“All cost is for function,” is the foundation of Value Engineering. It simply means we acquire things because they fulfill stated or subconscious needs and wants. Larry Miles, Value Engineering’s founder, said it best –
“…the customer wants a function. He wants something done. He wants someone, perhaps himself, pleased. He wants something enclosed, held, moved, separated, cleaned, heated, cooled, or whatever under certain conditions and within certain limits; and/or he wants a shape, a color, an aroma, a texture, a sound, a ‘precious’ (costly) material or whatever to bring pleasure to himself or others he wishes to please. That is all he wants. That is all he cares about.”
During a Value Engineering study, a cross discipline team identifies the functions performed by the project, product, process or service studied. Comparing required customer performance with the functions and their costs as reflected in the design, the team identifies value mismatches - poor value functions. These are corrected by changes to align the design with required customer performance. Cost is reduced and customer value increased.
A Function Diagram (at right) is constructed by the team and used to identify poor value.