How often are we in a project design meeting, or reviewing drawings and think, “We need to save some money, how do we do it?” Or better yet, your Client asks you for what your ideas are.
The answer will be limited to your personal experience, and if you choose to involve others, their combined experience. The problem is that we are all so busy, unless we actually devote a set time to doing nothing but thinking about Value Engineering (VE), the process gets short changed.
You will not get much of benefit by calling you superintendent, and asking him what he would do to change a particular detail. He hasn’t thought about it, and most likely he is dealing with something completely different. And if you ask him for general cost savings ideas out of the blue, you will be even less satisfied with the outcome.
The obvious solution is to form a project analysis review team.
The team should focus on current projects we are pursuing. Pursuing can mean the following for projects:
- Bidding
- Budgeting
- Construction Management
You may also look at past projects to build skill in performing VE (Value Engineering) within company and build the VE list.
The standard objective of each session is to look at the project with many PM’s, PC’s, Supers, to determine value engineering, alternate or required methods of construction and ways of doing things better. Additional areas of exploration can be added as time allows.
There may be more than one iteration of this process. Stage 1 will be internal company resources, Stage 2 will be with selected trades for projects we are pursuing or have opportunity to provide VE input.
I would not involve the Owner or Consultants in the VE ideas generation process. Due to project momentum, they will be likely to shoot down ideas during the initial formation stages. They may be more receptive to the VE plan once it’s fully developed.
The length and timing of the VE session could be over lunch hour and could make use of smart boards and interactive technology. To get the process going, some participants will be nominated and encouraged to participate. Membership provides access to the output of the session. Once the value of participating is fully understood it is anticipated that members will self select. Also, a free lunch is a hard thing to pass up.
The project leader will take all VE ideas and process them without regard to the current project. This list will add to the database of VE ideas. The leader will then evaluate all the presented ideas against the project to determine which ones will be presented to the Client and Consultants.
The expected benefits and end products include:
- Better team work within company
- Builds experience for participants
- If used with trades, builds better team work with trades
- Provides list of possible value engineering ideas for next project
- Adds value to project
- Provides concrete deliverable for Client and Consultants
- Distinctly differentiates us from the other service providers
The product will be shared with the project team (Owner and Consultants) in an effort to provide a better project than had the process not taken place. Share the result with the Client and Consultants in a working session, even if we are not successful in our pursuit.
That’s a gift that keeps on giving.
