By Monique Clement
Students Win SAVE International University Challenge Award
Editor’s Note: The content in this article first appeared in the Arizona State University publication, Full Circle.
Getting Thanksgiving dinner to run smoothly for one family can be enough of a challenge — the Agua Fria Food and Clothing Bank needs it to go smoothly for an average of 500 Phoenix metro area families every year.
Three students from Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering used the power of value engineering to help the food bank improve its process and won the University Challenge Award for Value Engineering from SAVE International for their efforts.
Value engineering is a method of optimizing processes, projects or products, a methodology championed by professional organization SAVE International. Often applied in civil engineering to things like roads and bridges, the award-winning student team in CON 598: Value Engineering — a course offered by the Del E. Webb School of Construction within the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment — instead took a more human-centered approach to value engineering for the Agua Fria Food and Clothing Bank.
Construction management graduate students Monisa Manju Nagarajan Gomathi and Trey Tan and construction engineering graduate student Xiao Xiao Lyu evaluated the existing conditions at the food bank’s facilities and created design recommendations to improve work processes, food distribution and client satisfaction at big events such as Thanksgiving and Christmas meal distribution.
Instructor Stephen Kirk, who also works as a certified value specialist with Kirk Associates, was very pleased by how the team applied the theory of value engineering to a real-world application to benefit the community. Kirk complimented them on their “compassion” and “caring” for those who were in need of help and greatly appreciated their passion for helping improve the food distribution process at Agua Fria.
At the end of the course when it came time to present their work, instructor Chris Kmetty knew they had done something exceptional. “The true value engineering really came out,” said Chris Kmetty, who is also a construction engineering manager at Markham Contracting. “What [the team] was really doing was more for people than for anything else, and that’s what civil engineering really is — engineering for society.”
The unique, human-centered approach led instructors Kirk, Kmetty and Géza Kmetty, a civil engineer and certified value specialist for Kmetty Consulting Lt., to submit this project for SAVE International’s University Challenge Award. The ASU team’s project was up against work submitted from universities all around the world. Theirs was the only project focused on processes that help the community.
As part of their award, they were offered funds to help them get to the SAVE International 2017 Value Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in August to present their work.
Gomathi enjoyed seeing the other international teams’ applications of value engineering. Gomathi said the team was excited to present their project to value engineering experts and they appreciated the feedback they received.
“We could see how people who work with value engineering methodologies were very passionate,” she said.
Lyu liked the conference’s lectures on a variety of topics related to value engineering, such as how it can be combined with data analysis to improve value engineering and make projects more efficient. All three students learned about how value engineering can make a difference in any type of industry, office or personal project.
Kirk also presented Gomathi and Lyu with their University Challenge Award from SAVE International at an award presentation back at Arizona State University on November 8. The instructors were joined by Agua Fria Food and Clothing Bank Executive Director Leanne Leonard and mission partner Edna DeFord from the Pebble Creek Community Church to congratulate them on their win.
Leonard appreciated the unique perspective construction engineers brought to the food bank’s operations. “I was super pleased that they were willing to come and talk to and hear about the clients of the Southwest Valley,” Leonard said. “I am incredibly proud of the work they did and I’m looking forward to seeing how that will play out [this Thanksgiving] as we prepare to serve over 300 families.”
In the spring CON 598: Value Engineering class, the instructors are hoping to focus on other value engineering solutions. The Phoenix Rescue Mission heard about the success of value engineering and reached out to Pebble Creek Community Church and ASU to assist them with a new project of their own.
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