Patrick Adams  

Welcome to the lean solutions podcast where we discuss business solutions to help listeners develop and implement action plans for true lean process improvement. I am your host, Patrick Adams. Hello, and welcome to the Lync solutions podcast. My name is Patrick Adams. And today’s guest is Valorie Hendricks. And Valerie is the owner and consultant of dynamic Empire consulting. She has over five years of working in different areas of project management, including cost reduction, Value Engineering, quality management, and Lean and Six Sigma. Her projects have reduced the amount of labor and bottleneck areas as much as 38%. She’s also worked on cost reduction, saving projects, which have saved over a million dollars in just three years. She is also the author of a book that was published just one month ago titled streamlining function and values. Welcome to the show, Valorie.

 

Valorie Hendrix

Thank you, Patrick. It’s wonderful to be on.

 

Patrick Adams  

Yeah, I appreciate you being on today we are we’re gonna dive into your book and the topics of value analysis and Value Engineering. So I’m excited for our audience to hear a little bit more about what that is, what it means and what they can learn, you know, through your book. So can you start out Valorie by just telling us maybe a little bit about value analysis and Value Engineering? Maybe defining that for the listeners?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yeah, absolutely. So value analysis, Value Engineering, what we like to call it and short so you might hear me say it quite often is VA V, okay, it’s basically analysis of our functions of our products and services and comparing them to the costs. And so we’ll compare costs, different objects and strategies. And basically, what we can do is look at a breakdown of what exactly the function of a product is. And so let’s take, for example, a pencil. Well, some of the functions that we use for a pencil is what we consider our basic function, which is to make marks. But we also have secondary secondary functions which are to provide strange support for the eraser, transmit force, and provide grip. And so we want to take a breakdown of these functions and provide an actual cost to how these functions are supporting the basic function, which is what I said earlier is to make marks.

 

Patrick Adams  

how, for those that are listening in right now, you know, how could their organization value from understanding value analysis and Value Engineering? What would the benefits be to their organization for anyone that would maybe adopt, you know, value analysis into their organization?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yeah, absolutely. And so just a little background, before I got into value analysis, Value Engineering is because in 2008, I was working for a manufacturer who, of course, was during the recession, and we had an issue where we had high inflation rates. And we also are having problems with not getting supplies on time. So what value analysis Vi Vi can actually do is look at ways to reduce those costs associated, not just associated with inflation. But we can also find different alternatives to areas where we have materials that we cannot find, find maybe ever surplus, or even new ideas can come about to helping with the problems and an organization has.

 

Patrick Adams  

For an organization that does adopt value add value engineering into their organization, would you say this is something that they use, you know, after products are already developed and being used in the organization? Or would it be something that’s maybe looked at, during their, during the development of a new product? Would it be both?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yeah, okay. So there’s two sides of this, there’s a value analysis where we look at products that are already developed and are being produced already. And we can actually find cost reductions and savings in that way. Sure. But we also want to look at the Value Engineering side of products that have not been developed, they’re still in the mindset of the engineers, so we can actually help develop the product in a easier, easily manufactured way or less cost effective way as well.

 

Patrick Adams  

That’s great. And obviously, I think there’s many people that are listening where they could see value in that for an organization. You know, just just by looking at and breaking down the way that a product is engineered. What about services and you know, are there other, I think about anything other than products, lots of different organizations that we work with, don’t don’t build a product or anything like that. So you don’t have any tangible product that they’re selling but more of a service and I don’t know if Value Engineering and value analysis could be applied to service organizations. or anything else outside of products?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yes, it actually can, it works very well in the service industry too. So when we look at our functions of a department, we can look at them, like the requirements of what the department needs to do, instead of like, if, instead of the functions of a product, we looked at what exactly the department needs to accomplish? Or do okay? And so we can do the same process as we would a value analysis, vi, vi, and break it down into what process the person or the department do? And how much does that cost? Or how much time is deployed to that? Okay, and from there, we can find actually the non value added value that is created and within that function or process and help me move that.

 

Patrick Adams  

Okay. Now are there specific tools or templates that you’re using to complete these types of analysis? And are they? Are they tools that are available to anyone? Or how would someone get into value analysis and Value Engineering?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yes, absolutely. I have a national website where I’m actually putting all my tools in there. But a lot of the information that you find in my book, and about how to analyze the functions and understanding percent percentage of costs per function, okay. And there’s actually like, one thing about it is what we call a fast analysis diagram. Okay. And I like to think of this, when you think of lean, you want to think about your stream analysis. So when I explained this to somebody in the lean, I explained that this function neurolysis is kind of like how a Value Stream Map goes. So we got an output on the left hand side, and we got an input on the right hand side. And we basically take our functions and understand how we get from the output to the input? which is our function, how does this product or service work? And when we move, we can also move from the inputs, which is the right side to the left side, which is our why statement, why is this functioning happening?

 

Patrick Adams  

And then that diagram, the result of that would be how would someone use that if they were to apply that diagram to a specific product?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yeah, from there, you can actually see what functions are actually not working. And let’s say maybe we have a function that only is used into maybe a bolt or nut and, or something that’s really not necessarily needed in that product or service. So we can actually start seeing where, where things can be eliminated easily. And then from there, you can put all of our information into what’s called the value analysis matrix, okay, using that we can put our ideas and compare them to what our customer requirements are. And we give out a score, and then we compare that score to the, to the amount that we were spending on that product item, and we can find out if there’s a negative or positive. And then, of course, if it’s a negative, that means we have an idea that we need to make a change, or this is where we have an idea of where to reduce our costs at Sure.

 

Patrick Adams  

So then does the tool set allow you to see where that waste is? Is that something that once you know that you have a negative and you’re, you’re you’re not making money in that particular part? Right, which is why businesses exist, we want to make money. That’s the purpose of business actually existing, a for profit business. But if they’re not making money on a specific part that they’re creating, after they’ve done the analysis, what would be the next steps for them to find the waste within the process? Do the tool sets identify some of that? Or is there a next step that they would follow?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yeah, absolutely. And the tool steps as to what actually finds the non value costs. And these and so basically, from there, we need to brainstorm and find different ideas with our team to really determine exactly what solutions are possible.

 

Patrick Adams  

So and you talked about Lean methodology and you know, just the introduction from you of a value analysis to individuals who are using lean methodology, why would it be a good idea to implement VAVE before a business maybe starts on their Lean journey?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Well, I believe that in many organizations, they have a need within their system. feature development to have some type of cost savings. And when you’re looking at value analysis, Value Engineering, we’re going to have the determination of the cost reduction being a major priority towards our project. And I also want to point out that when we do VA V for not just looking at costs, we’re looking at the function, the capabilities, and what exactly the customer wants. So that we can make a product that, you know, maybe not just be cost effective, but it can also increase markets, market shares, it can be a higher product or service than your competitor. And even if it is costing less than your competitor, you can also raise prices as well for something that you just decrease your overall cost. Sure. So we’re trying to make a profit, we’re trying to make the customer experience improve all together.

 

Patrick Adams  

Very nice. No, that’s great. And obviously, starting with the customer is important. So that’s definitely something that I’m glad that you put that out there as another benefit of focusing on value analysis and Value Engineering. If someone wanted to find more about value analysis and Value Engineering methodology, where would they go? Or what, what else? What other? What’s out there for people to learn a little bit more about this methodology?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Well, yeah, absolutely. And of course, there is my book as my function and value. And there’s also i’m also having a website that I’m putting together that’s going to have all of the tools, as well as it’s also going to have a interactive case study that I’m putting together, it should be done sometime next week, so that you can basically learn and practice as at the same time.

 

Patrick Adams  

So if there’s someone that’s listening right now, and they’re interested to learn more about value analysis and Value Engineering, they can go to your website, they can check out your book. Are there any other resources out there that are available for people to learn more about this methodology?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

Yes, there’s a safe, it’s spelled sa ve and international. And this is the international website for value analysis, Value Engineering, and this is where you can get certified. It’s the only place you can get certified to be VAVE certified. They have plenty of resources, they have more education. And that’s the main focus; you can find several books on VAVE. And this is like the reason why I am basically writing the book and why I am talking about it. It’s because there’s not as much talk in coverage over VAVE as there is in lean and TPS in quality management. So this is actually why I am talking about educating people to have them provide their experiences and I help their organization out.

 

Patrick Adams  

Very nice. I appreciate that. And I’m glad that you were able to be on the show today to talk about value analysis and Value Engineering. Any closing thoughts for our listeners, Valorie?

 

Valorie Hendrix  

VAVE it works very well when you do continuous improvement. It has a very nice flow. So you can actually work the AV and you Lean methodologies at the same time during the same time, I do recommend that if you are doing lean that you need to also implement VA/VE at the same time. Also get out there educate yourself about the process and how it works. Feel free to give me a link up with me on LinkedIn and ask me questions if you ever need to, or if you need information and just realize that VA/ve does not have that much to invest, but it does have a very high return on investment. So that’s why I recommend a lot of organizations to start it and use it.

 

Patrick Adams  

Very nice. Well thanks again, Valorie, we appreciate you being on the show and filling us in on the topic of value analysis and Value Engineering.

 

Valorie Hendrix

All right, thank you, Patrick. I appreciate being on your show.

 

Patrick Adams  

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the Lean solutions podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe. This way you’ll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined. Please give us a review. Thank you so much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai