The Lean Thinking methodology says that only a small fraction of the total time and effort in any organization actually adds value for the end customer. By clearly defining Value for a specific product or service from the end customer’s perspective, all the non value activities – or waste – can be targeted for removal step by step. For most production operations only 5% of activities add value, 35% are necessary non-value adding activities and 60% add no value at all. Eliminating this waste is the greatest potential source of improvement in corporate performance and customer service.