TECH TALK ON

VA/VEBY

SOUMYAJIT HAZRAPGPDE

WHAT IS VA/VE ?VALUE ANALYSIS AND VALUE ENGINEERING

VAVE can be defined as “An organized creative approach, which has for its purpose the efficient identification of unnecessary cost i.e., cost which provided neither quality nor use , life, appearance or customer features”

  VAVE can also be defined as a systematic method to improve the "value" of goods or products and services by using an examination of function. 

HISTORY OF VAVEValue Engineering began at General Electric Co. during World War II. Because of the war, there were shortages of skilled labour, raw materials, and component parts. Lawrence Miles and Harry Erlicher at G.E. looked for acceptable substitutes. They noticed that these substitutions often reduced costs, improved the product, or both. What started out as an accident of necessity was turned into a systematic process. They called their technique as “Value Analysis”.

In the year 1954, US Navy Bureau of ships adopted same technique in their effort at ‘cost avoidance’ during the design stage and saved millions of dollars. They named it as “Value Engineering”. VE follows thought process that is based exclusively on “function”, i.e. what something ‘does’ not what it is

WHAT IS VALUE?

A product or service is generally considered to have good value if that product or service has appropriate performance and cost, or, by reverse definition , a product is considered not to have good value, if it lacks either appropriate performance or cost . It can almost be said without any hesitation that, by this definition, value can be increased by either increasing the performance or decreasing the cost . More precisely :1. Value is always increased by decreasing cost ( while maintaining

the performance)2. Value is increased by increasing performance , if the customer

has needs and wants, and is willing to pay for more performance.

Value can be defined as

HOW TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM VALUE?

• Maximum value is probably never achieved . The degree of value of any product depends on the effectiveness with which every usable idea, process material and approach to the problem have been identified , studied and utilized.

•The purpose of the special technique and knowledge of value analysis is to bring with less expenditure of time and money , more of the better value combination into focus.

VA/VE APPROACHA typical VAVE exercise could reduce the total cost of a product by 5-40%. The typical elements of a VAVE exercise are as follows :Information: Understand the current state of the project and constraints / requirements.

Function Analysis: Understand the project from a functional perspective; what must the project do, rather than how the project is currently conceived. The function describes what something does and function analysis is the process where the team reviews the project's functions to determine those that could be improved. Function Analysis can be enhanced through the use of a graphical mapping tool known as the Function Analysis System Technique (FAST). FAST applies intuitive logic to test functions, create a common language for a team, and test the validity of the functions in the project.

VA/VE APPROACHCreative: Generate a quantity of ideas related to other ways to perform the functions.

Evaluation: Reduce the quantity of ideas that have been identified to a short list of ideas with the greatest potential to improve the project and meet the Value Engineering study objective.Development: Further analyze and develop the short list of ideas and develop those with merit into value alternatives.Presentation Phase / Implementation: Present value alternatives to management team and other project stakeholders or decision makers.

APPROACH TO PROBLEMThere are two general approaches to problem solving:1. Analytical approach2. Creative approach

Analytical approach is to arrive at the final solution through a standard step – by- step procedure.

Creative approach banks on the idea – generating ability of the problem solver and his ability to embark on the best out of a number of possible solutions.

Analysis of function thorough use of creativity is the root of VE. Creativity phase in a value analysis program is most important.

Creativity is the development of ideas , new to an individual , not necessarily new to someone else. It is creativity that leads to the discovery of alternative designs, methods, systems or process that will accomplish the basic function of basic cost.

Creativity techniques:-1. Brainstorming 2. Gordon technique3. Check listing 4. Synectics technique5. Morphological analysis 6. Attribute listing technique 7. Evaluation comparison technique.