My son, Ben, asked me last week, “How come the bacon cooks better on Grandma’s pan?” I’d just fried up some bacon using a pan handed down from my mother, and the bacon was, as Ben noted, much more consistently cooked.

I answered my son’s question: “Value engineering,” I said with private sarcasm.

Value engineering (VE) is a concept that’s been a concern to me over the years. In engineering-speak, “value,” as defined, is the ratio of function to functional cost. Value can therefore be increased either by holding cost constant while increasing function, or by reducing the functional cost without diminishing the function. However, in nearly every encounter I’ve ever had with VE, the emphasis has been on reducing cost to meet price targets, with considerable license given to engineers regarding the “diminishing function” decisions.

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