The 54th SJVE Conference: How Should VE Contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals

By Satoko Uesugi – Director of Overseas Affairs, Society of Japanese Value Engineering

The 54th Society of Japanese Value Engineering (SJVE) Conference was held completely online for 21 days from November 1-21, 2021.

SJVE acknowledges that the ultimate purpose of the Value Methodology is to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and directs our business in line with this purpose. SJVE wishes to engage in solving social issues utilizing the VE approach and consequently contribute to meeting SDGs. With this in mind, the conference theme “Creating Sustainable Value together with you – using VE that contributes to the achievement of SDGs” was chosen.

Featuring on-demand delivery enabled participants to have access to the conference presentations “anytime, anywhere and as many times as they want.” By adopting an “on-demand broadcasting” approach that allowed participants to watch programs they are interested in as many times as they like, attendees can freely access this content from the office, home and on the go. The total number of cumulative page views during the conference period was 11,835 hits, and the total number of views of the entire 26 programs was 5,922 views.

In addition to viewing the program on individual electronic devices, some attendees’ companies used “public viewing methods” that allowed free access for their employees to a company meeting room with a PC installed to access the conference website all day long or conference access via Microsoft Teams or Zoom meetings using the screen sharing function. It was very impressive the overall usefulness and benefits of this online event.

Some attendees comments included:

• “The conference program was very helpful because it becomes more and more difficult to re-define company business related to SDGs or develop the management base as a company”, and
• “It was meaningful because I learned not only about VE, but also carbon neutrality and SDGs”.

Program Categories (with number of presentations):

1. Special Lecture (5)
2. VE Technical Papers and Case Reports (10)
3. SDGs Advanced Companies’ Initiatives (5)
4. Supporting tools for VE Activities (3)
5. Realizing Sustainable Value (3)

Top 10 Accessed Papers/Topics:

1. Innovation Creation Type VE – Trial and Study on Near Future Scenario × Development Design VE [I. Nakahara, Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway Co., Ltd. et al.]
2. Surviving Corona Shock! Practical know-how of Business Management [T. Mori, CEO, Mori Management Consulting Co., Ltd.]
3. Systematic Improvement of on-site work combining FAST and TRIZ [N. Yoshida, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.]
4. Trial of Digital VE workshop and future prospects [T. Kimori, Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd.]
5. Change Japan with RPA × Digital Transformation [K. Hasegawa, CEO, UiPath Co., Ltd.]
6. What VE should aim for in the future [M. Tanaka, Ph.D. CVS, FSAVE]
7. Case study of BPR using LEAN Enterprise Value (LEV) Technique [D. Hori, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd., et al.]
8. Realizing both Cost Reduction and SDGs [D. Yoshimura, CEO, Next Age Co., Ltd.]
9. Energy Shift: The Road to making Renewable Energy a Main Power Source [T. Kikkawa, International University of Japan, Graduate School]
10. Toward 2050 Carbon Neutrality from VE Perspective [T. Arimura, IHI Corporation et al.]