Characteristics of Value Analysis Method in electrical engineering

The Value Analysis Method provides two ways of improving a product or service: reducing the production cost and improving the performance of the product/service by identifying potential development directions. In the present paper the authors describe the characteristics of the functional analysis phase in the Value Analysis methodology for the electrical engineering products area. Also, they propose a new method for determining the importance level of a product´s functions. The functions are divided into categories corresponding to the type of energy transfer between the product and the environment. This requires a double ranking method: firstly rating the categories and secondly rating the functions within each category. The method is recommended complex products with multiple functions. In order to validate the proposed method, the authors carried out a research in Romania, on a sample of 88 respondents from the academic and industrial (electrical engineering) field.