What is the primary goal of lean management?

The primary goal of lean management is to reduce waste and enhance efficiency. Lean management principles focus on identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities in a process, which helps organizations streamline operations and maximize value. By concentrating on operational processes and improving them, lean management enables teams to deliver products and services more effectively and efficiently, thereby increasing overall productivity while also reducing costs.

This philosophy promotes continuous improvement and involves engaging all employees in the quest for increasing efficiency and minimizing waste in their respective roles. By creating a culture of accountability and commitment to improvement, organizations can achieve significant cost savings and enhance their competitive advantage in the market.

Other options such as increasing operational costs or introducing more hierarchy contradict the very essence of lean principles, as they would typically lead to inefficiencies and complexity rather than streamlined operations. Additionally, expanding product lines unnecessarily does not align with the lean focus on value creation and often leads to resource dilution and increased complexity rather than improvements in efficiency.