According to Lean (Kaizen) philosophy, waste (muda)elimination represents one of the essential activities of profit management.

The Japanese word muda (waste) means waste of material, time and any other activity which is not adding value. According to this philosophy in each company there are just two type of activities : ones adding value and ones not adding values (muda). Clients pay for adding value activities, only.

In order to exemplify: during a technological process the spent time to fix one part on a machine is not adding value. Spent time when the machine is transforming the part does.
In warehouse spent time when a lift truck move and lift a pallet is not adding value. Spent time when the pallet is placed in the truck does.

The spent time in the company to discuss about material quantity which must be ordered to supplier is not adding value. The moment when the order is placed is adding value.
Few years ago, participating in a workshop for supply management lean flow I have discovered total time for placing an order to a supplier counted 370 minutes!!! However, writing and sending the order took 10 minutes, only.

Even the management team is very focus on increasing the revenue of the company if they do not pay attention to non-adding value activities is like having a money printing machine and with one hand we take money from the printer and with the other one put them into shredder machine. And this is not an exaggerate comparison, at all.

Much more than this, if your company is a service provider company your inefficiency affects your customers as well, wasting their time.