Value Engineering in Construction

Abstract: Value engineering is a methodology used to analyze the function of the goods and services and to obtain the required functions of the user at the lowest total cost without reducing the necessary quality of performance. Many a time, Value Engineering (VE) is confused with cost cutting exercises in construction industry. The essential difference between conventional cost cutting and VE is that it involves reducing the cost by improving the functionality through lesser consumption of energy in terms of manpower, materials and machines. In the initial stages VE was used by production engineers for reducing the cost of manufacture. However, it was found that the benefit of VE is much greater if multidisciplinary teams of engineers were involved which would also influence the design team that is normally the case in construction. Keywords: functionality, multidisciplinary, cost cutting.