Lean manufacturing not only eliminates nonvalue-added steps, it eliminates the quality problems that stem from these cost, time and resource drains.
Kaizen, muda, poke-a-yoke. The lean manufacturing terminology can go on and on. In fact, the term itself, lean manufacturing, can go by other names: the Toyota Production System, flow manufacturing, one-piece flow, just-in-time production and so on. The irony is that even as the terminology becomes more complex, the companies that learn these methods and incorporate them into the shop floor will find that production becomes simpler, products become better and lead times become shorter.
Lean manufacturing is about eliminating muda, or waste, while increasing poke-a-yoke, which means mistake proofing, while always striving for kaizen, or continuous improvement. In a nutshell, lean manufacturing is about examining every process in the company to eliminate nonvalue-added activities.