Although Value Engineering (VE) studies are mandated by the Federal Highway Administration for large ($25 million or more) federal-aid highway projects, many state Departments of Transportation do not conduct voluntary VE studies on smaller projects. Those who have done so have seen project improvements and savings as a result. The success of the existing voluntary VE programs indicates that VE application to small transportation projects represents a significant opportunity for savings. The goal of this thesis work was to develop a methodology for conducting VE studies on small transportation projects that would make efficient use of available personnel and require little VE training. The author examined the results and procedures of several DOT VE programs, including some that conduct studies on projects as small as $1 million. The analyses revealed sources of past savings, trends and common methods in VE studies, and procedures and forms that are best suited to the types of project under study. Based on the research and analyses, the author developed a VE study methodology that is tailored to small transportation projects, including a workbook and both general and specific guidelines. This report proposes an approach to VE on small transportation projects using this methodology, which is characterized by conformance with accepted VE practice and FHWA guidelines, efficient use of personnel, and ease of use. In particular, these recommendations are intended for use by any state DOT with an existing but limited VE program, such as MassHighway, which currently conducts only mandated studies.

A crescente complexidade dos projetos modernos, a procura das empresas por um espaço no mercado, a busca pela satisfação dos clientes e a necessidade de se produzir com maior eficiência demandam um tipo de gerenciamento de negócios bastante específico e voltado para estas realidades. O que vem sendo apontado como o que há de mais completo e moderno para suprir esta demanda é o chamado Gerenciamento de Projetos e o seu conjunto de idéias e ferramentas, dentre as quais se destaca a Análise de Valor Agregado. Embora sejam técnicas e conceitos formalmente reconhecidos e aplicados desde meados do século passado, foi a partir da década de 90 que os mesmos alcançaram suas maiores projeções nas empresas. Entretanto, ainda são uma incógnita para muitas pessoas, e alguns de seus usuários ainda encontram muitas dificuldades em suas aplicações. O objetivo deste trabalho é, através de revisão bibliográfica e de observações sobre a rotina de um Gerente de Projetos, levantar as principais características deste tipo de gerenciamento, no intuito de justificar a sua crescente assimilação, bem como evidenciar a sua função estratégica dentro das empresas. Em complemento, este trabalho apresenta um maior aprofundamento sobre a Análise de Valor Agregado, avaliando os problemas relatados por seus usuários e apresentando medidas para a sua melhor aplicação em projetos de grande porte da indústria. Por último, são apresentados os resultados da aplicação de algumas destas medidas em um caso real da indústria brasileira. / The growing complexity of the modern projects, the search of companies for a place in the market, the client’s satisfaction and the need for a more efficient production demand a very specific type of business management, oriented to these points. The so-called Project Management – as well as its concepts and tools, among which we can highlight the Earned Value Analysis - is being pointed as the most modern and complete way of meeting such demands. Although these are formally accepted practices and used since the beginning of last century, they have been adopted by several companies in the last years. These practices, however, are still unclear for many people, and some of the people who adopted them are still facing difficulties in their application. The purpose of this work is to compile the main characteristics and advantages of this type of management, by means of a revision of the literature and day-to-day practical observations of a Project Manager, so as to justify the increasing number of companies adopting these practices and its strategic function inside these companies. In addition to that, this work presents a deeper review on the Earned Value Analysis, evaluating the problems reported by the stakeholders and presenting some measures for its use, aiming at a better project control. To finish, the results of some of these measures applied in a real case in the Brazilian industry are presented.

O direito de superfície é um instrumento jurídico que foi instituído no Brasil pelo Estatuto da Cidade em 2001 e também pelo Novo Código Civil em 2002. O direito de superfície oferece uma estrutura jurídica que permite a terceiros empreender em solo alheio e, ao mesmo tempo, garante a recuperação plena das propriedades para donos de terrenos. Para um empreendedor, diante da decisão de empreender na qualidade do superficiário, o valor do direito de superfície pode ser utilizado como indicador de segurança dos seus investimentos e a construção do contrato é fundamental para proteger seus investimentos. O objetivo desta dissertação é propor diretrizes para a construção dos contratos de concessão do direito de superfície, para preservar o valor desse direito, do ponto de vista dos superficiários durante o prazo da concessão. Para isso, analisou-se o valor do direito de superfície, esclarecendo as influências das condições contratuais no valor, e os vetores e as variáveis que provocam a flutuação do valor e em seguida, discutiram-se os mecanismos contratuais de proteção do valor. O resultado da análise mostrou que as principais condições contratuais que afetam o valor do direito de superfície são finalidade, prazo e valor da indenização no final da concessão. A flutuação do valor é provocada pelas ocorrências de deformações conjunturais e do mercado ou alterações de condições contratuais relativamente ao cenário referencial e seus vetores são o nível de investimentos e o nível de retornos. As diretrizes propostas para construção do contrato nesta dissertação são: 1. é essencial esclarecer em qual das leis o direito de superfície concedido baseia-se; 2. a finalidade do contrato deve ser fundamentada através da análise, seguindo uma rotina apropriada; 3. o prazo deve ser estipulado por tempo determinado, visando a compatibilidade com o alcance econômico pretendido do negócio, sem contar com o recebimento da indenização no final da concessão. Os mecanismos para proteção do valor propostos são: 1. para alteração unilaterais das condições contratuais pelo proprietário, o superficiário deve guardar o direito de resolver o contrato e recebimento de indenização; 2. para as deformações de variáveis conjunturais, expressar a base econômica do negócio no contrato e reter direto de renegociação no caso de acontecimento fora da base; 3. inserir cláusula compromissória para arbitragem de composição de conflito. / Brazilian superficies (Leasehold) is a legal instrument which was instituted by the Law 10.257/2001, commonly known as Estatuto da Cidade (Urban Land Use Regulation Law) and also by the Civil Code of 2002. Superficies offer a legal structure that permit third parties to develop projects on a land and guarantee a recovery of full property right for its land owner at the same time. For a entrepreneur who is in front of a decision to develop project as a superficies holder, superficies value can be used as an indicator that shows his investiment security and a construction of contract is fundamental to protect his investiment. This dissertation?s objective is to provide a guidance to entrepreneurs to construct their contracts with mecanism that preserve superficies value during a concession term, from a superficies holder?s point of view. To reach objective, superficies value was analysed, clarifying contract condicions? influences over the value and their vectors and variables which cause a value fluctuation and also contractual mecanism for value protection was discussed. The result demonstrated that major contractual conditions that affect superficies value are object, term and indemnification value at the end of the term. Value fluctuation is provoked by occurrence of deformation of conjuncture and/or market or contractual conditions alteration, relative to the reference scenario and their vectors are investment level and return level. The guidance proposed in this dissertation for the construction of concession contract of superficies was: 1. is essential clarify that the superficies conceded is based on which law; 2. concession objective must be founded through the analysis following a proper routine; 3. the concession term must be stipulated for a limited period, taking aim at compatibility with economic attainability intended by the project, not counting a indemnification at the end of term. The value protection mecanism proposed is: 1. for the unilateral alteration of contractual conditions by land owner, the superficies holder must retain his right to cancel the contract and receive indemnification; 2. for conjuntural variables? deformation, express the economic condition the contract is based on and retain right of renegociation in case of exceptional occurance; 3. insert compromise clause for arbitration.

Este trabalho partiu da percepção de que a transferência de tecnologia das universidades para o setor produtivo pode ser mais intensa e eficaz no Brasil. Em primeiro lugar, defende-se a importância desse processo, levantando os benefícios que podem ser gerados a todos os envolvidos, direta e indiretamente, e também as barreiras que impedem esse tipo de parceria. Exemplos brasileiros e estrangeiros são utilizados para ilustrar as possibilidades. A revisão bibliográfica inclui ainda um levantamento de fatores de sucesso, e um breve estudo das atribuições do Escritório de Transferência de Tecnologia, mecanismo bastante utilizado para fomentar o processo. Pelo lado prático, este trabalho utiliza o princípio da análise de valor, a abordagem funcional para partir de 3 casos de parcerias de sucesso e traçar um modelo genérico da transferência de tecnologia, que mostre as funções essenciais ao sucesso desse processo. Esse modelo, por não ser específico de uma ou outra situação, pode ser aplicado a outros casos para auxiliar a encontrar falhas, ou seja, funções que não são adequadamente cumpridas, e concentrar esforços para melhorias. / This work started from a perception that the level and effectiveness of technology transfer from universities to industry can be increased in Brazil. First, the importance of this process is highlighted, bringing up the potential benefits to all parties involved, directly and indirectly, and also the barriers posed to this kind of partnership. The possibilities are illustrated by examples, Brazilian and foreign as well. The review also includes the success factors, and a brief analysis of the Technology Transfer Office, which is very common as a means to improve the process. On the practical side, this work uses the base principle of the value analysis, the functional approach to take off from 3 successful partnerships and develop a generic model of the technology transfer, showing the essential functions to the success of this process. Since this model is not specific to any situation, it can be applied to other cases to help find flaws, that is, functions that are not adequately met, and then focus the efforts dedicated to improve the process.

O direito de superfície é um instrumento jurídico que foi instituído no Brasil pelo Estatuto da Cidade em 2001 e também pelo Novo Código Civil em 2002. O direito de superfície oferece uma estrutura jurídica que permite a terceiros empreender em solo alheio e, ao mesmo tempo, garante a recuperação plena das propriedades para donos de terrenos. Para um empreendedor, diante da decisão de empreender na qualidade do superficiário, o valor do direito de superfície pode ser utilizado como indicador de segurança dos seus investimentos e a construção do contrato é fundamental para proteger seus investimentos. O objetivo desta dissertação é propor diretrizes para a construção dos contratos de concessão do direito de superfície, para preservar o valor desse direito, do ponto de vista dos superficiários durante o prazo da concessão. Para isso, analisou-se o valor do direito de superfície, esclarecendo as influências das condições contratuais no valor, e os vetores e as variáveis que provocam a flutuação do valor e em seguida, discutiram-se os mecanismos contratuais de proteção do valor. O resultado da análise mostrou que as principais condições contratuais que afetam o valor do direito de superfície são finalidade, prazo e valor da indenização no final da concessão. A flutuação do valor é provocada pelas ocorrências de deformações conjunturais e do mercado ou alterações de condições contratuais relativamente ao cenário referencial e seus vetores são o nível de investimentos e o nível de retornos. As diretrizes propostas para construção do contrato nesta dissertação são: 1. é essencial esclarecer em qual das leis o direito de superfície concedido baseia-se; 2. a finalidade do contrato deve ser fundamentada através da análise, seguindo uma rotina apropriada; 3. o prazo deve ser estipulado por tempo determinado, visando a compatibilidade com o alcance econômico pretendido do negócio, sem contar com o recebimento da indenização no final da concessão. Os mecanismos para proteção do valor propostos são: 1. para alteração unilaterais das condições contratuais pelo proprietário, o superficiário deve guardar o direito de resolver o contrato e recebimento de indenização; 2. para as deformações de variáveis conjunturais, expressar a base econômica do negócio no contrato e reter direto de renegociação no caso de acontecimento fora da base; 3. inserir cláusula compromissória para arbitragem de composição de conflito. / Brazilian superficies (Leasehold) is a legal instrument which was instituted by the Law 10.257/2001, commonly known as Estatuto da Cidade (Urban Land Use Regulation Law) and also by the Civil Code of 2002. Superficies offer a legal structure that permit third parties to develop projects on a land and guarantee a recovery of full property right for its land owner at the same time. For a entrepreneur who is in front of a decision to develop project as a superficies holder, superficies value can be used as an indicator that shows his investiment security and a construction of contract is fundamental to protect his investiment. This dissertation?s objective is to provide a guidance to entrepreneurs to construct their contracts with mecanism that preserve superficies value during a concession term, from a superficies holder?s point of view. To reach objective, superficies value was analysed, clarifying contract condicions? influences over the value and their vectors and variables which cause a value fluctuation and also contractual mecanism for value protection was discussed. The result demonstrated that major contractual conditions that affect superficies value are object, term and indemnification value at the end of the term. Value fluctuation is provoked by occurrence of deformation of conjuncture and/or market or contractual conditions alteration, relative to the reference scenario and their vectors are investment level and return level. The guidance proposed in this dissertation for the construction of concession contract of superficies was: 1. is essential clarify that the superficies conceded is based on which law; 2. concession objective must be founded through the analysis following a proper routine; 3. the concession term must be stipulated for a limited period, taking aim at compatibility with economic attainability intended by the project, not counting a indemnification at the end of term. The value protection mecanism proposed is: 1. for the unilateral alteration of contractual conditions by land owner, the superficies holder must retain his right to cancel the contract and receive indemnification; 2. for conjuntural variables? deformation, express the economic condition the contract is based on and retain right of renegociation in case of exceptional occurance; 3. insert compromise clause for arbitration.

Para o ensino em cursos relacionados à mecânica são fundamentais aulas teóricas e práticas de programação em máquinas CNC. Um grande incentivo para o aluno é ver sua programação transformada em uma peça que possa ser manuseada. Porém, dado o seu alto investimento, muitas escolas técnicas, de tecnologia e engenharia não disponibilizam máquinas CNC para os alunos. Desta forma, é apresentado neste trabalho o desenvolvimento de uma fresadora CNC de baixo custo. Com o emprego do método de combinação de variantes e o método de análise morfológica, os elementos mecânicos para o projeto da fresadora foram selecionados. Assim, foi possível desenvolver o conceito desse equipamento e fazer a estimativa de seu custo. Com a aplicação de análise de valor, utilizando as técnicas FAST, de Mudge e COMPARE, foi possível avaliar pontos críticos que acarretam em custos desnecessários. Com isso, pode-se avaliar como trabalhar com a transferência de recursos. / Courses related to mechanical sciences must offer to their students theoretical and practical lectures on CNC machine programming. The possibility of viewing the transformation of a programme in to a manageable part constitutes an incentive to the students. A CNC machine is an essential piece of equipment for such practical classes. A number of schools cannot have a CNC machine because of its high cost. Thus, in the present work, the development of a low-cost CNC milling machine as an alternative for academic purposes is presented. For the selection of the mechanical elements of the CNC machine, a combination of variants method and morphological analysis was used. Then, the design concept was carried out and its cost estimated. Using the value analysis through the FAST, Mudge and COMPARE techniques, the critical points that could increase unnecessary machine cost were examined. It was possible to assess how to work with the resources transference.

Abstract It starts to use Value Analysis / Value Engineering (VA/VE) in USA, but it is enhanced & glorified in Japan. It¡¦s obvious that VA/VE has contributed to adding profit for the past 50 years. Not only VA/VE, Industry Engineering (IE) and Quality Control (QC) are called as the three main management technologies of business, but also VA/VE is considered an efficient instrument of reducing cost. VA/VE is introduced to Mainland China later than Taiwan, but the achievements in Mainland China are more brilliant than Taiwan. It has introduced VA/VE to Taiwan for 30 years. It is popular to be utilized in Construction Industry and the Construction Engineering of Government, but most of small and middle size enterprises are not active in introducing VA/VE. It is to be regretted. It had found most of the issued cases for VA/VE are subjected to construction engineering. There are just few cases subjected in other industries. And the related papers focus on discussing the construction industry, it is hard to find discussing in other provinces especially in target costing, purchasing, service, business process and value chain. They just existed the theories, but lacked of real issuing from VA/VE. It found the theories just emphasize the individual flow. They didn't associate with the whole value chain and lack of combining with other reducing cost methods. They often fail in popularizing VA/VE, because they can't catch the key successful factors adequately. For the above reason, the study reviews the regarded papers, and regulates the references to find the comparison of carrying out situation in the world. Then it will direct to study the application and development of VA/VE in the Taiwan transportation industry. Firstly, it will examine the achievement of pushing VA/VE in the study case of individual company. Then, it will indicate the key successful factors and the future perspectives of VA/VE action from the experience. Finally, it will provide conclusion and suggestion in the end of this study. It will supply the company in every industry a whole and systematic basis of developing VA/VE no matter what new product developed in certain or full stages. This study will show the following results: 1. You can find the theory and method of using VA/VE in transportation industry from this study especially in target costing, customer satisfaction, service, business process reengineering and value chain. If you can use VA/VE well, you will promote the effect of cost reduction. You can find VA/VE has provided a popular measurement and method in this study and make the customer value connect to competitive strategy, product design, product manufacture and supplier procedure. You can combine VA/VE with other methods, for example target costing, tear down, business process reengineering etc, to make more value of customer and less cost of manufacture. 2. This study provides a whole real company case to show VA/VE effect. It can give the other companies for reference when they want to use VA/VE. It will reduce the groping time and error risk. 3. This study provides a VA/VE management structure and a management cycle in pushing VA/VE for the transportation vehicle industry, in order to ensure that every procedure can be carried out and obtain expected effect. 4. This study has summed up 10 key successful ways and future perspectives from the case study in pushing VA/VE. It will give the other companies for reference in promoting the VA/VE effect and opportunity of success. The main purpose is what we want to remind all the Taiwan industries to concern about "Value Management" that has been a new trend of the world.

A growing number of transportation agencies have begun to manage selected ancillary transportation assets systematically--culverts, guardrails, pavement markings, sidewalks and curbs, street lighting, traffic signals, traffic signs, utilities and manholes, earth retaining structures, and environmental mitigation features. Given prevailing budget limitations, several agencies are interested in prioritizing these assets for inclusion in their existing management systems. This paper discusses critical elements of a framework for assessing the risks, benefits and costs of incorporating ancillary assets in existing Transportation Asset Management programs. The paper reviews some basic elements of a risk theory, examines risk applications in transportation asset management, water mains, and storm water management, and identifies the basic elements of a risk-benefit-cost framework for prioritizing ancillary assets for management. These elements can be used as a basis for developing a decision analysis framework to make a business case for the formal management of ancillary transportation assets and to prioritize them for inclusion in existing Transportation Asset Management programs. Using these elements, we have developed a risk ranking model that can be used by transportation officials to prioritize their ancillary asset classes for management. A demonstration of the model is presented in this paper to show its effectiveness. The study concludes that tracking and documentation of ancillary transportation asset failures would help agencies better understand the risks associated with failure. Tracking and documenting the failures of ancillary transportation assets would also help in identifying trends/probability of failure as well as quantifying the consequences associated with these failures. Such information could also be used to estimate risk factors to prioritize individual asset classes for inclusion in existing management systems.

Research show that customer patterns in the textile industry are changing and the degree of personalization of products is getting more important to meet personal needs and preferences. Mass customization is a strategy named to create higher customer value by customizing products through a close interaction during the design and production process, high production flexibility and efficient logistics. The lack of research on the implementation of mass customization strategies and an identified gap between customer expectations and perception (customer value) of these types of products, are the incentives to conduct this research. The thesis has the purpose of identifying the drivers of customer value of mass customized garments and assess the value chain of the company Brohall & Son from a perspective of mass customization as a strategy, and from the results draw conclusions of customer value aligned with the implementation mass customization strategies. In order to perform the research a quantitative approach, doing a customer value analysis through a self-completion questionnaire, was conducted. Attributes of price, quality, fit, service and delivery capacity were investigated to get an understanding of what drives value for the customers. In addition a qualitative method was used, doing interviews with the CEO of Brohall & Son to gain a deeper understanding of their operations and value chain. The results show that quality, fit, delivery capacity and service are the most important attributes of customer value. Price is the least important attribute and also the least correlated/dependent variable to the rest of the attributes, showing a high willingness to pay for the garments. The analysis of the value chain indicates some areas of improvements regarding logistics, design process and production process. Solutions are brought up to get the value chain to get more aligned with the strategies of mass customization.

My dissertation is based on a unified self-consistent scaling framework which is consistent with key behavior exhibited by many spatially/temporally varying earth, environmental and other variables. This behavior includes tendency of increments to have symmetric, non-Gaussian frequency distributions characterized by heavy tails that often decay with lag; power-law scaling of sample structure functions (statistical moments of absolute increments) in midranges of lags, with breakdown in power-law scaling at small and/or large lags; linear relationships between log structure functions of successive orders at all lags, also known as extended self-similarity; and nonlinear scaling of structure function power-law exponents with function order. The major question we attempt to answer is: given data measured on a given support scale at various points throughout a 1D/2D/3D sampling domain, which appear to be statistically distributed and to scale in a manner consistent with that scaling framework, what can be said about the spatial statistics and scaling of its extreme values, on arbitrary separation or domain scales? To do so, we limit our investigation in 1D domain for simplicity and generate synthetic signals as samples from 1D sub-Gaussian random fields subordinated to truncated monofractal fractional Brownian motion (tfBm) or truncated fractional Gaussian noise (tfGn). Such sub-Gaussian fields are scale mixtures of stationary Gaussian fields with random variances that we model as being log-normal or Lévy α/2-stable. This novel interpretation of the data allows us to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of all parameters characterizing the underlying truncated sub-Gaussian fields. Based on synthetic data, we find these samples conform to the aforementioned scaling framework and confirm the effectiveness of generation schemes. We numerically investigate the manner in which variables, which scale according to the above scaling framework, behave at the tails of their distributions. Ours is the first study to explore the statistical scaling of extreme values, specifically peaks over thresholds or POTs, associated with such families of sub-Gaussian fields. Before closing this work, we apply and verify our analysis by investigating the scaling of statistics characterizing vertical increments in neutron porosity data, and POTs in absolute increments, from six deep boreholes in three different depositional environments.