Value engineering in the electronic industry

Value analysis is the art of pin-pointing unnecessary high costs in products. It depends for its success, frequently a 25% reduction in product cost on the disciplined use of common sense and problem solving methods known to most engineers. However, it places emphasis on `function¿ in a unique way. The term `value¿ needs to be understood by the engineer in terms of what it means to both his company and his company´s customer. A successful analysis requires team participation from marketing, design, production, engineering, estimating and purchasing. They must clearly define the function of the product, provide a number of alternative ways of fulfilling that function, cost the alternatives and choose the lowest cost method that will meet the performance required. There are many approaches to match different circumstances and some of these are discussed.