The classic method of Value Engineering has guided many of our most successful projects. The uniqueness of our approach to VE has been to greatly expand the creativity and insight methods and to ensure that project teams have a strong grounding in the elements of business and business strategy that set the context for success of the projects. We have delivered basic, certified, and advanced training in these areas, and lead successful studies with construction, manufacturing, and service projects around the world. Dr. Chris Barlow is second generation in the field, a Certified Value Specialist (Life), a former secretary of the Certification Board of the Society of American Value Engineers, and a researcher who earned his doctorate for a study of the effectiveness of the tools of Value Engineering.
Companies must aggressively find ways to deliver better products and services, as costs rise and price increases are resisted. Simply looking for cost reductions has limited success, and often damages long-term strategic success. Value Engineering (also called Value Management or Value Analysis) is a well-tested way to organize efforts to improve designs for better costs and profits, as well as optimizing other factors. Not only is it a strong profit strategy for those contracting with the United States government (they give you half the savings) but it is a powerful way to discover designs that better fit the balance of a company's strategic goals. The process can be applied to anything with a design, whether product, service, process, facility, building, organizational structure, even corporate strategy.
Since the late 1940's, managers and engineers using the name "Value Engineering" (VE) have been leading cross-functional teams improving the designs of products, processes, services, organizations, and strategies. some practitioners have used names such as Value Management, Value Analysis, and Value Improvement.
The tool kit of methods, strategies, and activities developed and tested by these real world managers dealing with real problems and real organizations in every possible technology and industry can help any team utilize its expertise and knowledge more effectively and creatively.
A team that covers all the relevant aspects of a problem or design and follows the Value Engineering process can:
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Develop better products with lower prices |
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Discover changes in the design of products and services that better fit the economic and production infrastructure of new locations, for global expansion and outsourcing |
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Develop the marketing plan for those products |
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Reduce overhead and administrative costs |
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Get more value for the construction dollar in production and office facilities. |
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Find ways to better serve customers at lower cost. |
VE is not a design review process to find errors and omissions. It assumes that designs work and meet the needs of the user. However, VE assumes opportunities exist which are hidden by:
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Organizational boundaries |
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Incorrect assumptions in the minds of the designers, or in the specifications |
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Changes in the state of the art |
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Standard methods which are not the best in this case |
A competent, well-managed design organization trying to get a design completed on time, with no errors, at minimum cost, rarely has the resources to seek out these opportunities.
VE assembles the relevant resources and has the luxury to only look for opportunities for improvement. With proper leadership and the luxury of time, the Value Engineering team can find the opportunities, and speed their evaluation and implementation. With the strategic business thinking concepts we cover as appropriate, teams develop ideas in harmony with company strategy, helping build a strong future for the company. In addition, the skill building and team building impacts of these studies provide a long term improvement in organizational effectiveness.
Further descriptions can be found in our two short articles: "What is Value Engineering" and "Doing Value Engineering"