Value: Its Measurement, Design, and Management

Value is something that everyone seeks in daily life. But is value ever clearly defined? Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to guarantee value from the products and services that are our business? There is. Value: Its Measurement, Design and Management offers a modern, interdisciplinary approach to using value management in product development. Building on the value analysis techniques that Larry Miles originated at General Electric, the authors describe how to maximize the value of any product or service by improving its ability to satisfy customer and company needs. The authors describe how to analyze the functions a product provides and how to measure its importance and cost. They define value and show how it can be measured and graphed. They show how to set numerical value improvement targets and how to use Quality Function Deployment, value planning and other value management techniques in new product development. They even show how to anticipate and handle hourly and seasonal value changes. Value covers every area in which value management can be used, from product development and manufacturing to quality control and scheduling. Plus, it introduces the latest techniques developed in the United States, Japan, and other nations. Moving logically from philosophy to practice, the book is divided into four sections: The Nature of Value, The Measurement of Value, The Design of Value, and The Management of Value. One entire chapter is devoted to Valuism, a worldwide industrial management movement that improves the performance of products and services while increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of production and distribution. Packed with actual case studies and references, Value will be useful to engineers, designers, consultants, entrepreneurs, architects, economists, managers, politicians - and even government agencies that now require a value engineering analysis for most projects. For anyone who seeks the assurance of maximum value in their endeavors, this is a truly invaluable book.