Grew from Lawrence D. Miles's value analysis at General Electric (Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering, 1961), rebuilt as function analysis by the TRIZ school of the 1980s, and set out by Darrell Mann (Hands-On Systematic Innovation, 2002).
Maps a product, service, or process as components joined by the functions they perform, tagging each function useful, harmful, too weak, or excessive to show where value leaks.
When to reach for it
When costs need cutting, a design needs rework, or a service has grown tangled and nobody can say which parts earn their keep.
How it runs
- List every component of the system.
- Write each function a component performs on another, as verb and object.
- Tag each function useful, harmful, insufficient, or excessive.
- Draw the components and functions as one diagram.
- Target harmful and excessive functions first, then redesign.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 1961
- Hands-On Systematic Innovation, CREAX Press, 2002