VALUE ENGINEERING is the process of reducing the cost of a product through modifications of material, dimensions, labor process, scheduling, distribution, and installation without diminishing the original concept and design objectives.

The most important aim of CONCURRENT ENGINEERING is shortening the development lead time.

Value engineering and concurrent engineering can save buyers both time and money on fixturing projects. What makes both processes effective is a high level of communication between client and manufacturer-early on in the design process. As David Kepron of Kepron Architects notes, they both require collaboration and understanding between designer and manufacturer.

Some understanding of the manufacturing processes helps. Kepron suggests visiting fixture manufacturers to learn about their capabilities. "Architects and designers should be in the manufacturers' shops, seeing as many machines as we can, wearing our ceremonial tool belts, and enjoying the smells of wood and burning metal," he says. "Because when we design a fixture and someone asks us how we're going to put it together, we'll hopefully have an answer."

Here's an example of how this kind of collaboration can work. Todd Crandell heads up the product design and engineering team at Stylmark, a NASFM member and manufacturer of metal fixtures. When Stylmark began to update and improve a line of repositionable shelf light products, the company assembled a team that included manufacturing, engineering, purchasing, production control, marketing, cost accounting, and the client. This team examined the function of the shelving system and made some significant improvements. Now, instead of having to reposition both standards and lighted shelves, a retailer using the system can move a single fixed shelf unit. Says Crandell, "We drastically reduced costs and at the same time improved the end product."

Concurrent engineering, on the other hand, is concerned with getting new fixtures out of design and into the marketplace as quickly as possible. Like value engineering, concurrent engineering involves a high level of collaboration between many people in different areas of design and production-including the client. The difference lies in the timeline. A traditional project timeline begins with a concept that is then designed, engineered, prototyped, produced, distributed, and finally installed, with each new stage commencing only when the previous is completed. A company using concurrent engineering might work on many of these phases simultaneously, perhaps prototyping, procuring materials, detail engineering, and testing all at the same time. As David Reynolds, president and CEO of Miller Multiplex, a NASFM member and manufacturer of custom fixtures and P-O-P, explains, "Different teams work on different parts of the project in parallel, then we all get together at the end of the day to see where we are."

Both value and concurrent engineering can provide real benefits for fixture buyers-better products at lower expense, more quickly.

Todd Crandell, Stylmark Inc., David Kepron, Kepron Architect, and David Reynolds, Miller Multiplex, were presenters at GlobalShop session March 23, 2001, titled, "Using Concurrent and Value Engineering to Meet Your Fixturing Goals."