Value Engineering Toolkit

Companies in the construction industry need to move at a fast pace to effectively and efficiently improve performance in industry drivers (security/safety, cost efficiency, quality, schedule, environmental stewardship, or risk containment). In order to manage these drivers and to meet clients’ expectations, companies need to adopt innovative management processes and tools. Thus, Value Management efforts are needed in order to maximize the potential of a project team and to achieve higher levels of performance pertaining to the owner’s project value objectives.

Research Team 184 investigated the topic of Value Management Processes (VMPs). The study findings suggested that industry’s awareness of most VMPs is deficient and that, with so many VMP options to choose from, industry is in need of a VMP selection tool.

The main objective of the research was to increase the industry awareness of achieving higher values and to help in the process of selection and implementation of VMPs through the Value Management Toolkit. The Selection Tool was designed to make the decision-making process for VMPs more rigorous and to provide the project team with a wide range of VMPs to be considered for application on projects.

The Toolkit’s objectives were threefold:

• Increase industry awareness of the 44 VMPs
• Facilitate selection of the right VMPs for a project
• Offer how-to tools for implementation

The research recommends that the industry expand the collection of VMPs for implementation on projects and to use it more frequently provided that the selection process is thorough and transparent. In addition, it recommends to aggressively track the performance metrics when implementing VMPs. There are also recommendations to academia focusing mainly on providing feedback and continuous improvement to VMPs along with the need for more investigation into performance metrics for all VMPs.

VMPs are proven methods that increase the value of a project to an owner through a variety of techniques.