Value Analysis and Engineering Reengineered: The Blueprint for Achieving Operational Excellence and Developing Problem Solvers and Innovators

About the Book

Thought leader Abate Kassa finds the U.S. government’s arbitrary cost-cutting directives of austerity measures or sequestration as a perfect example of moving in the wrong direction. Their system follows rule-sense rather than value-sense. In this book, Mr. Kassa proposes reengineered value analysis/value engineering (VA/VE) as the way to deliver superior service at a minimum cost.

By mastering the powerful re-engineered VA/VE problem-solving value methodology (PISERIA) outlined in this book, any organization regardless of industry will be able to self-diagnose problems and self-discover solutions.

The book is the product of Abate Kassa's dual lenses of experience and research over four decades. In the book, Mr. Kassa updates and upgrades VA/VE by integrating popular improvement methodologies, including Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management, Kaizen, Business Process Reengineering, and Project Management, into the scientific method of the value methodology he dubbed PISERIA. By so doing, the author hopes to positively disrupt the status quo of the siloed thinking of these fragmented methodologies.

If you are engaged in the pursuit of excellence and are ready to make the leap from good to great, while generating an immediate payback, you will want to empower your people with an understanding of the reengineered VA/VE outlined in this book.

Table of Contents:

SECTION I: THE VALUE PERSPECTIVES

Genesis, Goals, and Definitions

The Value Equation
What Is Value?
The Value Equation
Value-for-Money
Value Innovation and Ways to Add Value

Achieving Excellence
Principles of Excellence
The Excellence Model

The Integrated Value-Improvement Methodologies
Lean Thinking
Six Sigma
Quality Function Deployment
Project Management
Supply Chain Management and the Supply Value Chain

Change Management
The Change Equation
The Process of Change
The Forces of Change

SECTION II: THE VALUE METHODOLOGY

Overview of Thinking Methodologies
Intuitive Thinking versus Value Thinking
Inductive Reasoning & Deductive Reasoning
DMAIC
Project Management Process
Scientific Method
Whole System Thinking
Piseria, the Value Methodology
The Five Basic Questions

The Preparation Phase
Preparation Phase: Select VA Project and Project Worker(s)
Candy Wrapper Case Study

The Information Phase
Candy Wrapper Case Study
What Is It?
What Does It Do?
Functional Analysis Systems Technique (FAST)
Value-Stream Mapping (VSM)
Root-Cause Analysis (RCA)
The Five Whys
Where Do We Get the Information?
How Do We Gather and Record Information?
What Does It Cost?
Does Cost Determine Price, or Vice Versa?

The Speculation Phase
Candy Wrapper Case Study
The Alternative Courses of Action: What Else Will Do?
Creativity in the Speculation Phase
Creative-Thinking Techniques

The Evaluation Phase
Candy Wrapper Case Study
Will It Work? What Will It Cost?
Analysis of Alternative Ideas
Development

The Recommendation Phase
Candy Wrapper Case Study
Objectives of the Recommendation Phase
Proposal Preparation and Presentation
The Content of the Value-Improvement Proposal
The A.I.D.A. Marketing Technique
Guidelines for Justifying the Need for Change
Negotiation
Recommendation Phase Checklist
Decision Requirements of the Recommendation Phase

The Implementation Phase
Candy Wrapper Case Study
Creativity Is Not Enough!
Setting-Up an Implementation Plan
Implementation Barriers
Implementation Enablers
Reasons for Conducting a Pilot Program

The Audit Results Phase
Candy Wrapper Case Study
Objectives of the Audit Results Phase
Review and Report
Monitoring and Evaluation
Earned-Value Analysis
Institutionalization of Change
Return on Investment
Audit Results Phase Checklist

SECTION III: THE VALUE ORGANIZATION

The Value Specialist Approach

The Value Team Approach
From Bureaucracy to Adhocracy
How to Organize a Value Team
Stages of Team Development

The Value Buyer Approach

The Value Supplier Approach

The Value Suggestor Approach

The Value Educator Approach

The Value-Organization Approach

Conclusion

Appendix A: The Value Process Dashboard

Appendix B: Value Stream Plan (What to Do, by When)

Appendix C: Value Improvement Proposal

Appendix D: Evaluation Report and Guide

Appendix E: Preparation Agenda

Appendix F: Information Agenda

Appendix G: Speculation Agenda

Appendix H: Evaluation Agenda

Appendix I: Recommendation Agenda

Appendix J: Implementation Agenda

Appendix K: Audit Results Agenda

Author

Index

About the Author :
Abate O. Kassa, author, consultant, and educator in Value Management, is president of AOK Consulting & Education, established in 1973 and based in New York. He is a former purchasing manager for Ethiopian Airlines, where he introduced a corporate-wide value-improvement process after value-training 343 management staff and also revitalized its employee suggestion system. Mr. Kassa combines resource and process consultancy to provide organic change for his client organizations instead of the traditional mechanistic change. As a Nichepreneur™ specializing in value management and purchasing & supply management, he assists his clients to optimize the value of their operations. Mr. Kassa has also gained experience in international public procurement working with the International Trade Centre/UNCTAD/WTO on a $1 billion import procurement project in Africa and also served as an ITC consultant in the Pacific Forum Island Countries of Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, Niue, Tuvalu, and Fiji. He was a regular speaker for many years at the affiliates of the Institute for Supply Management and the American Management Association in the United States, where he used his own workbooks (unpublished) to teach Value Management and Purchasing & Supply Management. Mr. Kassa was retained as executive director of the Institute for Supply Management-New York for 19 years (1981–2000). He was the recipient of ISM-New York’s 1992 J. H. Leonard Award for his contributions in institutional capacity building of ISM-New York as a center of excellence in purchasing and supply management. Once a science master at his elementary school as a teenager, he has now anchored the value methodology in the common knowledge of the scientific method to reengineer value engineering; and this book is the product of his dual lenses of experience and research over many years. Mr. Kassa is a lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) with the Institute for Supply Management and a former Certified Value Specialist (CVS) with SAVE International. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and a master’s degree in government and politics from St. John’s University, New York City, New York.