Page 206 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Value Engineering 177

will prove profitable. This is not always the case. The project must be
practical in relationship to its effect on the organization.
To aid in the selection of projects, development of people, implementation
of projects, and all the other aspects necessary to successfully achieve the
stated objective, we have prepared some guidelines. They are guidelines,
not rules, since every organization is different and successful value-
engineering operations must be integrated into operations to become part of
the day-to-day decision-making process of the company.

To begin with, we will look at the overall organization and implementation
of value-engineering operations. Then we will look at some of the details
that make for success.

7.7.2 Goal for Achievement
What do we want to get from value engineering? What will be the objective?
This is the first question to answer.

Value engineering can increase productivity, reduce product cost, improve
quality, reduce administrative costs, and provide a number of other benefits
that may be critical to operations. Whatever the goal, it should be defined in
specific terms: increase productivity by a specific percent, reduce product
cost by a specific number of dollars per unit, etc. Whatever the initial goal
may be, it can be revised and broadened as skill in application and imple-
mentation of the process develops, and understanding and credibility
increase.
Value engineering is a people-oriented program, designed to help people
do a better job by aiding them in breaking down constraints to under-
standing. It provides some very specific methods and systems to achieve
results.

Since people perform a wide range of jobs in an organization, it is
certainly logical to expect that if they can be provided with a system that
can help them do a better job, anything that they are expected to do can
be improved. In the end it is people who do the thinking. If they can
improve their performance, everyone will benefit. This has been the
experience of value engineered professionals. Many people, highly
skilled in their jobs, have developed new insights that have created break-
throughs in technology as well as major organizational and operational
improvements.