Value Engineering and how it can help your Plant Hire & Tool Hire requirements
In today’s challenging economic climate, it is important to ensure that project managers, property developers, landscape gardeners, groundwork contractors, civil engineers and any other construction workers are getting the best deal on their plant and tool hire equipment. Whether you are in Birmingham, London, Manchester, or you are having projects in specific regions such as West, Midlands, Yorkshire South-East etc. You should be asking if you are getting the best value for money to keep your projects within budget?
Value engineering can help with that, and this is the topic of the blog and how it relates to you keeping your project costs down.
Value engineering is an important topic within the construction industry because if used correctly it can reduce projects costs and improve efficiencies for construction projects. This ranges from all aspects of the construction process from actual construction to the procurement of equipment such as larger excavators hire, dumper hire, crane hire, mini digger hire and construction tools for hire etc.
What Is Value Engineering?
Value engineering was developed in the Second World War in response to the labour and material shortage. So, the optimisation of resources to keep costs down were key.
The formal definition is “Value Engineering is a conscious and explicit set of disciplined procedures designed to seek out optimum value for both initial and long-term investment”.
In summary the idea is to optimise quality whilst reducing cost. It is important to note that this is not the same as cost reduction, but the goal is to become more efficient in the process, hence creating value.
Applying Value Engineering to projects.
There is no point having all these theories if you can’t apply and demonstrate it in practice. The following is a summary of the stages of value engineering and how it is applied to construction project management.
Data Gathering Stage
The information gathering stage is arguably the most important stage because this will set out the projects scope and plans for objectives. The old saying of bad data equals bad information is true here. So, it is critical that whatever data is secured is true and accurate. For example, if benchmarking the cost of plant hire equipment such as a digger, you would want reliable rates from different suppliers and if possible, references to see how good they are to hire from. This would make you have an informed decision when trying to hire plant equipment in various locations, for example hiring a mini digger in Birmingham.
Function Stage
The function stage is where there are two types of analysis. Primary and secondary functions. Primary function is the vital part of the project and is part of the project which holds the greatest value. The secondary function is the support function of the project which compliments the primary function.
Once the functions of the project are determined, the team can move on to the creative phase where they can start brainstorming solutions.
Ideas Stage
The creative stage is a brainstorming session where all possible ideas and outcomes of the projects are thought about and documented. This is an important stage because it can outline the teams thinking into actionable plans. All aspect so the project should be analysed and documented.
Evaluation Stage
The next stage is the evaluation and analysis stage where the pros and cons of each idea and rank them from best to worst. This will give a clear idea of the path the project should follow.
Lifecycle analysis should be completed during this stage. Where all costs will be considered from the start all the way to the end of the project to ensure long term cost are considered and the appropriate project control actions can be taken to keep costs under control.
Project Development Stage
The project development phase is when all the ideas that were evaluated are formally documented and recommend to the lead project manager or whomever oversees the project.
Again, each recommendation will have a set of advantages and disadvantages, so a clear and detailed analysis can be conducted. It will also outline project timelines and cost comparisons to make informed decisions.
Presentation and Briefing Stage
During this stage the teams will present the findings and recommendations to the stakeholders and decision makers. The purpose of this stage is to get the final approval by formally presenting the final possible alternatives and determine which value proposal will be best suited for the project moving forward.
Implementation Stage
After going through this phased approach, the final stage is to start the construction and implementation of the plans. In this stage the project should have clearly defined goals and objectives. Furthermore, all costs controls should be in place to allow the project to be constructed as smooth as possible and within budget.
How Procure-Hire Can Help with Cost Reduction of Plant Hire & Tool Hire
Finding plant hire and tool hire equipment online, can help you reduce your procurement & project cost. Thus Procure-Hire can be implemented in your value engineering and cost reduction analysis plans.
By benchmarking different equipment such as mini diggers, dumpers and other plant and tool equipment you can ensure that you are getting the best quality equipment at the right price and with our location system you always know where your nearest reliable suppliers are whether that be in Birmingham, London, Bromsgrove, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester or any other part of the UK.
Procure-Hire can ensure that you are making an informed decision for your plant and tool equipment hire needs.
If interested, please create your FREE account at: https://www.procure-hire.com/customer/account/create/
If you are unsure of your equipment requirements, please request a custom quote at: https://www.procure-hire.com/contact/ and we will be more than happy to assist you.
