Managing success

Value Management : Improving Capabilities
Roy Woodhead and Clive Downs
Thomas Telford
£45.00
CBD Stock No: 3070
Pages: 98

Whether it is Value Management, Value Engineering or Value Analysis, the result is the same whatever title is used.

Unlike most books that describe a process Roy Woodhead and Clive Downs have written this as a report on a research project. The aim of the report is to benefit all those who use Value Management, whether they are the practitioner or the client, by having a greater understanding of its uses and approaching it in a more pragmatic fashion.

The report covers research made during a workshop in early 2000 that was set up to experience Value Management and to help businesses in setting up their own Value Management processes.

The research is defined and the data analysed in the first chapter. The way the data was collected, structured and prepared is explained to give readers confidence in the results of the report. In this chapter some answers are provided that stimulate further thinking, but the reader is left wondering in what direction we are heading.

This question is partly answered in chapter two and those who enjoy statistics will be in their element. The chapter looks at the process and the results of the survey, explains the need to improve Value Management and also provides the answers to the questions posed during the workshop.

Chapter three describes how managers can avoid the problem of being overwhelmed by Value Management and details how they can programme Value Management to make it most effective within the organisation. A function, analysis, system technique (FAST) diagram is described in detail, showing how it can be constructed and used.

Whilst the authors acknowledge that the system is not perfect they ask, “What must be done to achieve the outcome characterised by particular functions of the FAST diagram?” and suggest that in considering this you will source your own breakthrough innovation.

Chapter four analyses and concludes the report, describing how different levels of experience were assessed. The suggestion is made that Value Management clarifies the problems and allows the reader to work through a project more easily having prepared his own Value Management at the outset. It also suggests that clients and providers of Value Management should work together to share experiences when using Value Management. Recommendations are also made in how to obtain the most from Value Management.

Self-improvement is an important detail in chapter five and it explains how senior managers can develop Value Management.

The appendices explain certain methodologies used in the individual chapters.

Overall, this is a report that is well worth reading if, as a client or practitioner, you have a real interest in Value Management and its uses in management. However, it should not be considered light reading.