Really? So all the designers and engineers at Ford who don't have an iota of a car built by the time they're done with their work aren't producing any value?
The design is like the electricity to the factory. You need it or else you get no cars at all, but it's a small percentage of the total resources consumed and produces no value at all directly.
Marketing and finance are also very large components of cost and value, respectively.
It was a short pithy sentence, but it does have a kernel of truth to it.