Value engineering is an approach that ensures the owner is not over-paying for quality when an equally effective, less expensive option exists. Value engineering is all about making the best use of the available budget.
As a client or project owner, your main goal is for the project to be built to class and budget. For the architect, the main concern is a building that is aesthetically pleasing and is effective to use. Usually, the architect doubles up as the project manager, and thus represents the client’s needs on the ground. For the structural engineer, the desire will always be to produce a structurally sound building that can fulfill both serviceability and ultimate loading requirements. Numerous other stakeholders such as Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing (MEP) consultants, and specialized décor providers can also be part of a single project.
Value engineering, therefore, entails that the needs and concerns of all these stakeholders are considered during the design process. This is centered around collaboration, making sure that the potential problems associated with the project are well understood by everyone on the project team and solutions produced on time.
How Is Value Engineering Actualized?
For large building and infrastructure projects, value engineering is fully realized in two major ways. One is to schedule frequent project meetings with the entire team either in person or on remote calls, such as Zoom. The second is to utilize the power of BIM, specifically 4D BIM where different aspects of project management such as schedules, drawings, amendments, cost tracking, and documentation are all handled in a single repository, or in a virtual station that can be fully accessed at any time by all team members. Leveraging the power of 4D BIM is how projects in developed countries and higher-scale projects in places like Nairobi can be accomplished within time and budget.
What are the Advantages of Value Engineering?
Engineering with a holistic mindset is the best approach to working on any building project, although the benefits might seem more inherent in larger projects where every project element concerning time and cost matters greatly. Value engineering provides a means to capture problems before they arise and share this with a highly trained team that offers ideas and solutions on time that is practical.
Value engineering tools also exist in the interfaced CAD environment, for example, the BEXEL module of programs and Blue Beam Revu allows different technicians such as engineers and architects to have their work interfaced. Thus, costs can be shared in real-time, survey points can be amended by ground teams and immediately received by office teams, project management can highlight red flags in cost, markups and annotations can be produced on a single drawing and shared across the collaborative platform, etc.
The most important part of holistic engineering is the ability to save huge costs by reducing errors and getting the most practicable solution without losing quality, thanks to different specialists brainstorming to come up with solutions.
Can Value Engineering Be Applied on Smaller Projects?
Absolutely! Even smaller residential projects qualify for value engineering, although this may be limited due to the lack of the technological tools utilized in much larger projects. The best advice is to always have a key person such as the architect who can then formulate the necessary team to complete the project tasks and brainstorm with them as may be needed.
