Final answer:
Value-added activities enhance a product's perceived worth by customers and are crucial to a company's operations, including engineering design, machining, and assembly, all of which contribute to a product's final value and are associated with high value-added profits in manufacturing. The correct option is 2).
Step-by-step explanation:
Value-added activities refer to enhancements made by a company to a product or service before offering it to customers, which increase its perceived worth. These activities include, but are not limited to, engineering design, machining, and assembly. They are essential to a company's operations, contributing significantly to the product's final value. For instance, although the physical materials in a product, such as the plastic and wiring in computers, may have a small value, the embedded technology and design contribute more substantially to the final product value. Hence, manufacturing has traditionally been associated with high value-added profits, as it transforms raw materials into finished goods that offer more utility and value to customers. This has historically allowed regions of the world to gain income and wealth, although shifts in the global economy and policies have influenced the dynamics of these profits.