2 Function Analysis and Decomposistion using Function Analysis Systems Technique

ABSTRACT The “Father of Value Analysis”, Lawrence D. Miles, was a design engineer for General Electric in Schenectady, New York. Miles developed the concept of function analysis to address difficulties in satisfying the requirements to fill shortages of high demand manufactured parts and electrical components during World War II. His concept of function analysis was further developed in the 1960s by Charles W. Bytheway, a design engineer at Sperry Univac in Salt Lake City, Utah. Charles Bytheway extended Mile's function analysis concepts and introduced the methodology called Function Analysis Systems Technique (FAST) to the Society of American Value Engineers (SAVE) at their International Convention in 1965 (Bytheway 1965). FAST uses intuitive logic to decompose a high level, or objective function into secondary and lower level functions that are displayed in a logic diagram called a FAST model.