The state of practice of value engineering and its relevance to Uganda’s Construction Industry
Abstract
Presently, Value Engineering is considered as a tool of construction management that can help
companies to improve their procedures, services and final products regarding the client’s needs,
as an end user, with respect to time, cost and quality. The concept of Value Engineering has
been developed through the years and wider construction markets such as U.S.A. and U.K have
identified its value, and practice it extensively.
This study set out to investigate the state of practice of Value Engineering in the rest of the
world, and its relevance to Uganda’s construction industry. This was achieved by undertaking
a historical review of Value Engineering, and by the illustration of the Value Engineering
process and the most common techniques used. In addition, a desk study approach was used to
analyze different markets applying Value Engineering worldwide.
From the study, the outstanding and most popular Value Engineering techniques identified
were found to be the 40-Workshop, Charette, Value Engineering Change Proposal, and the
Value Engineering Audit. The state of the Value Engineering practice in Uganda was found to
be in a very poor state. The desk study approach indicated that countries such the U.S.A, U.K,
Japan and Canada had excellent Value Engineering practices, with well documented reports
and statistics from the process.
The report has been arranged in five chapters. First is the introduction which briefly describes
the background of the study, problem statement, and objectives of the study, significance of
the study and scope of the study. The second chapter is the literature review which contains
information about the origin and evolution of Value Engineering, its definition, process and
different techniques. The third chapter is the Methodology that explains the data collection
method that were adopted for the study, data types, data collection instruments, target
population, sampling, data analysis and ethical considerations. The fourth chapter is the
Findings and Analysis which shows the results from the field and their implications. The fifth
chapter contains the conclusion and recommendations.