Confucianism is the Chinese philosophy that values the relationship between authority and subject.  Confucianism was based on the five relationships: ruler and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend.  Specifically, Confucianism valued how both parties in the relationship treated each other.

Surprisingly, the idea of relationships can actually help with the problems of misusing value engineering in modern day America.  

According to financial news source Investopedia, the definition of value engineering is “a systematic, organized approach to providing necessary functions in a project at the lowest cost.”  Many corporations today, however, value engineer by simply reducing quality.  This could mean investing in cheaper materials and simpler designs.  The problem with this is, value engineering can be used to completely dumb down a beautiful piece of architecture into a cheap infrastructure project.  

One example of value engineering being used to dumb down projects is the Gatefold Building.  Studio Egret West is the original architect of the Gatefold Building- the first residential project to be built at a former EMI site in Hayes, west London.  Egret West, after creating a beautiful design, is ejected from the project, and the client tells the new architect to make a few changes.  These changes arguably destroy the project.  The Architect Journal states,  “Flourishes like lightweight steel and bamboo walkways have become heavier and joyless. The white split-faced concrete cladding has been replaced by a cheaper, yellower finish and details such as the texture on the façade and the rebated statement signage have gone.”  The client asks for the project to be dumbed down to reduce costs.  However, this in turn also reduces the quality of the building.  This is an example of what value engineering shouldn’t be.

Value engineering shouldn't be simply cutting quality to reduce costs.  It should instead be about finding more cost effective design alternatives without reducing quality.  This could be designing a special type of foundation in a building that makes the building more secure, and thus one avoids needing to use money to build additional supports above ground. Finding ways to reduce costs without reducing quality is difficult.  Fortunately, the ancient Chinese philosophy Confucianism can offer a solution of collaboration to come up with ideas of reducing costs without reducing quality.

This solution of collaboration can come from the different values of relationships that come from Confucian thinking.  In the historical textbook, Ways of the World, it states, “For Confucious, human society consisted primarily of unequal relationships: the father was superior to the son, the husband to the wife, the older brother to the younger brother, and of course, the ruler to the subject.  If the superior party in each of these relationships behaved with sincerity, benevolence, and genuine concern for others, then the inferior party would be motivated to respond with deference and obedience.”  Using the values of sincerity, benevolence, and genuine concern in the superior party and deference and obedience in the inferior party, coming up with ideas of reducing costs without reducing quality can be about collaboration.  In a team of engineers, both lower ranking engineers and higher ranking engineers could work together to come up with ideas to lower costs without lowering quality.  The lower ranking engineer could shoot an idea to the higher ranking engineer, and the idea of lowering costs wouldn’t even have to keep the quality intact.  The higher ranking engineer would receive the idea and give suggestions on how to keep quality intact, but with sincerity, benevolence, and genuine concern and the lower ranking engineer would receive the suggestions with deference and obedience.  This means that the higher ranking engineer would give suggestions with a good heart, and the lower ranking engineer would not reject them and instead consider them, perhaps not with full deference, but at least consider them.  Through this relationship between the superior party and inferior party with the values of Confucianism, collaboration can exist and ideas can form.

In conclusion, through Confucian values, value engineering can be more about collaboration and working hard to find a smarter, more cost effective alternative for an infrastructure project without cutting back on quality.  America should keep the idea of how authority and subject should act so that collaboration can happen smoothly.

Bibliography:

architectsjournal.co.uk/news/db-debacle-when-clients-say-no-to-novation

investopedia.com/terms/v/value-engineering.asp

Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources by Robert W. Strayer, Eric W. Nelson