Tips to simplify designs
In the world of product development and manufacture that most of us operate in, the entire purpose is value, assessed from a variety of perspectives – value to the end user, value to the distribution channel, value to the manufacturer and IP owner, value to the investors.
‘Good’ value in almost every interpretation is the result of a product that performs as expected or better, and costs appropriately to make a profit in its sale. The original Mini, the ‘60s icon, was a classic example of VA-VE gone wrong. The makers didn’t even know what it cost to make, so it sold at a loss.
And far too many products just never achieve their potential or survive the hard transition as reality bites in the marketplace. Used well, VA-VE makes great outcomes. Used poorly, it reinforces narrow thinking and ignorant decision making.
Introduction to VA-VE
In the increasingly high-stress, short-cycle product development process we must operate within, we must constantly strive to deliver high-quality products while minimizing costs and maximizing return. It’s a tough ask, so we need tools that are up to the job.
This is where value analysis/value engineering (VA-VE) is a cornerstone in delivering good products. It is a systematic methodology to improve the value outcome of a product or process through analysis of its functional performance and cost. It is a powerful enabler, balancing functionality with cost-effectiveness, ensuring that product outcomes meet or exceed planned expectations and achieve competitiveness in the market.
What is Value Analysis and Value Engineering?
VA-VE are bookend complementary, essentially equivalent processes that focus on improving a product’s value and differ primarily in their time of application.
- Value analysis typically applies to existing products or processes, looking to improve profitability by; optimizing function; and reducing wasted production costs, after a product has been launched.
- Value engineering is applied during the development phase. It aims to achieve the highest possible function for the lowest practicable cost by balancing pressures on design, material selection, and manufacturing processes.
Both VA and VE share the same goal: maximize value.
The assignment of a quantity measure to functional benefit is a black art and hard to reach general agreement on – and the measurement of manufacturing cost can also pose issues in methodology. So this is not a straightforward measurement that all parties will agree on.
But it’s better than selling Minis at a definitive loss.
Yoav A
Head of Design
The origins and evolution of VA-VE
VA-VE was first developed in the 1940s by Larry D. Miles at General Electric (GE). Faced with wartime material shortages, Miles and his team sought alternative ways to boost production levels while optimizing (for which read: avoiding) the exploitation of scarce options. They analyzed a component’s essential functions and sought creative, lower-cost alternatives to deliver the same result.
The methodology progressively gained widespread adherence across most industries, particularly strongly adopted in manufacturing, engineering, and construction. The Society of American Value Engineers (SAVE) and today the methods developed are widely used in industries ranging from automotive and aerospace to consumer electronics and medical devices, chemical processing and building and food production.
Advanced tools such as function-analysis system-technique (FAST) diagrams, value stream mapping, and cost modeling have all added nuance and an increased appearance of authority to the approach. In recent years, VA-VE has also been integrated with lean manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies, driving process optimization and waste reduction in more diverse applications, further back into the manufacturing chain.
Why VA-VE matters in the business landscape
In the global market, the delivery of high-value products, highly efficiently, is the clear driver of profitability. VA-VE is increasingly the way that businesses remain agile, cost-competitive, and innovative.
- VA-VE enables companies to cut costs through trimming unnecessary functions, redundant processes, or inappropriately expensive materials. This creates product outcomes at more competitive prices, while maintaining or improving performance and quality.
- Through the consistent and well integrated challenging of design assumptions and the encouraging of increasingly creative problem-solving, VA-VE fosters and triggers innovation. The rethinking of approaches and exploration of wider material options improves designs, and manufacturing processes.
- Through the streamlining of the design and development process, VA-VE can impact the time it takes to get to market. Product lifespan is steadily shrinking, so time lost in market entry has a growing impact.
- Sustainability is a high pressure concern that is growing in influence. VA-VE can drive the reduction in environmental impact through optimized resource usage, minimized waste, and exploiting more sustainable material and manufacturing process options.
- VA-VE drives the bottom line. Delivering better products at lower costs results in increased margins and market share.
Core principles of VA-VE
Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA-VE) is built on a foundation of core principles designed to maximize product or process value by improving performance and reducing costs. At its heart, VA-VE is a systematic, function-based approach that drives efficiency, creativity, and innovation, providing companies with a competitive edge. To effectively apply VA-VE, it’s crucial to understand how value is defined, the stages of the VA-VE methodology, and the role creativity plays in finding innovative solutions.
Defining “Value” in VA-VE: Function vs. cost
In VA-VE, value is defined as the relationship between a product’s function and its cost. Mathematically, value can be represented as:
- The quantified functional benefit refers to what the product is designed to do—its essential purpose. For example, the function of a car engine is to propel the car in a closely controlled manner. This is a hard thing to assign a quantum value to and this difficulty allows significant variability in the assessment process. It is common to assign a score in percentage and assign a subjective value to the improvement. If there is a measured performance criterion that can be shown to have improved, this can make greater consistency in evaluations, but it’s critical to decide on the significance of the improvement – is it on a logarithmic, linear or some other scale?
- Cost refers to the net-sum of expenses associated with providing that function – material, manufacturing, labor, and overhead costs. This is clearly easier to define with confidence – though it can still trigger disagreement.
To maximize value, engineers and designers focus on either; improving the function while keeping costs constant; or maintaining the function while reducing costs; or achieving both. An ideal VA-VE process seeks ways to enhance both function and reduce cost.
For example, if a product’s design includes expensive materials or redundant components that do not directly contribute to core functionality, those elements can be modified, integrated into another part or removed. The goal is to ensure that every element of the product contributes to its function in a cost-controlled way.
Daniel V
Lead Engineer
"My favorite manufacturing platform"
Jiga is the best way to get the parts you need, when you need them.
The VA-VE methodology: Breaking down the process
The VA-VE process is structured into sequential phases in the systematic evaluation of value improvement opportunities. The rigorous approach ensures a methodical evaluation of every product aspect, to encourage a systematic approach to assessing and implementing opportunities in a value-driven way.
- The information gathering phase
- Function analysis phase – teardown analysis
- Creative phase – wide ideation
- Evaluation phase – moderation of ideas
- Development phase – execution to proof of principle
- Selection phase
- Implementation phase – detailed execution
The role of creativity and innovation in VA-VE
The creativity demands in the VA-VE process can be profound and inspirational lateral thinking is typically the starting point for product/process revisions that offer serious value-propositions. Without innovative thinking, VA-VE becomes a typically low strategic value cost-cutting exercise rather than a value-driven initiative. The creative phase of VA-VE pushes participants to break with traditional and linear-thinking solutions and explore new materials, processes, or technologies that offer high potential.
To illustrate, the switch from a ‘traditional’ material to a composite can require revolutionary thinking. In our own experience, the switch from Aluminum structure and skin to a composite required a revolutionary approach that rejected the overwhelming view that ‘composites are expensive’. Yes, they are more costly (when hand laid-up and vacuum bag cured) per kg than Aluminum – but with a geometry switch that allowed a process switch, that whole argument fell apart and the change had both performance AND cost benefits.
Innovation doesn’t just apply to the product itself but also to the manufacturing processes, distribution, or usage. Additive manufacturing or other Industry 4.0 manufacturing techniques can enable additionally complex design features that are otherwise too expensive or difficult to produce. This can trigger previously out-of-reach performance that hugely alters the VA-VE outcome.
The core principles of VA-VE: defining value as a balance between function and cost, following a structured and exploratory methodology, and fostering creativity, allow companies to continuously improve their products and processes, often with less progressive and more paradigm shifts. VA-VE not only reduces costs but also opens up the innovation opportunities, resulting in elevated product value that better meets customer demands and improves competitive positioning.
Conclusion
The VA-VE process is methodical, with diverse approaches, benefits and pitfalls that arise from analyzing/optimizing the value proposition in a product. It is either performed in development (VE) or with the product already in production/market (VA).
At its core, the VA-VE mindset is one of optimistic and wide ranging innovation combined with aggressive validation and testing, to deliver outstanding benefits in market-perspective product outcomes and profitability.
It’s not an easy process and it is critically important that a wide view is taken. The presumption of prior-optimization in a product is a dangerous mindset and a common failing, especially in teams that have targets but lack empowered decision making. If the existing proposal/execution is viewed as ‘optimal’ by individuals who instruct but don’t execute the VA-VE process, it is doomed to be unproductive. Engineering and market blindness and the assumption of rightness permeate many products and company organizational structures and bring severely negative influences/outcomes that are much harder to fix by VA than by VE!
