The True Value of Value Engineering

Value engineering is the process of reviewing a design to find elements that could be changed to reduce the cost of construction. It’s a process that can be applied at any stage of the development of a design for a project.

Value engineering could be as simple as changing a parking or yard area from asphalt to gravel, or as complicated as completely changing the supporting structure of a building from steel to a locally made, readily available structural product. If you consider that the design costs of any construction project are between 5 and 10 per cent of the total cost, some careful consideration of materials and methods before construction begins can have a considerable impact on the total cost of a project.

For example, our civil engineering company often tries to find ways to reduce the numbers of manholes and catch basins required in a project. If you consider that the installed cost of a manhole runs around $5,000, removing one or two of them from a project can have a significant impact on our client’s bottom line.

At Wedler, we think value engineering is so important that we actually included it in our list of core company values