FUNCTION ANALYSIS SYSTEMS TECHNIQUE – THE BASICS.docVIP

MONOGRAPH Function Analysis Systems Technique: The Basics Originally approved March 1999 SAVE International gratefully acknowledges John W. Bryant, CVS, FSAVE in the development of this Monograph.FUNCTION ANALYSIS SYSTEMS TECHNIQUE – THE BASICS FOREWORD Some twenty years ago, J. Jerry Kaufman gave a presentation at the SAVE international conference describing the primary features of FAST and establishing today’s accepted terminology1 While SAVE International officially retains the rights to all Conference presentations, we gratefully appreciate Mr. Kaufman’s continuing permission to reprint the portions of that presentation pertinent to this topic. The only material that follows not from that presentation are the editors notes and final summary. INTRODUCTION If you accept the premise that understanding the problem is 50 percent of the solution, then separating the problem from its symptoms and effects by analyzing its function is essential to the process. The Function Analysis System technique (FAST) is not an end product or result, but rather a beginning. It lays open the subject matter under study, forming the basis for a wide variety of subsequent study approaches and analysis techniques. Developed by Mr. Charles W. Bytheway in 1964, and first presented as a paper to the Society of American Value Engineers conference in 1965, FAST contributed significantly to perhaps the most important phase of Value Engineering – function analysis. The Value Engineering Discipline of describing a function by using a verb and noun is still intact. Distinguishing between basic and secondary functions and their subsets is also incorporated into the FAST process. The most dramatic differences are in the use of intuitive logic to “test” the functions and graphically display them in a diagram or model form. Function Analysis is a common language, crossing all technologies. It allows multi-disciplined team members to contribute equally and communicate with each other while ad