What is value engineering in construction?

Value engineering in construction is a structured method for raising a project’s value by improving the ratio of function to cost without cheapening the spec.

The phase of value engineering (VE) is not the problem, excessive VE is. On most jobs the phase has grown past function analysis and instead is a receipt for a decision made months earlier without cost in the room.

Why does excessive value engineering show up as a late project phase?

Excessive value engineering shows up late because cost is not in the room when the design is sold. Design-bid-build separates design from bid. Design-build often keeps the same split in the software even when the teams sit together.

You oftentimes will get a client that says, I want windows everywhere. Well, okay. As the builder, we know that If you want windows everywhere, you basically have to up your HVAC system to a point where it’s against the law. This isn’t the kind of thing that shows up in a design though. - Paraphrased from a California preconstruction leader

If precon isn’t in the room at massing: A beautiful facade with an amazing rendering may sell the project - but it’s design theatre. There are dozens of mini-versions of this same scenario that gradually inflate VE beyond what it needs to be.

A rendering that sells floor-to-ceiling glass with no cost or constructibility consideration is design theatre. Cost should be an input as early as possible.

When we get brought in on a project of this type at this stage of the game, we’re always asked, well, what if we do cast in place concrete? What if we do post tension concrete? What if we do steel? What if we do mass timber? etc. etc. We try to do that very early on when just doing massing studies of the building. - California preconstruction leader

Can’t we already do this in Revit?

Theoretically you can. The last 20+ years have clearyl shown us that Revit isn’t where Estimators will live, and BIM 2.0 and modernizing of design tools has shown that designers will not do early iteration there unless they have to.

“Given a choice, my design team peers would not use Revit as their design tool for these early exercises. They would much rather work use a different design tool better suited to iterative exercises. Revit is not their first tool of choice for this stage of design by a long shot.”

“If we’re creating that model for cost estimating based on something a design team has created in maybe a day and a half in Revit. That’s another three days on the estimating side.” - Integrated-firm design lead

Once you factor in that designs inevitably move while the estimating team is working in their own silo and it’s easy to feel how quickly this falls apart. The model still gets rebuilt for cost.

Are you saying we should stop doing value engineering?

No, VE has plenty of value in functional analysis and in owner-driven scope cuts. What should go away is surprise VE caused by ungrounded design: a rendering that sold a building nobody priced, quantified, or verified with cost while the wall was still cheap to change.