Development of a group support system to support collaborative works in value management workshops

Value Management (VM) is a rigorous and systematic approach to improve the value and optimize the overall cost of a facility. It identifies opportunities to remove unnecessary costs while assuring that quality, reliability, performance, and other critical factors will meet or exceed the customers expectations. It has been widely used in the construction industry in a number of countries. A recent survey, however, revealed several problems that hinder the wider use of this methodology in the industry. To overcome these problems, a feasibility study has been conducted to investigate whether or not a Group Support System (GSS) can support collaborative works in VM workshops. This paper introduces the development and structure of a prototype GSS which is designed to support the collaborative works of stakeholders in VM workshops. It begins with an introduction to the conceptual GSS framework and job plan, illustrating what GSS supports can be provided to VM workshops. This is followed by a detailed description of the GSS prototype system to demonstrate how these supports can be performed as an integrated computer system. The testing of the system is also discussed. The research findings provide strong evidence in supporting the notion of using GSS to improve VM implementation. The information support of GSS has been ranked to be the most useful GSS functions and most of the practitioners interviewed are highly interested in applying GSS to support VM workshops in the future.