222 The Indian Concrete Journal * April 2002 Point of View IT-propelled value engineering in construction These columns of ICJ offer an opportunity to the engineering fraternity to express their views on the current practices in design, construction and management being followed in the industry. To share your opinion with our readers, you may send in your inputs in about 1500 words via E-mail to editor@icjonline.com Value engineering is a methodology which tries to reduce cost by improving functionality through lesser consumption of energy. The author feels that information technology can integrate the compartmentalised nature of the construction industry and play the role of 'incredible facilitator or enabler' in both knowledge management and value engineering. In the words of Alwin Toffler, the author of Third Wave and Future Shock, the ad- vancement of civilisation is categorised by three phases, namely, agricultural revolu- tion, pre-industrial revolution and post-in- dustrial revolution. The post-industrial revolution may be called as IT revolution. Each revolution, made the life styles, be- havioural aspects and human idiosyncra- sies of the previous revolution obsolete and the rate of obsolescence is accelerated with successive revolutions. While the impact of information technology (IT) revolution on aerospace engineering, manufacturing and process industries has been phenomenal in the last decade or so, the construction industry, despite being the second oldest profession of the world, largely remained outside the domain of application of digital technologies. There is likely to be significant shift in the construction paradigm from the fast track construction practised in the last decade to conservation of energy in terms of manpower, machinery, materials and money, as there is an apprehension that the inherent inadequacies of over consumption of energy that is invariably called for in the fast track construction may lead to premature deterioration of the structures. However, the nature of fast track construction has necessitated the use of IT in a fragmented manner in the organised construction sector. The compartmentalised nature of tender, design, purchasing and construction process has given rise to islands of automation, in the construction industry. However, the envisaged paradigm shift to conservation of energy will warrant at each of the above process stages value engineering propelled by knowledge management. This is where IT can play the role of 'incredible facilitator or enabler' in both knowledge management and value engineering. Value engineering Value engineering is a methodology used to analyse the function of the goods and services and to obtain the required func- tions of the user at the lowest total cost without reducing the necessary quality of performance 1 . Many a time, value engi- neering (VE) is confused with cost cutting exercises in construction industry. The es- sential difference between conventional cost cutting and VE is that it involves reducing the cost by improving the functionality through lesser consumption of energy in terms of manpower, materials and ma- chines. In the initial stages VE was used by production engineers for reducing the cost of manufacture. However, it was found that the benefit of VE is much greater if multi- disciplinary teams of engineers were involved which would also influence the design team, that is normally the case in construction. V.N.Heggade .N.Heggade .N.Heggade .N.Heggade .N.Heggade Fig 1 Influence on project cost generation