Birbal presents six ideas to Emperor Akbar to reduce the cost of making swords by at least Rs. 20 without compromising quality: 1) Reduce part count in hilt from 7 to 4 parts, 2) Use common rivets from daggers in new hilt design, 3) Benchmark hilt design from Persian army, 4) Switch from copper to cheaper alloy steel for the sheath, 5) Reduce sheath thickness to save material, and 6) Improve blade yield from 2 to 3 pieces per die using a straight blade design. The Emperor is impressed and asks Birbal to teach Value Engineering techniques to engineers in the army to generate cost-saving ideas.

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ExcEllEnt
VA, VE
ApplicAtion
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Welcome to the court of Emperor
Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar
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The raw material
Noble men! There
price is shooting up.
is a very I want to handle
The material cost of
important matter this situation
a sword has gone up
before the court without
by Rs.10 . And ….
today. increasing the
We are adding
50,000 soldiers to taxes. Please
our army this year. give your
valuable
suggestions as
to how we
should face this
situation.
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4. SL 1 in Value Engineering
Why everyone’s
quiet?
?? Birbal! I am
!! surprised that you
!? too have become
silent!!
Brilliant!.
Tell us those
ideas.
Your Majesty, I have six ideas
which can reduce the cost of a
sword by at least Rs.20 without
compromising the functional
requirements.
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Part Count
Reduction
Presently,
the hilt has
7 parts.
The
proposed
design will
have 4 .
Existing Design New Idea
7 parts 4 parts
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Part
Commonisatio
n
For the new hilt,
instead of designing
exclusive rivets, we
can use the rivets of
daggers.
x
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Benchmarking
When the Shah of
Persia was our Guest
last month ,
I observed that the
hilt in his sword does
not have a curved
portion. We can
design similar hilts
for our experienced
soldiers.
Existing Design New Idea
Curved portion
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8. SL 1 in Value Engineering
Alternate
The sheath Material
which houses
the blade is
made of copper
now.
We can switch
over to Alloy
steel which is
cheaper.
Copper Steel
Sheath
Blade
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9. SL 1 in Value Engineering
Weight
Since alloy steel is Reduction
stronger than
copper, we can
reduce the
thickness by 0.5
mm which will save
material
2 mm 1.5 mm
Sheath
Blade
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Yield
The curved Improvement
blade design is
yielding only 2
pieces per die. If
a straight blade
is designed, we
can extract 3
pieces per die.
2 Blades 3 Blades
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There is an
advantage also.
Saheb, there is no I do not have to
doubt that the increase the tax.
present sword
designed by you for
my Grandfather’s
army is superior. Your majesty. The
However, let us test present design is
this new design in being used since the
our barracks. If they time of Babur
pass the tests, we without any failure.
will deploy them in We should not risk any
the battle field. If the ideas pass design change.
the test, we can
save at least Rs.
Ten Lakhs this
year, thus serving
the purpose of
cost reduction.
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Yes, your Majesty. Birbal! I wonder how you
With the help of Functional developed these ideas! Is
Analysis System Technique (FAST) there a systematic way
any body can generate such by which others can also
ideas. FAST is a powerful tool be trained to generate
used in Value Engineering (VE) such ideas.
which is an extremely effective
system to improve products and
services for cost and productivity If six ideas for the
improvement. sword itself can
save Rs. Ten
lakhs , imagine
how much money
we can save on
other weapons like
spears, arrows and
cannons etc.
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Birbal! There are four divisions in my
army – Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and
Elephant brigade. I want you to teach
the engineers in each of these
divisions the application of Value
Engineering (VE), especially the
Functional Analysis System Technique
Yes, your (FAST). Each division should release
Majesty. Armory Change Requests (AC Rs) for
the worth of Rs.25 lakh.
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