Do you have a good selling product and do you see its potential when lowering its cost price with 20%? Value engineering can help you with this. This article presents 5 essential tips by experts with experience in the field of value engineering projects.

Tip 1: Focus on solutions without the necessity of re-validation.

The great advantage of using your existing product as starting point is that it has already been qualified and accepted. All necessary (endurance) tests, validations and discussions to have this product accepted, have already been carried out! Just think about how much time that has cost you for acceptence of your current product. Often it takes months or even years. If you want to do it fast, you should keep the core of the product the same and only focus on implementing improvements, of how it is made, assembled or sold. A cleverly designed jog or fixture can save you a lot of time during assembly while the product stays the same.

Tip 2: Use a small core team and let them collect ideas from the entire organisation through well-prepared brainstorm sessions.

Because the core of the product stays the same, less people need to be involved in the project. Research and meetings about what the client would like, what is standard and what is optional, and how the product should be put in SAP, is not necessary. Make use of this! A small core team is fast, energetic and focused on the final target. Involve the rest of the organisation through brainstorm sessions and ensure acceptance by means of regular progress presentation. An important aspect of these kinds of brainstorm sessions is preparation. Make sure that in the brainstorm session all information is available, from the current costs of the design to how it is made and sold. This gives people the opportunity to collectively think about only the most important parts, production steps and processes.

Tip 3: Create a possibility for practical research.

Just like many people find it hard to assess what a new house will look like solely on the basis of a floor plan, many people also find it difficult to judge an idea on the basis of a PowerPoint presentation. A physical model of a part or product helps people to estimate the potential for cost price reduction. But it also stimulates people to think about what this idea could mean for their process, client or employees. Current techniques such as 3D-printing and scanning are easily accessibly these days in order to quickly adapt and optimise an existing design and make an idea more tangible. Make sure all these possibilities are used.

Tip 4: The accumulated saving of many smaller ideas often leads to a good end result.

It is rarely one big idea with which you achieve a radical improvement of the cost price. Usually, 10 or more small ideas and initiatives jointly provide a significant saving. It is therefore necessary to also seriously consider smaller ideas. Stay focused on the accumulated saving and totalled effort to obtain that saving.

Tip 5:  Weight reduction is the low-hanging fruit.

During the development of a new product, the focus is often put on creating customer value and minimising risks. Because of this, safety on safety has led to many parts being over-dimensioned. Because there is often a direct link between product weight and component cost, a potential saving is often easy to estimate. You divide the price of the current part by its weight and use this as an indicator to estimate the cost of a lighter design.

Besides cost savings by material reduction, lighter parts in the assembly are easier and much quicker to position and assemble. This often results in an additional cost reduction.

With a FEM analyses you can easily analyse the strengths of your current design and quickly locate excess material with which you can immediately save money.

Post en Dekker helps out many OEM developers to bring down the cost price of their existing products while maintaining the core of their product. We would also like to use our experience for your product. We can do this by carrying out a structured and complete value engineering project or by helping you with a sub project within your own value engineering project. For example, by designing a smart assembly aid, a FEM analyses for weight reduction, designing and creating a prototype or by preparing and taking part in a brainstorm session.

Do you want more information? Please get in contact.