Mr. van Heerden became involved with VE/VM in 1967 when he joined SAVE as a first member from the Republic of South Africa. In 1972 he founded the Value Engineering and Management Society of South Africa. He became a CVS in 1974 and a Fellow in 2005.
His VE/VM focus has been centered on solving management, systems and process problems and major capital development projects in heavy industry such as gold, diamond and metals mining and other industrial production. He hosted Larry and Eleanor Miles on their first visit to South Africa with tours of gold and diamond mines, game parks, ostrich ranch and other points of interest.
Keith has long been active worldwide in VE, presenting many papers at Conferences in the U.S., Japan et al, and has written handbooks on other cost subjects. He has staged five VE Conferences in his country and is working locally to establish university level VE electives in Industrial Engineering and Business Administration.
He has been active in VE, has presented papers internationally, as well as at several SAVE conferences. He personally organized five VE/VM conferences within South Africa.
He established or was instrumental in the creation of several VE/VM programs within South Africa during the late 1960's that are still active today.
He is author of the "Handbook of Values Management Thinking," published in 2008, by Jet Set Graphic Design, Pretoria, SA. This book gives the history of the application of VE in the gold mining, copper mining, diamond mining and steel industries of South Africa.
|