The flowchart covers the steps involved in picking, processing, and packaging and shipping tea. The outline below detasils these steps at each stage of the process.

$1.$ Farm

a$.$ Workers pick usable tea leaves from the field

b$.$ Picked tea leaves are weighed and grouped into $50$ kg bags

c$.$ Bags of weighed tea are moved to a processing area

$2.$ Processing

a$.$ Bags of tea are reweighed at the processing facility

b$.$ Tea leaves are spread across pans and troughs

c$.$ Tea leaves are withered on pans

d$.$ Tea leaves are cooled

e$.$ Tea leaved are removed from pans and reweighed

f$.$ Tea leaves are moved onto special trays and put through a rolling machine

g$.$ Tea leaves go through their first drying

h$.$ Tea leaves are cooled

i$.$ Tea leaves are removed from special rolling trays and put into new trays to go through a second drying machine

j$.$ Tea leaves are removed from trays and reweighed; poor$-$quality leaves are thrown away

k$.$ Tea leaves are visually inspected

l$.$ Poor$-$quality leaves are thrown away

m$.$ Tea leaves are moved to an oxidizing area

n$.$ Tea leaves are oxidized

o$.$ Tea leaves go through their final drying to complete the oxidation process

p$.$ Tea leaves are cooled

q$.$ Tea leaves are sent to packaging and shipping

$3.$ Packaging and Shipping

a$.$ Tea leaves are weighed

b$.$ Tea leaves go through the first sorting machine; small, misshaped, or discolored tea leaves are discarded

c$.$ Tea leaves are weighed

d$.$ Tea leaves go through a second sorting

e$.$ Tea leaves are put into paper tea bags and sealed

f$.$ Tea bags are wrapped in paper packets

g$.$ Tea bags are sealed

h$.$ Wrapped tea bags are sorted into cardboard packs of $20$

i$.$ Cardboard packs are sealed and wrapped in plastic

j$.$ Boxes are sorted into shipping boxes

k$.$ Shipping boxes are wrapped and sealed, ready to be shipped Evaluate the process flowchart to identify steps that do not add value based on the principles of lean manufacturing. Explain why you selected each step.