ABSTRACT
Higher education Lean practitioner determine value-added (VA) steps based on their value to the customer. These include both internal and external customers. If, given a choice, the customer would be willing to pay for these steps if they could see the whole process. All work activities can be sorted into two basic categories, VA and non-VA (NVA). VA steps are necessary to provide a product or service. An example of VA steps in higher education relating to student admissions is students filling out an application with required information and submitting it to admissions. Additional VA would be for the admissions department to review the application for completeness and eligibility before processing it in the system. NVA steps delay service to the customer, create extra work that costs money, and diminishes the quality. The goal of any process improvement is to remove waste in order to improve efficiency and quality.
