Industry applications for adopting value engineering in construction: A study from general contractors’ perspective

Abstract

Value engineering (VE) has been widely used in a variety of industries to analyze the function of systems and services to provide the best value for the money spent while maintaining a qualified product. It has been common to use VE in construction projects, majorly in an attempt to achieve cost savings. Considering the know-how and resources required to set up a proper VE system, construction companies have been evaluating their resources to decide whether or not to implement VE. This study aims to analyze the most common reasons why and how General Contracting (GC) companies implement VE and understand whether VE improves collaboration and efficiency in the construction process. The methodology includes reviewing local case studies to understand the VE processes from GC companies’ perspectives with strengths and weaknesses. Results of this study identified the most common reason to adopt VE as cost savings, as expected. The secondary reasons were identified as life cycle savings, added value to the company, and better collaboration with the design team, which emphasized that VE is expected to improve collaboration and efficiency. This study contributes to the VE body of knowledge by presenting why and how GC companies should implement VE by emphasizing project performance success parameters. The results highlighted that, although the cost savings mainly were less than 25%, the majority of the companies believed that VE had improved both collaboration and efficiency in their construction projects.