This page contains a number of mini case studies that allows you to gain a flavour of the kind of work undertaken by this research group based in Oxford Brookes University. To protect commercial confidentiality the client identity and specific details of each case are not shown
Our special thanks go to Jerry J. Kaufman and James McCuish, both established VE practitioners from Houston, for all their help and support to develop the capability we now have here in Oxford Brookes University.
$65 Million Refrigerated Liquid Petroleum Gas Plant
The Challenge: To find ways to upgrade the existing plant and expand throughput without a full shut down. The cost of achieving this was compared against the cost of building a new facility.
The Outcome: Using Value Engineering, which uses functions to focus innovation, led to a potential $23 Million saving in Capex. This saving was benchmarked off the alternative option of building a new facility. Not only did the team develop a way of upgrading the existing facility without a shut down but they also increased throughput and improved the attributes of value by around 200%
$200 Million New Polyethylene Plant
The Challenge: To improve the way a scaled-up version of a tested concept for plant design was to be constructed. This new plant was sited in tight conditions within a larger existing complex.
The Outcome: A modest Capex saving of around $6-$10 Million was proposed along with an annual Opex saving of between $44 to $67 Million over a twenty year period. This was achieved by sharing resources with an adjacent plant and increasing throughput
Identifying the functions at play in the UK's Reinforced Concrete Frame Industry
The Challenge: To develop a normative model of the functions performed by an industry so that key organisations could develop strategic insights as to why it was losing market share in a booming economy.
The Outcome: The final model allowed the participants to understand that many functions had no one taking either an accountability role or a responsibility role and so everyone was waiting for someone else to 'solve the problems'. The model also showed that research funding needs to be focused on activities beyond the construction site as seemed to be the current agenda. Once a clear view of what the production process had to do had been established, current approaches were by and large delivered fairly well. Functions not being performed well (i.e. mal-functions) were predominantly in the management of branding, communication and innovative design stages.
$600 Million New Production Platform for an existing Oil and Gas Field
The Challenge: Two contractors had both submitted bids which were outside the IRR expectations of the Client. We had to help the contractors and the client collaborate to build a Function Model (i.e. Classic FAST diagram) and reach agreement that the model captured what was to be done. This process revealed that the client's thinking was not as clear as originally assumed. Once the contractors and client validated the model the two teams were separated to innovate in competition with each other. As the outcome of the workshop was to be included in the contract, the first and second stages were held within three weeks of the initial brainstorming session and quality ideas were developed with informed data back in the contractor's respective offices.
The Outcome: The winning contractor achieved around 25% Capex saving whilst also improving other goals such as reliability, schedule, opex and so on.
$4 Billion Joint Venture Workshop
The Challenge: To develop a Function Model of what a Joint Venture contract should address. Each function was then colour coded to check if the existing contract was adequate. A red function meant that the draft contract had not made adequate consideration with respect to the function.
The Outcome: Within 3 days it was visibly evident that the legal team had only covered about 30% of the issues that needed addressing. As they drafted other clauses the Function model was used to progress check.
$4 Billion Exploration and Production project for a Gas field
The Challenge: To improve how the reservoir would be accessed and the product treated before being moved around 100 miles to a terminal.
The Outcome: The Function Model allowed the experts to use their existing knowledge to create a better design for contractors. The client benefits were in Capex and Opex but no qualified calculation was made in the workshop
£5 Million Housing Scheme in London
The Challenge: To help the residents explain their expectations to the professionals charged with delivering the project as part of the 'Briefing Process'.
The Outcome: The design team and the professionals claimed the two-day workshop had been very beneficial in the formative stages of their planning and design thinking.
$1.3 Billion Exploration and Production Project from Reservoir to Onshore terminal.
The Challenge: To examine and improve a proposed scheme to build an offshore facility in a politically unstable region.
The Outcome: The proposed scheme was found to be adequate and little value was added. Following this workshop the decision to make a pre-event compulsory was made a decision rule by the Brookes team. The reason for this is that such an event would have made the 'goodness' of the design quantifiably explicit after only one or two days.
No Financial Value: Redesigning Accountancy Procedures for a Public Sector organisation seeking PFI investment.
The Challenge: The public sector accounting system inside the client organisation revolved around the exchange of chitties. With PFI (Private Finance Initiative) funding came the need to separate the single organisation into three distinct private sector companies. This required the need to develop an accounting system that would allow monthly reconciliations.
The Outcome: The organisation's accountants and project managers developed the template for a new accounting system.
