Value management : a structured approach to controlling the cost and functionality of building projects

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the American practice of Value Engineering, or as it is known in the UK, Value management, in the context of the construction Industry in Malta. After providing the relevant definitions and outlining briefly the origins and history of the practice, a study is made of the structured approach adopted by practitioners in the United States together with several techniques and disciplines which are relevant to the practice. Finally local construction issues are introduced through a case study and based on the findings, a proposal for the local implementation of the practice is made. A brief look around us will suffice to reveal that in the course of the last twenty years of frantic building development, unfortunate clients of the building industry have had inflicted upon them scores of financial disasters in the form of buildings. A significant number of these were government projects paid for out of public funds. The problems, which can be associated with various reasons, prompt suspicions of professional incompetence in various quarters. In the case of private clients, ignorance of an organised approach to a project may well be the prime reason but in others a host of shortcomings can be identified upon close scrutiny. The result has invariably been the same. Many designs are either classic examples of bad taste or a result of misguided or inadequately briefed design professionals. More often than not, the buildings were incapable of functioning properly and the massive costs incurred totally unjustified. In the majority of cases, better functioning, better designed and more attractive buildings could have been erected and finished at a less exorbitant cost.