily focused on eliminating waste, which is any activity or process that does not add value to the customer. This philosophy is rooted in the idea of maximizing customer value while minimizing resources, making it essential for organizations to identify and remove non-value-added activities. Waste can manifest in various forms, including excess inventory, waiting time, unnecessary motion, overproduction, defects, and more. By concentrating on waste elimination, Lean methodologies strive to enhance efficiency and streamline processes, ultimately leading to improved productivity and customer satisfaction.

In the context of process improvement, other factors such as defects, complexity, and variation are certainly important considerations; however, they are more directly addressed by methodologies like Six Sigma, which specifically aims to reduce defects and variation in processes. Lean complements these efforts by focusing on waste, creating a synergistic effect when both methodologies are used together.