The Role of Value Engineering in Product Design and Profitability Improvement in Manufacturing Setting - A Review

The application of value engineering for sustainable manufacturing is vital in increasing the efficacy of products over their entire life cycle in terms of cost reduction, increased value, reliability, better designs, durability, improved performance and enhanced quality. Nevertheless, stakeholders and top management must strongly support implementing value engineering and communicate the idea throughout the organisation to achieve significant success. The product design stage is the point at which the cost of implementing change in a product is lowest, and the possibility to add value is the highest, such that the design team has the most significant impact on cost control and savings. Enormous benefits and resource savings are bound to be achieved if VE is implemented early in the product design phase. This paper sheds light on the role value engineering plays in product design and the integral and indispensable part of the growth and success strategy in ensuring increased profitability and productivity within the manufacturing environment. The literature assessment established that applying VE in product design leads to high-quality products that meet customer expectations by increasing performance without increasing cost and affecting saleability and maintainability. It also transforms all improvements related to conceptions derived from external and internal sources into commercial benefits for the manufacturer and her customers. Furthermore, it is revealed that statistical data from a wide range of literature shows that about 70-80% of a product cost is finalised at the design stage, while 20-30% is controlled during the manufacturing stage, therefore validating the importance of implementing value engineering concepts at product design stage since it is associated with cost reduction.