CVS CVS Value Engineering Techniques Questions and Answers 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: During the Information Phase, a VE team leader insists on obtaining the project's cost model before the workshop. The primary purpose of a cost model in VE is to:
- Distribute total cost across elements or functions to reveal high-cost areas (Correct answer)
- Replace the owner's approved budget
- Set the contractor's bid price
- Document hourly rates of the VE team
Correct answer: Distribute total cost across elements or functions to reveal high-cost areas
A cost model breaks total cost into components so the team can target areas of disproportionately high cost.
Question 2: A VE alternative saves $200,000 in initial cost but adds $15,000 per year in maintenance over a 20-year life. Which technique should the team apply before recommending it?
- Life-cycle cost analysis (Correct answer)
- Brainstorming
- FAST diagramming
- Gordon technique
Correct answer: Life-cycle cost analysis
Life-cycle cost analysis compares total ownership costs, capturing trade-offs between initial and recurring costs.
Question 3: In the Development Phase of the VE job plan, the team's main activity is to:
- Expand the best ideas into fully documented, technically supported proposals (Correct answer)
- Generate a large quantity of unfiltered ideas
- Present recommendations orally to management
- Define project functions in verb-noun form
Correct answer: Expand the best ideas into fully documented, technically supported proposals
The Development Phase converts surviving ideas into written proposals with technical backup, costs, and implementation plans.
Question 4: A facilitator asks the team to consider 'how would nature solve this?' and 'what if the component were inverted?' These prompts are characteristic of which creativity technique?
- Synectics (analogy-based thinking) (Correct answer)
- Paired comparison
- Cost-worth analysis
- Criteria weighting
Correct answer: Synectics (analogy-based thinking)
Synectics stimulates ideas through analogies, including natural, personal, and fantasy analogies.
Question 5: In a weighted evaluation matrix, an alternative scores highest overall yet fails a mandatory 'must' criterion such as a safety code requirement. The correct VE action is to:
- Reject or revise the alternative because must criteria are pass/fail screens (Correct answer)
- Accept it since its weighted score is highest
- Lower the weight of the safety criterion
- Average the must criterion with other scores
Correct answer: Reject or revise the alternative because must criteria are pass/fail screens
Mandatory criteria act as absolute screens; failing one disqualifies an alternative regardless of weighted score.
Question 6: When a VE team defines the function of a decorative building facade panel as 'attract customers,' this function is best classified as:
- An aesthetic (sell) function contributing to worth through appearance (Correct answer)
- A basic work function
- A lower-order function
- A critical path how function
Correct answer: An aesthetic (sell) function contributing to worth through appearance
Functions valued for appearance or appeal are aesthetic or sell functions rather than work functions.
Question 7: A VE proposal is technically sound but the design team resists it. The CVS applies human-relations techniques during the Presentation Phase chiefly to:
- Reduce resistance and gain acceptance without implying past design errors (Correct answer)
- Force adoption through contractual penalties
- Increase the calculated savings figures
- Bypass the designer and report only to the owner
Correct answer: Reduce resistance and gain acceptance without implying past design errors
Successful VE presentations emphasize collaboration and avoid criticizing prior work to secure buy-in.
CVS CVS Value Engineering Techniques Questions and Answers 5
During the Information Phase, a VE team leader insists on obtaining the project's cost model before the workshop.
The primary purpose of a cost model in VE is to: