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Success Stories

The value process was initially developed in about 1943 by Larry Miles. It has been improved by him and thousands of others since its humble beginnings. Due to its power and success, this process is required by many governments, private quality groups, audit consultants, and others.

It is well thought out, continuously improved by the value community. Enjoys much industry and governmental support, and has generated positive results for over 60 years. According to an 1996 analysis, the main issues making the value process different than other approaches (and more successful) were: rich historical support, required use of a structure job plan, a functional review, generation of "value" bases, and requirement of presentation of results (even if negative).

In this process, value is equal to the functional worth's (benefits) over the costs to attain them (including costs such as risk). Thus, a VI, or VF less than one, means you are paying for more than you get, and the higher the number above one, the more you get for your unit cost (dollar). In general, you should strive to attain a VF>1.

The value process job plan requires you to complete the purpose for the job step before proceeding to the next.. This ensures the value purposes are attained.

The most unique feature of the value process is the use of functional purposes to describe the parts and their placement in a logic diagram that points out why they are important and how costs are attributed to them.

We think that the value process requires a written and verbal report. We have never found any study to fail that required these issues. If it didn't work out, state it and why. If it did, give everything that happened so it can be made use of. In over 2,000 studies examined, we have never seen a study fail that used the rules on this page.

Some groups (IPA audits, etc.) specify that the process must be a "step back" to meet value improving practice (VIP) criteria. While we agree this often produces the most dramatic results, we have seen results just as remarkable without imposing this requirement (for studies at the correct timing).