Birbal

SL 1 in Value EngineeringSL 1 in Value Engineering

1

Welcome to the court of EmperorWelcome to the court of Emperor

Jalaluddin Muhammad AkbarJalaluddin Muhammad Akbar


2

Noble men! There is a very

important matter before the court

today.

The raw material price is shooting up. The material cost of a sword has gone up

by Rs.10 . And …. We are adding

50,000 soldiers to our army this year.

I want to handle this situation

without increasing the taxes. Please

give your valuable

suggestions as to how we

should face this situation.


3

!?!!

??

Why everyone’s quiet?

Birbal! I am surprised that you too have become

silent!!

Your Majesty, I have six ideas

which can reduce the cost of a

sword by atleast Rs.20 without

compromising the functional

requirements.

Brilliant!.Tell us those

ideas.


4

Presently, the hilt has

7 parts. The

proposed design will have 4 .

Existing Design

7 parts

New Idea

4 parts

Part Count Reduction

1. Parts Reduction


5

For the new hilt,instead of designing exclusive rivets, we can use the rivets of

daggers.

Part Commonisatio

n

x

2. Parts Standardization


6

When the Shah of Persia was our Guest

last month ,I observed that the

hilt in his sword does not have a curved portion. We can

design similar hilts for our experienced

soldiers.

Benchmarking

New IdeaExisting Design

Curved portion

3. Benchmarking


7

Alternate Material

Blade

Sheath

Copper

Steel

The sheath which houses the blade is

made of copper now.

We can switch over to Alloy steel which is

cheaper.

4. Alternative Material


8

Weight Reduction

Blade

Sheath

Since alloy steel is stronger than

copper, we can reduce the

thickness by 0.5 mm which will save

material

2 mm 1.5 mm

5. Weight Reduction


9

Yield ImprovementThe curved

blade design is yielding only 2

pieces per die. If a straight blade is designed, we can extract 3

pieces per die.

2 Blades 3 Blades

6. Yield Improvement


10

Your majesty. The present design is

being used since the time of Babur

without any failure. We should not risk any

design change.

Saheb, there is no doubt that the present sword

designed by you for my Grandfather’s army is superior.

However, let us test this new design in

our barracks.If they pass the tests, we will deploy them in

the battle field.If the ideas pass the test, we can save atleast Rs. Ten Lakhs this

year, thus serving the purpose of cost reduction.

There is an advantage also. I do not have to

increase the tax.


11

Birbal! I wonder how you

developed these ideas! Is there a systematic way by which others

can also be trained to

generate such ideas.

Yes, your Majesty. With the help of Functional

Analysis System Technique(FAST) any body can generate such ideas. FAST is a

powerful tool used in Value Engineering (VE) which is an

extremely effective system to improve products and services

for cost and productivity improvement.

If six ideas for the sword itself can

save Rs. Ten lakhs , imagine how much money we can save on other weapons like spears, arrows and cannons etc.


12

Birbal! There are four divisions in my army – Infantry, Cavalry,Artillery and Elephant brigade. I want you to teach

the engineers in each of these divisions the application of Value Engineering (VE), especially the

Functional Analysis System Technique(FAST). Each division should

release Armoury Change Requests (ACRs) for the worth of Rs.25 lakh.

Yes, your Majesty.

Documents

Birbal