Following up on last week’s blog discussion on the subject of "best value" in defense acquisition, today wanted to “widen the aperture” a bit to discuss Value Engineering (VE). According to the DoD Value Engineering Program website, “VE is defined as "an analysis of the functions of a program, project, system, product, item of equipment, building, facility, service, or supply of an executive agency, performed by qualified agency or contractor personnel, directed at improving performance, reliability, quality, safety, and life cycle costs." It may be successfully introduced at any point in the life-cycle of products, systems, or procedures. VE is a technique directed toward analyzing the functions of an item or process to determine "best value," or the best relationship between worth and cost. In other words, "best value" is represented by an item or process that consistently performs the required basic function and has the lowest life-cycle cost.”

Several terms that life cycle logisticians and product support managers will immediately take notice of are things we all care about such as best value, life cycle, performance, reliability, and life cycle cost.  If you are not familiar with value engineering (VE) and value engineering change proposals (VECP), encourage you to learn more. These serve as invaluable tools in your tool kit to achieving best value product support and sustainment outcomes. Several important references you might want to take a look at include:

·         41 U.S.C. § 432 : US Code - Section 432: Value Engineering

 ·         DOD Value Engineering Program

·         DoD Instruction 4245.14 DoD Value Engineering (VE) Program

·         SD-24 Value Engineering: A Guidebook of Best Practices and Tools

·         DAU Value Engineering (VE) Community of Practice (CoP)

·         Value Engineering Change Proposal (VECP) ACQuipedia article

·         Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-131, “Value Engineering”

·         CLE 001 Value Engineering Continuous Learning Module

·         Director’s Blog (11 Jun 13) “Best Value”

·         Director’s Blog (21 Nov 12) “Updated Value Engineering Instruction”

·         Director’s Blog (22 Jun 11) “New Value Engineering Guidebook Now Available”

One final note in case you were not already aware, the OMB Circular No. A-131 is currently being revised. The value engineering definition according to the proposed revision to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-131 Value Engineering should come as no surprise:  “VE is a methodology for analyzing functions of an item or process to determine “best value,” or the best relationship between worth and cost. “Best value” is represented by an item or process that consistently performs the required basic function at the lowest life-cycle cost while maintaining acceptable levels of performance and quality.”  In other words, value engineering and best value are inextricably linked.