Value Engineering Services 1

[Atomic25]

Has anyone had experience using The Steel Network's free value engineering service?

http://www.steelnetwork.com/VE.asp

or any similar VE service for that matter.

Wondering if this is the real deal or just a gimmick to get their foot in the door.

We have a 3 story structural steel moment frame dormitory in SDC D along a fault line and the bids came in high....not because of my steel. Owner is pushing a lightgage stud alternative to try and save money...even though we tell him it wont because of the building configuration and all the seismic requirements. Not sure if using a VE service will help or hurt.

 

[rday]

A wise man know once told me:

"Value Engineering is neither"

Economics is part of engineering design, is it not?

 

[csd72]

Value engineering is mostly about alternate ways of doing things. If your client is already fixated on a particular schem/method then VE probably wont add andy value

 

[Atomic25]

It sure is, but choosing the most economical system is not always the clearest target unless you sit down and do a study.

 

[Dinosaur]

Most of my experiences with VE end up requiring the owner to redefine the problem so an innovative solution may be considered. In most other cases, the time between VE and the scheduled advertisement date don't permit any redesign.

Good designers should be conducting their own VE along the way, but often can't consider alternatives because of the project schedule.

 

[jike]

There are some who use the term "value engineering" but really mean "slash and cut" in which there may be neither value nor engineering.

Make sure that if there is re-engineering to be done, that it be accurately represented in the total revised cost.

 

[archeng59]

I have not used the Steel Network's VE service. Not sure how that works.