JEDDAH, 26 April 2008 — Prince Khaled ibn Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation for military affairs, underscored the significance of the speedy implementation of value engineering in the Kingdom as a sure method to improve performance, reduce cost and maintain quality.
Value engineering is a systematic method to improve the ‘value’ of goods and services by using an examination of function.
Prince Khaled made the observation while opening the fourth Value Engineering Conference for the Gulf region in Jeddah. The prince pointed out that introducing value engineering in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries in the recent years has saved more than SR5 billion.
The prince also opened a VE exhibition on the sidelines of the conference. A number of large companies and engineering firms participated in it. Seventeen work papers are to be presented in the workshop and conference in which 500 participants from the Kingdom, Gulf and other countries are participating.
VE could also be employed to tackle various problems faced by the Kingdom, including the quality of education, the issue of spinsterhood and the unemployment problem.
Value, as defined, is the ratio of function to cost. Either improving the function or reducing the cost can therefore increase value. It is a primary tenet of value engineering that basic functions be preserved and not be reduced as a consequence of pursuing value improvements.
Prince Khaled underscored the importance of adopting value-engineering principles in the Kingdom particularly when the country was passing through an economic boom.
The prince said that value engineering was particularly relevant in the areas of training local manpower and acquiring skills and talents.
Abdul Aziz Al-Rabia, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Value Engineers Society, said in his speech that the timing of the present conference in the Kingdom is significant because a number of huge projects are being executed here.
Al-Rabia said an estimated 5 percent to 30 percent cost reduction would be achieved by introducing value engineering in the Kingdom.
He added that 1,200 value-engineering studies with the participation of 17,000 engineers and other experts have been conducted in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries until now.
