Marcel Dekker, 2003. — ISBN 0-8247-0696-X.
In today's economy, businesses, whether public or private, are striving to improve the value of products, projects, programs, processes, systems, and techniques.
These efforts can be improved with a well-known, but often unused method called the value methodology.
As this material is not new in some areas, it is how the methodology is used that can make strides in improving value. While use of the value methodology can reduce the costs, it can do so much more by improving teamwork, adding value, and developing the right project, process, program, project, system, or technique.
A specific area of interest, in addition to learning and practicing the job plan, is the identification of value mismatches between what an item costs and what it is worth. The building of teams through function analysis and practicing good people skills can strengthen the team's use of the job plan to create, select, develop, and present to management solid alternative ways to improve the original concepts.
The book emphasizes certain areas that can be focused on during a value improvement study effort.
Value Engineering covers aspects of value improvement studies that can be used as a learning course or as a teaching reference. The life cycle cost and team leader practice situation problems and exams are to be used as a review of the material and provide tools to help learn the material being covered.
Chapters 1-25 provide an introduction to the value methodology. During this course of instruction an actual project may be concurrently used with the reading material to conduct a value improvement study on a project, program, process, system, or technique so that the group may demonstrate to management the benefits of using this improvement tool. Chapters 26-55 focus on practicing as team leaders to guide the group through example problems provided.
As this field continues to grow, more and more professionals may be needed to improve value. We are responsible for finding and using methods such as the value methodology to improve the outcome of each item being planned. As the Association of General Contractors stated a few years ago, we can change our future one project at at time, and so can we improve our future one project at a time by practicing the value methodology, well known and used by some, and unknown to others.
Value Engineering is intended for interested professionals who want to learn "how to" apply this methodology to improve value and their future plans. It can also be used by others who want to study how to use the step-by-step value methodology approach to improving projects, products, processes, programs, systems, or techniques as a team member or team leader.