FAST Applications. FAST has been historically proven to be applicable to a broad range of subjects including product design and development; manufacturing processes; administrative and organizational systems; design and construction of major facilities; personnel and community affairs; strategic planning; product/process understanding; program/organization planning; decision making/decision impact; and problem-solving.

FAST Team Formation. A multi-disciplined FAST Team, consisting of cognizant personnel from the functional organizations, supported by an experienced VE staff, performs function model development, analysis, evaluations, and proposal preparation. During this process, organizational concepts that control the project under examination are studied.
FAST Team participants represent three areas;

1. The problem owners - management;
2. The problem solvers - FAST Team participants; and
3. Those impacted by the problem solution - the internal and external customers.

The advantages of this approach are; FAST Team responsibility for creating, processing, and implementing proposal recommendations encourages Team members and sponsoring organizations to "buy-in" to team-generated ideas and become owner-committed to project implementation.
FAST provokes teamwork. The common language of "function", applied to a multi-disciplined group, eliminates the territorial responsibilities that generally separate such groups. Adversarial, confrontational relationships are discouraged because each participant is stimulated, through mutual responsibility, to participate as a team player to achieve problem resolution. The subsequent merging of thought and approach establishes a team with common interests that will not support adversity but rather encourage "win-win" cooperation and generate an understanding of the impact of decisions upon one another.
(a) FAST Team Selection. The level of ideas and the subsequent projects developed by the FAST Team reflect the level of experience and responsibility of the participants. The level of effort also influences the quality of the resulting FAST model.
FAST Team participant selection is therefore based upon technical ability to solve the problem under study, a vested interest in its successful resolution, innovative ability to think freely, and the ability to transfer to others the knowledge gained as a FAST Team member.
(b) Training. If possible, FAST Team participants should participate in a FAST Workshop so they have an understanding of what is expected of them. Participants should be taught to prepare for and participate in the workshop resolution of live problems. A formal course in FAST should be a prerequisite for the Team Leader, but not necessarily the Team members.