Through the courtesy of the publishers of “American Metal Market” we reproduce in this issue an article from their Stainless Steel Supplement, 1967, dealing with the Value Analysis of stainless steels, in order to draw attention to this most important aspect of assessing the true value of the many engineering materials available today in competition, one with another.
Value analysis is described as the study of function and the job of value analysis is to make certain that every element of cost, whether for labour, material, design, maintenance or replacement etc. is considered in the overall evaluation of the job.
The comparison of isolated features of a material such as strength or price is now an outdated and unreliable practice because, taking just these two features, the true strength of a product depends upon the design and method of manufacture and the true price or cost to their user depends upon the service life which can be expected and the maintenance required during this period. There are many other factors, of course, but all are inter-related.
When value analysis is applied to the use of stainless steels a surprising number of applications which would previously have been ruled out on the basis of cost are now seen in a new perspective and industries which are faced with taking plant and equipment out of service for maintenance or periodic replacement due to corrosion and combined corrosion-abrasion can benefit by including in their evaluation of the material used, the high cost of labour and down-time involved.
The full advantages of changing to stainless steels in such a case will not be realised, however, unless concurrently with the longer life obtained and the drastic reduction and often complete elimination of maintenance, account is also taken of the fact that a reduced maintenance labour force should result and consequently a lower direct labour cost in the organisation.
Thus it will be seen that the repercussions in making these changes are far reaching and take us into the one facet of “productivity” which is another subject now receiving close attentions.
