Integrating theory of inventive problem solving into the Value Engineering process

Value Engineering (VE) is traditionally a process aimed at achieving cost effectiveness for a product, project or system based on brainstorming and other freethinking techniques. This traditional VE process often lacks focus on the problem, and as a result, many alternatives generated in the VE process are not relevant to the problem and consequently useless. In addition, this process may not be able to enhance the value due to lack of direction in problem-solving. To overcome these problems, this paper has improved the VE process by incorporating some of the useful tools of the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) into the creativity phase of the traditional VE exercise in order to guide the brainstorming and freethinking toward effective and efficient generation of "focused" ideas toward achieving the best and final solution. © 2008 Taylors Francis Group