TABLE OF CONTENTS In 1960 I experienced a new way of thinking. I learned about this new way of thinking when I was assigned to conduct the first value engineering seminar within the Sperry Rand Corporation. Shortly after receiving this assignment, I enrolled in the first value engineering class ever taught at a university, at the University of California at Los Angeles. This was a workshop class designed to teach a technique developed by Lawrence D. Miles, a General Electric purchasing manager. The technique was called value analysis and it is applied to any type of product or service.
Value analysis is a technique that focuses "on one objective equivalent performance for lower cost." [1] In order to achieve this objective, Mr. Miles identifies and names the functions performed by various products and services. He says that the only reason a customer purchases a product is because of the function it performs. For example, a customer purchases a lawn mower because it performs the function "cut grass." A customer purchases an electric shaver because it performs the function "remove whiskers." Every product performs or accomplishes at least one basic function.
This was an entirely new way of thinking for me. Thinking in terms of functions sparked within me new creative insight into almost everything I looked at. It opened my mind to creative opportunities beyond my experience. In the following section, I will tell you about giving names to functions. In Chapter 3, I will tell you more about...
