Every product has a
value attached to it. There are four basic kinds of value
1.Use value
2.Esteem value
3.Exchange value
4.Cost value
Value
engineering aims at avoiding unnecessary use of resources and costs.
But the basic question is how can we add value?
We need to know the reasons for poor value.
1.Lack of information
When a person lacks information on a product he tends to put in the best in to it, much more than what the product demands to give satisfactory performance leading to higher costs.
One example in our own organization was that of electric motors. The machines carried
25 hp motors and the running load was varying from 22 to 27 amps. We realized that the motors were running at much lower capacity than what they had been designed for.
15 hp motors were put up against them and the results were amazing.
The load fell to a range of 13 to 17 amps leading to a significant fall in power bill and required connected load.
2.Lack of ideas
Sometimes one is short of ideas to cut costs. Here the concept of working as a team helps a lot. Brain storming sessions can give a good amount of ideas and research on them can cut costs.
Our machines have a downtime of around 7 to 8 minutes every 4 hours for changing the material. But some motors which were not needed to be shut of for changing material kept running during that time. Suggestions came and we installed timers which would switch of all extra motors seconds after the machine is switched off.
3.Misbelieves
Sometimes there is a belief that the product would fail if some changes are done to it. So one doesn’t change the product and let it run as such. One needs to divert away from traditional thinking and do something new.
The
railways are now considering colored tickets which would carry advertisements on them generating extra revenue for the railways. This shows that innovation does pay although it may not be successful always but one should take the risk to do something new with in reasonable limits and taking long term consequences in to consideration.
More abstracts about the value engineering