Reducing the cost of production should be an everyday goal, no matter your business. Value analysis (VA) and value engineering (VE), or VAVE, plays an important role in cost reduction for manufacturing.
The good news is that when your manufacturing process includes VAVE, cost reduction is not just possible, it’s nearly guaranteed. Here's how:
Ideas for VAVE Cost Reduction
1. Leverage Cost-Effective Processes for New Products
With value engineering, you can streamline your new product's supply chain.
For example, you can take advantage of VE during the product development stage to evaluate the cost savings of using substitute metals -- whether a cheaper grade or a completely different metal altogether -- to increase the value of your product without sacrificing quality. This helps you to save time and money -- you’ll know early on which materials and manufacturability design to invest in for greatest cost-effectiveness.
2. Assess Your Existing Products' Components & Procedures
With value analysis, you can enhance the function of your existing products to make them more cost effective and potentially cut your costs by up to 20%.
You can use a value test to find unnecessary costs or underlying expenses that may be driving up your overall production costs, such as an expensive machining process. Are the parts and procedures you use for your current products cost-effective?
For example, if your analysis reveals that your machining processing is costing you more than it would if you were using more fabricated components, you can then modify your manufacturing process to include more fabricated parts and less machining.
By ID’ing unnecessary expenses, you can learn which strategies to use to help you save in the long haul and further reduce your manufacturing production costs.
3. Use Pro-VAVE Facilities
When you use facilities that leverage VAVE engineering, you’re setting yourself up for success in managing production costs. That's because you can find the services you need all under one roof.
The most complete metal fabricators run facilities that offer full-service custom metal fabrication capabilities, including:
- Welding design
- Finishing
- Cutting
By using all of these various services, you can take advantage of a sheet metal fabricator’s ability to create custom products for you, whether your project is small or large.
You can scale your products and manufacturing process when using Blackstone Advance Technology's facilities thanks to the efficient layout of our 275,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility. This simplifies the process for supporting growing orders that require storage or manufacturing processes and need modification to reduce costs.
Final Thoughts
Reducing your manufacturing costs calls for having a plan in place. By implementing these strategies, you can keep your production costs down while enhancing productivity and improving your bottom line.
Still need guidance? Ask an experienced custom sheet metal fabricator for a more in-depth discussion on value engineering!
