Value Analysis

CHAPTER ONE: INFORMATION

CHAPTER ONE: INFORMATION

MULTI-FUEL ENGINE

1.1 PROJECT REVIEW

This report provides a management overview of a ‘process’ known as Value Analysis. Value Analysis (VA) is considered to be a process, as opposed to a simple technique, because it is both an organized approach to improve the profitability of product applications and it utilizes many different techniques in order to achieve this objective. The techniques that support VA activities include ‘common’ techniques used for all value analysis exercises and some that are appropriate under certain conditions (appropriate for the product under consideration). The VA approach is almost universal and can be used to analyze existing products or services offered by manufacturing companies and service providers. For new products, the Value Engineering (VE) approach applies the same principles and many of the VA techniques, to pre-manufacturing stages such as concept development, design and prototyping.

Value Analysis can be defined as a process of systematic review that is applied to existing product designs in order to compare the function of the product required by a customer to meet their requirements at the lowest cost consistent with the specified performance and reliability needed. This is a rather complicated definition and it is worth reducing the definition to key points and elements:

1. Value Analysis (and Value Engineering) is a systematic, formal and organized process of analysis and evaluation. It is not haphazard or informal and it is a management activity that requires planning, control and co-ordination.

2. The analysis concerns the function of a product to meet the demands or application needed by a customer. To meet this functional requirement, the review process must include an understanding of the purpose to which the product is used.

3. Understanding the use of a product implies that specifications can be established to assess the level of fit...