By Muthiah Kasi, PE, SE, CVS-Life, FSAVE – Editor, Value World
Wishing all Value Practitioners a happy and prosperous New Year!
As 2017 begins, I keep asking myself why I was and am passionate about Value Methodology? I looked at how it has benefited me and my company and it has been nothing but success. So when I hear VE practitioners say that they don’t have the opportunity to practice VM, it makes me realize that SAVE International should focus on VM applicability to various tasks in business and in personal areas.
Value Methodology is a basic tool for critical thinking and solving problem. It can be applied to anything we address in our daily lives. We should shift the focus from a cost savings application to a general application. If any personal or professional need is properly addressed, the solution should offer cost effective solution. VM helps to identify the appropriate solution thereby resulting in a cost effective solution. I have benefited from this application in several personal scenarios including building our house, to buy or not to buy a car, college selection and study majors for our sons, personal investment, project management and administrative decisions of our firm.
Function Analysis with a structured Job Plan is a tool for critical thinking. The Customer FAST diagramming, known today as Customer Function Model, focuses on classifying customer preferences. Based on the preference, (Technical) FAST diagramming helps to strategize appropriate solutions.
To enhance function analysis, it is important to adopt other techniques as well. In coming issues, we will introduce some of these techniques, such as Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Balanced Scorecard. In addition, VM can help other important areas such as sustainability, redundancy, asset management, community resilience, etc. The February issue will have articles on Customer Function Model and sustainability.
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