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26 Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering

that he wants performed, and aesthetic functions please him or someone

he wants to have pleased.
Many products and services require both use and aesthetic functions.
Some require only use while some require only aesthetic functions. The
refrigerator, automobile, dress, shoe, pipe, and flower vase all require
both use and aesthetic functions in varying ratios. The nail within the
walls of the building, the concealed wire in the motor, and the oil in the
automobile require only use functions. The "Rembrandt," the diamond,
and the perfume have only aesthetic functions.
Intense concentration, even what appears to be overconcentration of
mental work on these functions, forms the basis for unexpected steps of
advancement of value in the product or service.

2-2 Identify, Clarify, and Name Functions

The process includes:
Identifying
Clarifying
Naming
What, really, is the function that the customer or user wants?

Case Study
$50,000 FOR CONCRETE-WHAT IS THE FUNCTION?

A new laboratory under installation was to contain very powerful X-ray

equipment for deeply searching large forgings and castings for hidden de-
fects. Providing for the protection of adjacent areas from radiation was
required. For this, the drawings included a concrete wall, 7 feet thick and
14 feet high, in the shape of a horseshoe outside of the building. The best
bid on this wall was approximately $50,000. The contract was taken to
the works manager for his initialing. Recognizing his responsibility for the
area, he told the manager of the laboratory that he would approve the
contract. However, he said, "If you decide to move the laboratory, you will
take this concrete away with you and get it out of our way." This was an
unexpected condition to which the laboratory manager was unprepared to
subscribe. He called in a construction supervisor and asked him what he
could do to work out the problem. The construction engineer, who had
not worked with problems of radiation, was astonished to see in the plans
an enormous amount of concrete, seemingly idle and carrying no load.
Inquiring into the function of the concrete, he was advised that it was to
stop radiation.
Having studied value analysis function-based techniques, he thought in
terms of "what else would stop radiation." He asked whether dirt would
stop it and was advised that it would if it was provided in sufficient
 A11 Cost Is for Function 27

quantity, which was found to be a mound 14 feet high and 14 feet thick.
Bids on it showed that it could be installed for $5,000; of course, the
works manager immediately approved. The use, at the proper time, of the
function-based value analysis techniques resulted in a superior product,
namely, a grassed-over earth mound, at one-tenth of the cost of a solid
concrete wall.
State the function in exact sentences. Examine the sentences.
Is that exactly what it does for the customer?
Is that exactly what the customer wants it to do?
Is that exactly what the customer believes he's paying for?
Improve and clarify the sentences until they say exactly what the func-
tion really is. Describe what the function does and name it with a verb
and a noun, for example, support contact, enclose housing, control cur-
rent, radiate heat, etc.
Some verbs Some nouns
Contain Secure Piston Vibration
Move Locate Contacts Volume
Shorten Space Torque
Support Rotate Switch
Protect Fasten Volume
Prevent Close Current
Actuate Insulate Dust
Time (as a verb) Ignite Panel
Control Filter Paint
Reduce Mount Rust
Modulate Limit Noise
While the naming of functions may appear simple, the exact opposite is
the rule. In fact, naming them articulately is so difficult and requires such
precision in thinking that real care must be taken to prevent the abandon-
ment of the task before it is accomplished.

2-3 Quantify Functions When Practicable

To provide more benefits, functions are named whenever possible using a
verb and noun that have measurable parameters. For example support
timer may also be defined as support weight, and interrupt circuit may be
defined as interrupt current. This approach, in many cases, allows and
promotes measurement of the appropriate cost for a specified function in
more specific terms. Some examples follow:
Conduct current Conduct heat
Transmit torque Transmit flux
Enclose volume Communicate intelligence
Insulate voltage Amplify voltage
Dampen vibration
28 Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering

When this naming system is used, the next essential step stands out
clearly. How much current? Under what conditions? How much torque?
Under what conditions? How much volume? Under what conditions?

2-4 Unify the Function and

Its Specifications
Thus is evolved the function and its specification, or the function and its
constraints, as it is sometimes called, which open wide possibilities for
predetermining the approximate worth, or appropriate cost, of any func-
tion under any specific constraints or specifications.
The framework has been established in which the worth, or appro-
priate cost, of a specified function under specified conditions can be com-
pared to the worth, or appropriate cost, of the same function under dif-
ferent specified conditions. Likewise the conditions can be held constant
and the worth of varying amounts of the specified function can be com-
pared.

2-5 Analyze Aesthetic Functions

Naming of the aesthetic functions follows different patterns because the
values placed by the customer on aesthetic functions are almost completely
subjective. The realistic name that seems to apply to all aesthetic func-
tions is please customer. Spelling out just what will please the customer
is much more difficult than spelling out what use functions the customer
wants and is willing to pay for. However, often, in the difficult lies the
largest opportunity. The task is to solve the problems a little better and
to get better answers than the best competitor (who, of course, has the
same difficult problems).
More specific function names in the aesthetic area often promote some
better solutions. Some typical names are:
Provide appearance Reduce noise
Provide shape Reduce size
Provide color Reduce thickness
Provide features Reduce time required
Provide convenience Reduce skill required
The aesthetic functions are fully identified and clarified, as are the use
functions. Each must then be similarly provided with its exact specifica-
tions or constraints.
Cost accepted in use functions is not more wisely used than cost in
aesthetic function areas. Sometimes costs accepted in the aesthetic area
bring the best return. It depends entirely upon what the customer wants
and is willing to pay for and what the product or service now lacks that
is desired.
 A11 Cost Is for Function 29

2-6 Classify Functions As Either

Basic or Secondary
After functions are identified, clarified, understood, and named, the think-
ing surrounding them is further deepened by classifying them as either
basic or secondary functions. Basic functions are those functions for
which the customer buys the device or service. The basic function of a
refrigerator is to preserve food, that of a lawn mower to cut grass, and
that of a bicycle to "move weight," etc.
Secondary functions are those functions required to cause or allow the
designer's choice of means for accomplishing the basic functions to do
so effectively. If a refrigerator has electric contacts that open and close to
regulate its cycle of operation, then the function of mounting and protect-
ing the contacts is required. If the refrigerator has solid-state control
equipment with no moving parts to control its operating cycle, then a
very different function-different in design and different in cost-may be
needed to cause or allow it to accomplish its task.
It is often startling, when this information is developed, to learn what
high percentages of the cost are consumed by secondary functions. This
pinpoints for the designer areas relatively unrelated to the basic function
where his different choices may have large effects upon costs.

SUMMARY

Function

The basic purpose of each expenditure, whether it be for hardware, the

work of a group of men, a procedure, or whatever, is to accomplish a
function. It is necessary to establish the language of function and stay
within this language.

Types of Functions

In the search for basic objective thinking, functions are divided into two
types. Either or both may cause the buyer or the user to buy the product.
One type is the use function, and the other is the aesthetic function.
Each is important. Any costs other than those that provide the amount
of each of these two functions that the user or buyer wants are unneces-
sary costs.

Use Function

The cost that is expended to cause the product to perform a use that
the buyer wants and is willing to pay for is called the use function cost.
30 Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering

Aesthetic Function

The cost that is expended for the purpose of pleasing the buyer through
color or shape or feature, causing him to buy, is typed as the aesthetic
function cost.

Basic Function

The basic function is that function for which the user or buyer buys the
product.

Secondary Functions

Secondary functions are those functions that become necessary in order

to allow the designer's choice for means of accomplishing the basic func-
tion to do so effectively. As is readily seen, the customer is extremely
interested in the basic function, but he does not care about the second-
ary functions. Large amounts of cost are contained in secondary functions
and become the immediate target for high-grade value engineering work.