Value Engineering
&
Buildability Input
Value Engineering (VE) and Buildability can today provide a vital advantage in tendering both in relation to cost and quality. Early VE and Buildability workshops will enable identification of solutions which can be incorporated into your submission, subject to the ITT allowing this.
Buildability is the extent to which the design of a scheme facilitates ease of construction, subject to the overall requirements for the completed scheme.
Good buildability leads to major benefits for clients, designers, and contractors as well as those required to maintain and eventually decommission the scheme, it may reduce tender prices, increase profits, reduce contact administration duties for architects and engineers, or variations, or ensure completion to time, or improve quality
Ellipsis International Solutions is experienced in undertaking sense checks for Contract drawings and specifications in order to ensure the scheme has considered buildability and to confirm construction can be undertaken smoothly, safely, and efficiently.
The Value Engineering (VE) process can add cost to a project, however when carried out at an early stage, the ultimate result is generally a significant saving in design, specification or construction costs or programme and improved functionality of the scheme. Under the right circumstances, significant returns on investment can be achieved for the client with additional benefits flowing back to the contractor.
There are a number of well-established steps in a Value Engineering (VE) study, as follows:
information gathering
creative thinking
analysis, evaluation, and shortlisting
development
presentation
Ellipsis International Solutions can support both ‘Buildability’ and ‘VE’ workshop proposals which are assessed and analysed as follows:
1. Understand the problem
It is vital that all those involved in Value Engineering fully understand the scenario being discussed and the client / stakeholder required success criteria. This process needs input from the key stakeholders in order to ensure a meaningful, mutually agreed output from this step which clearly defines what constitutes success for the project.
Workshops are an effective way to collect information about the problem. However, it is also possible for small scale VE analysis to be undertaken as a desk study or as a more focussed group discussion as long as the success criteria have been clearly defined
2. Identify solutions
Identifying a variety of solutions to meet the objectives requires innovative and open thinking. There are many well-understood techniques that can be used for group problem-solving, one of the most common is brainstorming.
Whatever process is used, the emphasis is on generating as many ideas and potential solutions as possible without reviewing them at this point. Ellipsis International Solutions is experienced at leading workshops focussed on brainstorming VE solutions
3. Evaluating the options.
This step takes each of the ideas generated above and assesses them against the success criteria to establish a preferred options list. In some cases, eliminating unsuitable solutions on grounds of cost or feasibility may be easy, however other solutions may require further investigation before they can be fully assessed.
The output from this phase is a shortlist of possible solutions along with documented evidence of advantages and disadvantages. As part of this process outline costings should be established.
4. Develop the selected schemes in more detail
The possible solutions can then be examined in more detail. This may include additional analysis to further breakdown costs and benefits of each solution.
Depending on the amount of detail that is required, this may have to be done after the workshop.
5. Identify the optimum solution and make recommendations
The identified solutions are whittled down to a clear favourite, or perhaps a small number of equally good outcomes which is referred to as the ‘preferred solution’. This solution can then be documented within a report to show the validity of the assessment process.
Ellipsis International Solutions can coordinate the whole process sequence including workshops for brainstorming, contract drawing and specification review and buildability input with the aim to provide cost beneficial proposals to optimise any alternative bid proposal or ECI process.