1st Edition

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

By Abate O. Kassa Copyright 2016
    192 Pages 46 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    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.

    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

    Biography

    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.