The Value Engineering Online Certification Course

Approved by SAVE International For Mod I - Part I Certification

By, Alphonse Dell'Isola, PE, RICS, FSAVE

 

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Course Outline

Value Engineering (VE) is a creative, organized approach with the objective of optimizing life cycle costs and of the performance of a system, facility, or building. Value is defined in four kinds; use, exchange, cost and esteem.

Lecture/Session Topics of this online certification course on value engineering include, VE Overview, Value Engineering Concepts and History, Project Scope & Budget, Modeling techniques, Planning for VE services, The VE job plan, Function analysis, Function Analysis Cost /Worth Worksheets and Modeling, Creative Thinking, Creative Problem Solving- Application, Life Cycle Costing- Application, The VE Report, Integrating VE into the Construction Industry, VE Applications to Risk Assessment and Analysis, and 5 Case Studies on various facilities. This course will enable the student to understand the activities and work tasks needed to value engineer a project. The R. S. Means Publishing Company (North America’s largest publisher of construction cost data) has published a supporting textbook by, Alphonse Dell'Isola, PE, RICS, FSAVE for this course (View textbook Table of Contents at, http://www.rsmeans.com/bookstore/toc/67319toc.pdf).

 

This course includes a mid-course exam and final exam at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials. Each lecture topic includes homework and multiple-choice quiz that, will help foster student knowledge at course end.

 Course Content

The SAVE International Certification Program is composed of two major elements: individual professional certification and educational program approval.

 

The highest level is the Certified Value Specialist (CVS), which is recognition of the individual who has met all certification requirements, both technical and experience, and whose principle career is value engineering.
 

The Associate Value Specialist (AVS) program recognizes those individuals who decided to become professional value engineers but who have not yet acquired all the experience or technical skills expected of a CVS.

 

The Value Methodology Practitioner (VMP) program was established to recognize those individuals who acquired the basic skills of value engineering/analysis but their principal career is not value engineering.

 

The CVS and VMP must recertify every four years. The AVS is awarded for a maximum of four years, then must be converted to CVS or VMP. Membership in SAVE is not a requirement for individual certification or for educational program approval.

 

The first of the prerequisites that, SAVE certification programs require for becoming a CVS, AVS or VMP is basic VE training in, an approved MOD I Value Engineering Seminar or Course.

 

The Mod I training consists of the following two parts:

• Part I - The Value Engineering Theory - 20 (Contact) Hours (The Value Engineering Online Certification Course)

• Part II - The Value Engineering Workshop - 20 (Contact) Hours

 

If you take our SAVE approved online certification course and complete the homework & exam assignments you will be awarded a Module I - Part I certificate. We will also award you a Module I - Part II certificate at no additional cost under the following conditions:

1. Has in the last 6 months (prior to course enrollment) or does in the next 6 months (after completing course) participate in a SAVE approved VE Workshop Study conducted by a CVS, and he lists you as a VE team member as proof of participation.
2. In the next 18 months (after completing course) participate in a SAVE approved VE Workshop Study conducted by a CVS, and he lists you as a VE team member as proof of participation, and for no additional cost re-submit your homework assignments and re-take our refresher course final exam.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

§         Have an understanding of the elements and objectives of VE

§         Know the major VE workshop phases

§         Know the major elements of each VE workshop phase

§         Know the most common reasons for unnecessary costs on projects

§         Understand the information needed to develop a Project Scope

§         Understand the information needed to develop a Project Budget

§         Develop the ability to determine indicators of the required functions and the worth of a project

§         Allocate project costs into functional units

§         Develop cost “visibility” and determine high cost areas

§         Provide a baseline reference for comparing alternatives

§         Understand the VE Methodology

§         Review the activities and work tasks in each VE Phase

§         Understand the interrelationships of the VE Phases Activities and Tasks

§         Develop and organize the VE Job Plan

§         Understand the planning to develop, structure, and staff and the VE Team

§         Understand the issues in scheduling VE services

§         Know the required elements of the VE Job Plan by Phase

§         Know the required elements by task

§         Know the required elements by participant

§         Learn the characteristics of creative people

§         Understand the effect of the association of ideas

§         Learn what stimulates and stifles creativity

§         Understand the dynamics of conducting a creative session

§         Understand and apply creative problem solving techniques

§         Be able to demonstrate individual creative thinking in response to a problem

§         Understand the processes involved in developing flexible thinking approaches

§         Develop skills in evaluating, judging and selecting ideas

§         Understand the time value of money

§         Understand the role of decision timing in cost savings

§         Perform calculations using present worth, escalation, depreciation, salvage value

§         Know the elements of life cycle costing logic

§         Know the structure and organization of a cost model

§         Know the different types of life cycle cost

§         Understand the elements of the VE Report

§         Know how to prepare a professional VE Report-both as an individual and as a team member

§         Understand the varying potential for VE work at different project stages

§         Know how VE has been successfully integrated into the U.S. construction industry

§         Know the techniques of offering and performing VE work in the U.S. construction industry

§         Understand the elements of risk assessment

§         Understand the importance of identifying risks

§         Learn the basic methods of performing risk analysis

§         Evaluate realistic industry VE efforts

§         Develop familiarity with professional VE work

§         Understand the issue of Owner/Designer acceptance and interaction

§         Transfer knowledge and methods observed in the VE case studies.

§         Review the activities and work tasks in the value engineering case studies

                       

 Intended Audience

Project executives, managers, architects, engineers, purchasing professionals, trainers and technical specialists in construction, and manufacturing.

Benefit for Attendee

Student will learn to use VE as a systematic approach to obtaining optimum value for every dollar spent. During this process all expenditures relating to construction, maintenance, replacement, etc., are considered. Quite commonly 15 to 25 percent, and very often much more, of the construction costs can be removed by effective application of the teaching of VE.

Course Author

The value engineering methodology for manufacturing was first developed by the late Larry Miles a General Electric employee during W.W.II, and later pioneered by Mr. Alphonse Dell'Isola, PE, RICS, FSAVE (Course Author) for its application, and use in the construction industry twelve years after his graduation from MIT in 1950.

 

The Value Engineering Law, now known as Public Law 104-106 is, in great part credited to, Mr. Alphonse Dell'Isola pioneering of the application in construction, and his expert testimony to several Senate and House Committees. He has been instrumental in introducing VE Programs in over 35 countries, 30 government agencies and 30 large corporations. He has conducted over 1000 contracts for various organizations and agencies on projects valued at over 55 billion dollars that resulted in implemented savings of some $2.5 Billion. In addition, workshops, seminars and briefings in VE, construction management and project cost control were conducted to over 15,000 professionals, and was a consultant to the Presidential Advisory Council on Management Improvement.

Course Introduction

Value Engineering is synonymous, with the terms Value Analysis, and Value Management.

 

This course is designed for people responsible for making significant decisions concerning budgets for large, complex construction projects in private industry and public institutions. Students learn the Value Engineering methodology.

 

The construction industry has seen significant cost increases-remember doubling of construction costs from 1970 to 1980; materials price increases (with little subsequent reduction) from Hurricane Andrew in Florida and parts of the South;

 

Owners and Designers were left with little choice but to increase budgets for new construction to accommodate these trends. The cost of the construction basics rose reducing discretionary expenditures. All of this against a backdrop of the impact of the loss of cheap, affordable energy during the "energy crisis" from 1975.

 

Value Engineering offers project stakeholders an opportunity to maximize the most important elements of a project while evaluating value, lessening project life-cycle costs, addressing financial issues, and reducing waste and or unnecessary costs.

 

A key element in the procedures is the use of a multi-disciplined team to analyze the project utilizing Value Engineering methods. It is the team’s objective to use the VE methodology to evaluate the project to find instances of poor value and high costs, recommend alternatives, and estimate initial and life-cycle costs whenever significant for the original system and for all proposed alternate systems (or components, practices, etc.).

 

Other criteria are also used to assure the proposed recommendations did not sacrifice essential project quality and functions and timely project completion.

 

All activities are based on improving value, which is defined to be the sum of performance and quality divided by cost.

 

Course Summary

Understand the concepts of Value Engineering and Life-Cycle Costing.

Understand the use of VE in the construction industry.

Apply VE to construction company business situations.

Apply VE to construction technical situations.

Understand and apply VE problem solving techniques as a management tool.

Develop and apply creativity skills.

 

Course Features Include

Lessons, homework quizzes

Suitable for individuals or groups

Supporting textbook by, RS Means Publishing Company, Inc. (additional cost)

Online support

Economical

Additional Student Required Materials

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:
SAVE International
Office of Personnel Management

Department of Energy (DOE) value engineering policy

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of VEcourse.com or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered professional engineer. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising there from.