ABSTRACT
Functional analysis is an adaptation of value analysis and value engineering techniques which were developed in the West over 50 years ago. In A Functional Analysis System Technique Manual, Creasy (1973) stated that Chrysler, Ford Tractors, General Electric and Univac-Sperry-Rand were among the early users of value engineering. Value engineering was defined by The Society of Japanese Value Engineering (1992, p. 1) as ‘a systematic approach to studying the functions of products or services in order to achieve their necessary functions with minimum costs’. British Standard 3138 defined value engineering in a slightly different way as ‘a systematic interdisciplinary examination of factors affecting the cost of a product or service in order to devise means of achieving the specified purpose most economically at the required standard of quality and reliability’.
