Page 450 - Design of Simple and Robust Process Plants

Appendix 10.2 437
Appendix 10.2

Function analysis During the arms race in the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S govern-
ment wanted to review their military orders on cost. Therefore, initiatives were
taken to evaluate the weapon systems, for what was called added value, through
reviews and evaluations with brainstorming teams. This resulted in a discipline
value engineering which is supported by SAVE International. This organization also
sets up education facilities for professional value engineers. The U.S. government
required the application of the value engineering technique for all their orders pla-
ced. The value engineering techniques were, during the last decade of the 20th cen-
tury, also applied to process designs and equipment design by major companies,
next to other application fields such as civil services. The value engineering tech-
nique is discussed below in its elementary form. For a full description, see the SAVE
International Value Methodology Standard 1998
The technique is based on the evaluation of all kinds of systems with multi-disci-
plinary brainstorming teams lead by a value engineer (moderator experienced in
value engineering). During brainstorming sessions, the objective is to generate alter-
native ways of achieving a certain function (target). The ideas generated are then
evaluated on the added value versus the cost.
The value engineering process contains the following elements:

. Preparation as; set objective, collect information, select team, distribute infor-
mation.
. Idea generation of multi-disciplinary team with functional analysis tech-
nique.
. First evaluation of ideas on applicability and value addition followed by a first
screening.
. Second evaluation of ideas.
. Final selection and implementation of ideas.
The value engineering process is put into a time perspective in Figure 10.10.
At an early stage, is was recognized that the brainstorming sessions were not only
crucial, but also that they were not always very effective, and differed in quality. It
was Bytheway (1965) who introduced a concept ± called ªfunction analysisº ± to facil-
itate the brainstorming part. The principal problem was that the team members had

Ideas

Preparation Idea First Second Final
Generation Evaluation Evaluation Selection
Time
Fig. 10.10. Value engineering activities over time.