Abstract
M.Phil.
To achieve growth, most corporations invest a large portion of their turnover in
new business ventures or in expanding current operations. These initiatives
imply capital and thus a return is essential in order to ensure survival.
Research indicates that capital projects seldom realize their full potential. The
value that is released by a project is often unacceptably lower than the value that
was initially forecast and for which the board granted approval. Furthermore, a
number of projects achieved radical improvement within a relatively short
period of time, when they embarked on an initiative focusing on improving the
project. This indicates that, due to the relatively low cost and the rather large
prize at stake, it is imperative to investigate and actively seek improvement
potential. Value Engineering proves to be a methodology capable of unleashing these
otherwise hidden opportunities. Three basic steps describe the value engineering
process:
analysis to understand the project;
design to find the optimum or a better solution; and
the implementation thereof.
Before a team can embark on an improvement initiative an initiation study will
determine the target, required focus of the exercise and set up an enabled team.
This study also describes the integration of value engineering with the existing
processes using a case study. In order for value engineering to work, skilled
members are required, the initiative has to be timed and complement the existing
processes.