Robinson, Stafford & Rude, Inc.
"The premier firm for project improvement & cost management."

Our Services at Robinson, Stafford & Rude, Inc.

RSRI provides two general groups of services: Value Management and general meeting & workshop facilitation. Both rely on the same facilitation skills, but each requires a different supporting knowledge base. We offer these services throughout North America.

Value Management

The Value methodology was developed at General Electric in the late 1940s as a tool to improve the cost-effectiveness of the design and manufacture of products that General Electric made. Over the subsequent 5 decades, the process has been adapted to application to the planning, design and construction of capital projects and to improve business processes and systems. It can also be used at the personal level to improve relationships and the personal quality of life. The terms Value Engineering, Value Analysis and Value Management are often used interchangeability, but within the value industry tend to be used more often to apply to specific applications of the value methodology in different areas. Value analysis is most often applied to the use of the process to improve products; Value Engineering is most often applied to use in improving the cost-effectiveness of capital projects, and Value Management is used to describe the value methodology itself, as well as its application to business process and systems. Additionally, in recent years, an adaptation of the value methodology to use in the planning process has been labeled “Value Planning”.

RSRI is particularly well-qualified in the application of the value methodology to planning, capital projects and business processes. Please visit the individual pages for Value Planning, Value Engineering, and Value Management for additional information.

Meeting & Workshop Facilitation

Our facilitators are experienced in planning, organizing and conducting meetings, workshops and retreats to accomplish a variety of clients’ needs. Meetings, workshops and retreats are much more effective if they are managed by trained individuals whose sole responsibility is the management and accomplishment of the goals of the meeting. Use of an outside facilitator frees up the full complement of individuals in the meeting group to bring their individual knowledge, intelligence and expertise to address the issue at hand, instead of requiring one or more of them to also be responsible for keeping the group focused, managing the group use of the available time and ensuring accomplishment of the objectives of the meeting. The following are examples of the types of facilitation services we have provided. If independent facilitation of your meeting seems beneficial to you, please contact us with your specific objectives and we will be happy to custom-craft and conduct a meeting to accomplish your goals.

  1. Project initiation workshops
  2. Brainstorming workshops
  3. Alternatives analysis & evaluation workshops
  4. Decision-making workshops
  5. Visioning workshops
  6. Organizational planning workshops
  7. Problem-solving workshops
  8. Peer Reviews
  9. Constructibility workshops