Concept value engineering pdf

COST A comprehensive list of five specific causes of unnecessary costs. Cost -Unnecessary attributes Failure to examine attributes which cause no useful function 2. Cost -Poor build ability ,Failure to consider construction implications during design 4. Cost — Lifecycle Failure to consider future operational costs 5. Student Construction Management , S. C, Umrakh, Bardoli, Gujarat, India. Thank you. Ayman Othman. Download File. Using the above example, a value hierarchy is developed following similar criteria attributes given in Table 7.

The weighting of each criterion is first obtained by normalizing the initial score of degree of importance based on a 10 for the least important in the group. The final weighting for the lowest-level criterion is computed as the product of the criterion in the path of the tree to the top.

The criteria in the lowest level of each branch with their final weights are used in the evaluation of the alternatives. The analytical hierarchical procedure AHP can also be adopted to derive the final weightings of the criteria Saaty, The AHP approach has been employed to rank success factors Chua et al.

Development Phase This is the phase when a limited number of the ranked alternatives are taken forward for development. The alternatives are designed in greater detail so that a better appraisal of their cost, performance, and implementation can be made. The cost should be computed based on life-cycle costing.

At this stage, it may be necessary to conduct a trial or prepare a model or prototype to test the concept before recom- mending them to the decision makers. Recommendation Phase In this phase, a sound proposal is made to management.

The effort in this phase can be crucial because all the good work done thus far could be aborted at this final stage if the proposal is not effectively presented.

The presentation must also include the implementation plan so that management can be fully convinced that the change can be made effectively and successfully without detriment to the overall project.

Implementation Value engineering can be applied at any stage of a project. It must, however, be borne in mind that greater benefits can be reaped when it is implemented in the earlier stages of the project. Figure 7. In the earlier stages of the project, there are less hard constraints, so there can be greater flexibility for adopting innovative alternatives.

As the project proceeds, more constraints are added. Then, there is less flexibility for change, and greater costs will have to be incurred to make the necessary design changes. Another consideration applies to the level of effort in the program. It is possible to apply VE extensively to every item in a project, but the amount of effort may not be recompensed in the same measure. By the same token, a large proportion of unnecessary costs is contributed by only a few items.

Thus, the efforts of VE should be directed at these few items to yield significant cost savings. These constraints, however, can lead to poor cost and value ratios, and if left unchallenged, can lead only to suboptimal solutions.

In a project for the construction of a wafer fabrication multistory building, for example, the process engineer laid out their process plans for the various floors.

The sub-fab facilities were arranged so precariously on one of the floors that the main fabrication area above this level could not be laid out symmetrically with respect to the building. As customary, this was presented as a constraint to the structural engineers and vibration consultants of which the author was a member.

The objective of the design was a waffle floor system that would ensure that the vibration level in the main fabrication area under ambient conditions would not exceed some extremely low threshold criteria with velocity limits not exceeding 6. With the original layout, the design would demand some elaborate system of beam girders to take advantage of the shear walls at the perimeter because no shear walls are allowed in any area within the perimeter and still would suffer from unnecessary torsional rotation due to the eccentricity of the floor system.

It was only after several deliberations that the process engineers finally agreed to modify their layout so that a symmetric design could be accommodated. This resulted in significant savings in terms of con- struction costs and improved vibration performance. It is common that the initial specifications conflict with basic function of the design, which in this case, is a vibration consideration, leading to poor and expensive solutions, if left unchallenged. Just as the extent of solutions can be curtailed if some poorly defined constraints are left unchallenged, the scope of alternatives can also be severely limited if the value engineering team comprise only the same designers of the system.

These designers become so intimate with their designs that they fail to detect areas of unnecessary costs. The approach is to form a multidiscipline team that cuts across the technical areas of the study, comprising one or two members in the major discipline with the others in related fields. In this way, the alternatives tend to be wider ranging and not limited by the experience of a single group. Greater consideration can also be given to the impact of these alternatives on the system as a whole.

As with any program, the VE program has to be well managed with the support of top management in all practical ways. Visible support will entail their presence in many of the review meetings of VE projects, their support with the necessary budget and staff training and participation, and their time to discuss problems associated with the program and implementation of the alternatives.

In the construction industry, it is usual to place the VE group with the purchase or design function of the organization. The success of the VE program also largely depends on the leader of the VE group.

Nevertheless, he must be able to follow organizational culture to gain acceptance of management and colleagues, yet has to have the necessary qualities to bring about changes for the better. His ability to control the dynamics of the group is important if he is to initiate and direct the program successfully.

It is also not merely making construction methods more efficient after the project has been mobilized. Instead, the concept of constructability arises from the recognition that construction is not merely a production function that is separated from engineering design, but their integration can result in signif- icant savings and better project performance.

Construction input in design can resolve many design- related difficulties during construction, such as those arising from access restrictions and incompatible design and construction schedules. Construction input includes knowledge of local factors and site conditions that can influence the choice of construction method and, in turn, the design. The effects of an engineering bias to the neglect of construction input are discussed by Kerridge The highest ability to influence cost comes at the conceptual phase, where the decisions at that time could greatly affect the project plan, site layout and accessibility, and the choice of construction methods.

Full integration will require that the contractor or construction rep- resentative be brought into the project team at the same time as the designer. Thus, the choice of the contractual approach can be critical in determining early construction involvement in a project.

Another important consideration for meaningful construction input to design is the commitment to preconstruction planning. Conceptual Planning The key issues in this phase relate to evaluating construction implications to project objectives, developing a project work plan, site layout, and selecting major construction methods Tantum, Construction-related issues at this stage can have major impacts on budget and schedule.

The project objectives must be clearly established so that alternatives in various decisions can be effectively evaluated. The implications from the construction perspective may not be readily apparent to the planning team, unless there is a member experienced in field construction.

An effective work plan requires that work be adequately packaged and programmed so that design information and essential resources and materials required for each package can arrive in a timely fashion.

Without construction input, the packaging and availability of design may not allow desirable work packaging or construction sequence. Moreover, the problems or opportunities from local factors and site conditions may be missed.

Construction knowledge is also necessary for developing a feasible schedule. It is usual for the building and site layouts to be determined solely on plant, process, and business objectives.

Too often, construction implications are not considered with resulting severe limitations on construction efficiency due to inadequate space for laydown areas, limited access, and restrictions on choice of construction methods. Construction knowledge is essential in the selection of major construction methods that will influence the design concepts. The possibility of modularization and the degree of prefabrication, for example, are construction issues that must be considered in this early stage.

Engineering and Procurement The following are some key ideas that are generally applicable for guiding the constructability initiatives during the engineering and procurement phase of the project. With respect to design per se, the general principle is to provide design configurations and concepts that reduce the tasks on site, increase task repeatability, and incorporate accessibility.

This will reduce unnecessary delays in the field caused by resource and information unavailability. Boyce presented some inter- esting principles in this aspect of designing for constructability. This will lead to fewer errors in the field, improved productivity through repetitive work, and advantages in managing the supply chain of fewer differing components.

Focus instead is given to delivery, lifting, and assembly in the field. An accessibility checklist may be useful for this. Computerized simulation CAD models are also used in this regard. Field Operations There are constructability issues remaining during field operations. These pertain to task sequencing and improving construction efficiency and effectiveness. Contractors can still reap the benefits of constructability, which can be quite substantial if the decisions are taken collectively.

Many innovations have been made in the use of temporary construction systems, use of hand tools, and construction equipment. The advantages have been obvious: reduced erection and setup times, improved quality in products delivered, and increased construction productivity in related tasks.

Many construction problems on site can be resolved quite easily with proper task sequences. Tasks can be better sequenced to minimize work site congestion with its consequent disruptions of work.

Unnecessary delays can be avoided if tasks are properly sequenced to ensure that all prerequisites for a task are available before commencement. Effective sequencing can also take advantage of repetitive tasks that follow each other for learning-curve benefits.

Sharing of equipment and systems is also an important consideration in tasks sequencing. Implementation As in all value methods, to be effective, constructability has to be implemented as a program in the organization and not on an ad-hoc basis. In this program, the construction discipline, represented by constructability members, becomes an integral part of the project team and fully participates in all design planning decisions.

A special publication prepared by the Construction Industry Institute Constructability Implementation Task Force CII, presented a clear step-by-step roadmap to provide guidance for implementing the constructability program at the corporate and project levels. Although there cannot be a single unique constructability program that can suit all companies, invariably, the commitment to a constructability program must come from senior management and be communicated clearly through the organization.

Successful and consistent implementation also requires a single point executive sponsor of the program, whose primary role is to promote its awareness and to be accountable for its success. Another important consideration in the program is to adopt a forward integration planning approach, rather than a backward constructability review of fully or partially completed designs.

In the latter approach, the constructability team is excluded from the design planning process, thus preventing early construction input integration. Any changes to be made after the review will usually be taken in an adversarial perspective, in which the designer becomes defensive and takes them to be criticisms. More- over, the design reworks are unnecessary and make the process inefficient and ineffective.

In the forward integration as shown in Fig. The outcome is obvious: improved design quality and reduced design reworks. As depicted in Fig.

The first contains the feedback on the constructability program documenting specific lessons learned along the way. When the project terminates, each functional design should be evaluated and added to the lessons-learned file.

The discussions of constructability concepts can be guided by a checklist of the constructability concepts at each phase or by using a Constructability Applications Matrix see Fig. More ideas for constructability can also be obtained from suggestions by other personnel involved in the project.

The project constructability team leads the constructability effort at the project level. The construc- tability team comprises the usual project team members and additional construction experts.

If the contractor has not been appointed, an appropriate expertise with field experience has to be provided. The specialists, for example, rigging, HVAC, electrical, and instrumentation, are only referred to on an ad-hoc basis, when their area of expertise is needed for input. A constructability coordinator is also needed, whose role is to coordinate with the corporate constructability structure and program.

Before concluding this section on constructability, it is important to realize that constructability is a complex process, and the constructability process itself is unstructured. Four-dimensional models McKinny and Fischer, , that is, three-dimensional CAD models with animation, are pro- viding the visualization capabilities to enhance communication between the designers and the construc- tors.

Other models have also been developed for various aspects of constructability, for example, a constructability review of merged schedules checking for construction space, information, and resource availability Chua and Song, , and a logical scheduler from the workspace perspective Thabet and Beliveau, Specifications are written into contracts to ensure that the owner gets from the main contractor a product with the type of quality he envisaged.

Being able to deliver this is not something that can be left to chance. It will require management. Quality management has progressed through four stages, beginning with inspection and quality control QC , and has now arrived at quality assurance QA and total quality management TQM Dale et al. Inspection is the activity that assesses by measurement or testing whether an element has con- formed to specifications. Corrective work is then ordered to rectify any nonconformance in the element.

QC builds upon the inspection efforts and relies largely on statistical techniques to determine trends and detect problems in the processes. Such techniques are being used routinely in manufacturing. With respect to the construction industry, concrete cube testing is one rare example.

Instead of merely detecting the errors for remedial measures, QA and TQM are based on a quality system, with the objective of reducing and ultimately eliminating their occurrences. The customer perspective in TQM is derived from the process viewpoint. At every stage of a process, there are internal customers. They belong to the group of people who receive some intermediate products from another group.

For example, in an on-site precast operation depicted in Fig. The mold crew is the internal customer of the assembly process. In turn, the casting crew is the internal customer of the mold assembly process, while the Land Transport Authority is the external customer of casting.

Each of these crews will require that the intermediate product they receive meets the quality standards to avoid rework. The concept of internal customers ensures that quality permeates through the total operation, and thus by addressing the internal processes in this way, total quality improvement can be achieved.

To ensure that customers get what they want, there is a need to fully understand their requirements and to communicate this throughout the organization. This is at the heart of quality management and is the goal of the quality system. The quality system comprises quality manuals providing the templates to guide the worker in the performance of each particular task.

These templates ensure management that proper work has been performed and provide confirmation to the owner that the work has met his requirements. The core of these systems is to present a way of working that either prevents problems arising, or if they do arise, identifies and rectifies them effectively and cheaply. In the next section, an overview of the ISO quality system will be presented. Publication Type. More Filters.

Value engineering is a management technique used in many industries, focusing at enhancing functions, and reliability at the lowest cost. The focus of value engineering is removing unnecessary cost … Expand. The concept of value engineering VE is used to optimise the cost, time, quality, and functional performance toward achieving the best value for client money.

However, the application of VE in … Expand. The current construction practices require a great effort to balance the factors such as money, time and quality. Value Engineering is a proven management technique that can make valuable … Expand. In construction industry, increased innovation techniques aims in reducing the cost of construction work with either increasing or decreasing the quality of the construction with an affordable … Expand.

World Journal of Engineering and Technology. Both in developed and in developing countries, the construction industry is regarded as an economic investment activity without forgetting its significant relationship with national economic … Expand.

View 3 excerpts, cites background and methods. American Journal of Civil Engineering. In construction projects, when one-program costs more than planned, decision makers are forced to delay or cancel other activity.

Value Engineering can play a key role in overcoming such problems by … Expand. Highly Influenced. View 6 excerpts, cites background. The availability of various control techniques many construction projects still do not achieve their cost and time objectives. Research in this area so far has mainly been devoted to analyzing and … Expand.