Lawrence D. Miles

Lawrence Delos Miles (1904 to 1985) was an American engineer and the creator of value engineering. Born in Harvard, Nebraska, he worked from 1932 to 1938 as a design engineer in the vacuum tube engineering department of General Electric, where he earned twelve patents for tube and circuit designs. He then moved into the purchasing department of General Electric, working with vendors on costs and later on wartime supply, and his time at Locke Insulator in Baltimore gave him a close view of how human attitudes and practices affect design and cost. In December 1947 the basic Value Analysis functional approach was established. In 1961 he wrote Techniques of Value Analysis and Engineering, published by McGraw Hill, which reached a third edition and was printed in twelve languages. He retired in 1964, and the Miles Value Foundation, set up in 1977, promotes the value methodology.