DAF Foundations OF Lean Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which TWO of the following are potential side effects of failing to address bottlenecks in a process?

Accepted Answer

Increased lead time for all items in the system.. Option B is correct because a bottleneck caps the throughput of the entire process, so work-in-progress queues up in front of the constrained step and every item—regardless of priority—spends longer waiting, which directly increases lead time (Little's Law: WIP = throughput × lead time). Option D is correct because unaddressed bottlenecks force people to constantly expedite, context-switch, and absorb schedule pressure at the constrained resource, which raises stress levels and is a well-documented driver of burnout. Option A is wrong because bottlenecks typically create friction and blame between teams rather than improving collaboration. Option C is wrong because a bottleneck delays all items, including high-priority ones, unless explicit prioritization mechanisms are introduced. Option E is wrong because bottlenecks usually increase costs through overtime, expediting, and delayed delivery, not reduce them.

Answer

Improved team collaboration.

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Faster delivery of high-priority items.

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A natural reduction in project costs.

Question 2

Which THREE of the following are foundational Lean thinking principles?

Accepted Answer

Elimination of waste.. Option B (Elimination of waste) is a foundational Lean principle because Lean defines value from the customer's perspective and systematically removes the seven wastes (muda) — overproduction, waiting, transport, overprocessing, inventory, motion, and defects — to improve flow. Option C (Respect for people) is equally foundational, as Lean relies on engaging, empowering, and developing employees so they can surface problems and improve their own work, which is why it is often paired with continuous improvement as the two pillars of Lean. Option E (Continuous improvement, or Kaizen) is correct because Lean treats improvement as an ongoing, incremental, everyone-everyday activity rather than a one-time project, using tools such as PDCA and kaizen events to sustain gains. Option A (Mandatory 12-hour work days) is not a Lean principle; Lean seeks to eliminate overburden (muri) and excessive hours, since fatigue undermines quality and kaizen. Option D (Centralized, hierarchical decision-making) is also not Lean, because Lean favors decentralized, fact-based decisions made close to the work (genchi genbutsu) with input from the people doing the job.

Answer

Mandatory 12-hour work days.

Answer

Centralized, hierarchical decision-making.

Question 3

What is a 'Pull' system in Lean?

Accepted Answer

Work is initiated only when there is available capacity.. A Pull system in Lean means work is initiated only when there is available capacity — downstream processes 'pull' work from upstream only when they are ready to process it. This contrasts with a Push system where work is forced onto the team regardless of capacity. Pull systems prevent overproduction, reduce WIP, and expose bottlenecks, making them foundational to Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery.

Answer

Work is pushed by management to the team.

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Work is completed as fast as possible regardless of quality.

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Work is assigned based on seniority.

Question 4

Why does Lean advocate for 'Small Batch Sizes'?

Accepted Answer

To reduce cycle time and increase the speed of feedback.. Small batch sizes reduce the amount of work in progress between steps, which shortens the time any single item spends waiting in queues and therefore reduces overall cycle time. Shorter cycles mean feedback — from tests, users, or downstream teams — arrives sooner, so defects and wrong assumptions are caught while they are cheap to fix. This is a direct application of Lean flow and Little's Law.

Answer

To make the project appear larger to stakeholders.

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To allow the team to work on more things simultaneously.

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To minimize the use of automation tools.

Question 5

What is the primary purpose of 'Little's Law' in Lean?

Accepted Answer

To relate WIP, Throughput, and Cycle Time mathematically.. Little's Law states that the average number of items in a queuing system (WIP) equals the average arrival rate (Throughput) multiplied by the average time an item spends in the system (Cycle Time): WIP = Throughput × Cycle Time. In Lean and Kanban, this relationship is used to predict how reducing WIP or increasing throughput affects cycle time, making it a foundational flow metric.

Answer

To measure individual developer productivity.

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To determine the number of staff members needed.

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To calculate the total project budget.

Question 6

If you have a 'bottleneck', how does increasing local efficiency at a non-bottleneck step affect the system?

Accepted Answer

It increases the pile-up at the bottleneck.. Increasing speed at a non-bottleneck simply pushes more work to the bottleneck, increasing the pile-up without increasing system throughput.

Answer

It reduces the cycle time of the entire system.

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It has no effect on the system.

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It improves the total throughput of the system.

Question 7

What is the relationship between 'Flow' and 'Value' in Lean?

Accepted Answer

Flow is the mechanism that enables value delivery.. In Lean, value is defined from the customer's perspective as what they are willing to pay for, and flow is the uninterrupted movement of work or materials through the value stream that delivers that value. Flow is the mechanism — the smooth, continuous progression of work — that enables value to reach the customer without delays, rework, or waste. Thus flow enables value delivery.

Answer

Value is achieved by stopping all flow.

Answer

Flow is only for manufacturing, not software.

Answer

Flow and value are completely unrelated.

Question 8

What is the primary benefit of 'Standardized Work' in a Lean environment?

Accepted Answer

It creates a baseline for improvement.. Standardized work provides a consistent baseline, which is necessary for measuring the impact of improvements (Kaizen).

Answer

It reduces the need for skilled workers.

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It eliminates the need for team collaboration.

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It makes the work boring and repetitive.

Question 9

How should a team handle an 'emergency' request in a Kanban system that is already at its WIP limit?

Accepted Answer

Discuss the trade-off and decide if the emergency justifies exceeding the WIP limit.. In Kanban, WIP limits are policies, not absolute laws, and the correct response to an emergency is to make the trade-off explicit: discuss what will be delayed or stopped if the emergency is pulled in, and decide consciously whether the emergency justifies exceeding the limit. This preserves the team's ability to manage flow while acknowledging that some situations genuinely warrant an exception.

Answer

Refuse the request at all costs.

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Ask the team to work late to finish it.

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Automatically prioritize the emergency and break all WIP limits.

Question 10

Which of the following best describes the 'Respect for People' principle?

Accepted Answer

Empowering individuals to improve their own work processes.. Respect for people involves empowering them, providing them with the tools they need, and involving them in the improvement process.

Answer

Removing all performance management.

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Allowing everyone to work from home.

Answer

Paying the highest salaries in the industry.

Question 11

Why does Lean emphasize 'Visible Management' for project boards?

Accepted Answer

It provides transparency that highlights issues without needing meetings.. Visible boards (like Kanban) allow everyone to see the status of the project, identifying bottlenecks and issues without needing a meeting.

Answer

It ensures the project looks good for visiting clients.

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It is required by the PMO software.

Answer

It makes it easier for managers to track employees.

Question 12

A product team is mapping its value stream and discovers that a feature request spends 10 days in 'Development' and 20 days waiting in 'Ready for Release' because releases are batched monthly. The team wants to apply Lean thinking to improve flow. Which action should they take first?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the release batch size by moving to more frequent, smaller releases.. The value stream shows that most of the lead time is waiting for release due to monthly batching. Lean teaches that batching creates waiting waste. Reducing batch size and releasing more frequently directly removes that wait, improving flow and delivering value sooner.

Answer

Implement a kanban board to visualize the 'Ready for Release' queue.

Answer

Increase development capacity to reduce the 10 days in development.

Answer

Assign a release manager to prioritize items in the 'Ready for Release' queue.

Question 13

A product team is mapping its value stream and discovers that 60% of its cycle time is spent waiting for approvals from a centralized architecture review board. Which two actions best align with Lean thinking to improve flow? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Move architecture decisions to the team and use lightweight guardrails. The dominant waste is waiting for a centralized approval, so the strongest Lean actions are to eliminate the external queue by moving decisions to the team with guardrails, and to limit WIP in the review queue so work is pulled only when capacity exists. Both reduce lead time and make the bottleneck visible.

Answer

Schedule a weekly meeting to prioritize all pending reviews

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Add more reviewers to the architecture review board

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Require teams to submit more detailed documentation before review

Question 14

A team is new to Lean and wants to understand the purpose of a value stream map. Which statement best describes what a value stream map helps them do?

Accepted Answer

It visualizes the flow of work and information, including delays, to identify waste. A value stream map provides an end-to-end view of how work and information flow, including the delays that consume most of the lead time. By making both value-added and non-value-added steps visible, it gives the team a shared picture for identifying waste and prioritizing improvements.

Answer

It shows only the steps that add value and ignores all other activities

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It assigns blame to the departments that cause the most delays

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It replaces the need for a retrospective by providing a permanent record

Question 15

A team notices that it frequently starts new work before finishing current work, and as a result, lead time keeps growing even though everyone is busy. Which Lean principle should the team apply to address this?

Accepted Answer

Limit work in progress. The scenario describes classic overload: too many items in progress at once, which increases lead time. Limiting WIP is the direct Lean countermeasure because it forces the team to finish work before starting more, reducing multitasking and queues, and thereby improving flow.

Answer

Create flow

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Establish pull

Answer

Build quality in