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46 Techniques o f Value Analysis and Engineering

Every problem must be solved on the basis of its facts and assumptions.
There are always assumptions. Great effort has often been made through
tests and study of experience to minimize assumptions. Often data that
are used as facts are in some part, small or large, assumptions. By incisive
questioning and penetrating analysis, separate assumptions from facts.
Determine, if possible, some cases in which more information or data can
be found that will change some assumptions to the appropriate facts and
that will modify some of the remaining assumptions to be more in har-
mony with the real situation.

4-2 Step 2: Separate Functions

Start with the total function that the customer wants and is willing to
pay for. Make the total function precisely clear and understood, with
critically reliable assumptions clear and sharp, and then divide it into the
major groups of subfunctions, that is, functions that must be accomp-
lished in order to achieve the total, or main, function. Proceed to identify
each of these subfunctions with the same precision and clarity used in
identifying the overall function. Next subdivide these subfunctions into
functions that are necessary to accomplish each subfunction. Identify
each of these sharply, question each, identify its real task, and improve its
information and assumptions. Further divide, continuing the process until
it reaches individual parts.
This process has not, as yet, established, or "set," the problem in a form
that will most readily yield a good solution, but it provides information
and thinking essential to good problem setting.
EXAMPLE: Consider the function for which a customer pays cer-
tain initial costs and then a stipulated monthly or annual amount.
A customer wants and is willing to pay for electric lighting and
power service. The functions might be named:
Use: Provide light.
Provide power or energy.
Aesthetic: Provide suitable appearance.
Provide convenience (of use).
Provide absence of noise.
Several subfunctions are required:
1. Provide energy.
2. Distribute current.
3. Control current.
Each function and subfunction must be performed within its estab-
lished limits and constraints.
 Problem-setting System 47

Further examining subfunction No. 3, "control current," it is found

that the customer's wants are for
Something to turn the lights off and on ( a "use" function)
Acceptable "feel," appearance, and sound ("aesthetic" functions)
The use function might be named open circuit or close circuit. TO
accomplish this customer-wanted function, several more subfunctions
are required:
1. Accept wires (of electric circuit).
2. Conduct current.
3. Resist disintegration ( caused by sparking 3.
4. Provide movement ( to open contacts).
5. Transmit suitable movement (from the thumb).
6. Mount parts.
Dividing subfunction No. 1, "accept wires," further would mean
essentially naming materials and parts that perform it by the means
we now have in mind: "screws," or "terminal," or "spring." Dividing
subfunction No. 2, "conduct current," further would essentially mean
supplying material, part, and operation names, not function names:
"conductor material," "contact material," "braze," or "weld." Thus,
customer-wanted functions have now been so effectively divided that
names of parts or materials are being designated.
It is at once seen that this depth penetration of function sub-
division in itself has not "set" the problem. It has prepared the way
for the problem to be set by suitable grouping. When considering
function grouping on the wall switch, it would be helpful for the
reader to group the functions and name the function groups in a
manner that will cause other good solutions to come into view, such
as the mercury bubble switch.

4-3 Step 3 : Group Functions

Of course, some benefits may come from suitable study of parts and
materials but do not study individual parts and totally separate functions
too long, but rather group them into functional groups, or assemblies,
each with a specific, well-defined, and well-understood purpose. Group
in different ways to provide the necessary supporting functions and finally
the total function required. Get the whole task into "mind-sized" pieces.
The individual must have the "pieces" that are "his size," that he can
solve one at a time, and that will take him to his objective. Each step
must be made on the basis of basic, objective material.
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 Problem-setting System 49

complish, and the skills that either are in the group or can be called in,
this problem was made solvable as follows:

- --

Functions that must be performed Present cost Required cost

1. Sense temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.00 $0.60
2. Actuate contacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.50 0.80
3. Interrupt circuit.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00 0.50
4. Provide adjustment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00 1.00
5. Mount and protect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 2.00
6. Please customer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.50 0.10
-
Total cost. . . . . . . . . . . . .
............. $9.00 $5.00*
* In this case, while making the control function "solvable," the preliminary
examination of the six functions indicated that it would be reasonable to expect to
accomplish a cost of $5 rather than the $6 assigned while examining the overall
product.

Note that the expected achievable cost, or "value," tentatively assigned

to each function is determined by the precise situations surrounding that
particular function, not by general rules or application of "blanket" per-
centages to all functions.
With this problem now in solvable form, the problem-solving system
and other techniques were used, with the following results:
1. A gas was used to sense temperature. Its property of contraction
when cooler was used. A modified gas, which had the property of conden-
sation and therefore a much greater change in volume at a given pressure
right at the needed control temperature, was used. The sensing bulb was
not needed. The tubing was changed to capillary tubing only.
2. The bellows, which reacted to the change in volume and/or pressure
of the gas, was made much smaller, thus increasing its sensitivity and
decreasing its cost.
3. The contacts were made differently, halving their cost, with the same
functioning properties.
4. The system of mounting and protecting was made much simpler and
smaller but still performed the functions with the same effectiveness.
5. Some cost in aesthetics was ended. It became well understood that
the only contact the customer had with the control was the knob. Its ap-
pearance and ease and convenience of operation were the sole reason for
aesthetic cost. Customer aesthetics on the knob pointer were improved
somewhat but other so-called "aesthetic" costs in the mount and support
assembly were ended.
The overall result was that the control function was accomplished for a
little less than the $5, and a $4 contribution was made to the overall $25
task from only a $9 item. Similar procedures produced suitable results on
the total project.
50 Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering

4 4 Problem-setting and
Problem-solving Overlap
The final problem setting is accomplished during the problem-solving
work, described in the next chapter. In the analysis step, the problem-
solving system, after much information has been secured, the precise
problems to be solved and the order in which to solve them are "set."
This frequently means a recycling back into information searching on the
real problems as finally set for solution. Very often, after the information
searching and during the analysis thinking, the real problem is clarified,
narrowed, divided into two or more separate problems, or changed
altogether. Thereafter the disciplined thinking of the creative problem-
solving system is utilized on precisely the right problems.
When a problem is properly set, it is organized into a group of func-
tions (or a single function), which are often interrelated but which ac-
complish one significant purpose-they permit common information
search, analysis, creativity, and judgment. If a group of functions is
formed, it should not be so involved that incisive thinking becomes irn-
possible or so separated that "pieces and parts" instead of "functions" are
being studied.

SUMMARY
Before investing important resources of time and energy in the task of
solving a problem only to find later that either it was not quite the right
problem or that it was so inclusive, exclusive, or mixed that good solu-
tions did not result, penetrating thought should be given to dividing or
grouping the problem right and stating it right.
All costs are associated with the functions or subfunctions they accom-
plish. Manageable function groups or individual functions are then made
into specific problems, which are stated in function terms that are in
similar parameters and lend themselves to comparisons and alternatives.
The final work of establishing the exact problems to be solved is done
in the analysis step of the problem-solving system. At that time the
initial problem will often be made more solvable.