Life Cycle Cost

Since the 1960's green movement, green roofs have 're-emerged' as a viable solution to address pressing environmental issues like increased storm water runo , the urban heat island e ect, deterioration of air and water quality, and loss of habitat and biodiversity facing urban centres. Increasingly becoming popular worldwide, green roofs are still not an area local builders are keen to take on. Despite the availability of materials and suitability of climate here, they are held back partly by concerns pertaining to costs. The objectives of this study are to highlight the economic beneÿts of green roofs that can o set the initial costs; to examine the initial cost implications of having a green roof as compared to a conventional at roof; to compute and compare the life cycle costs of roof gardens and average at roofs; and to incorporate economic beneÿts by incorporating energy costs into life cycle costs. It is observed that life cycle costs of extensive green roofs with or without consideration for energy costs, are lower than that of exposed at roofs, despite its higher initial costs. However, for accessible rooftops, even life cycle (energy) costs of intensive system are not less than the normal build-up at roof.

Purpose -Most advanced durable industrial products need some kind of support to compensate for weaknesses in design or in product exploitation. Aims to examine different scenarios for product support and discusses approaches for development of product support strategy for conventional and functional products. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based on a case study of a manufacturer of advanced durable industrial production systems. Findings -Traditionally, the customer buys, operates, and maintains equipment used in production systems. Alternatively, the customer can buy the performance, instead of the physical product. In such cases, the manufacturer is responsible for operating, maintaining, and supporting the product in addition to designing and making it. Thus, the long-term profit for both user and manufacturer will depend on the product's designed-in life cycle costs, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and supportability) characteristics, as well as on the effectiveness and efficiency of the product exploitation and support processes. In general, product support is a source of income for the manufacturer. In a functional product scenario, the need for product support is a liability and a cost driver for the manufacturer. Hence, delivery of performance requires a fundamentally different approach for product support strategy. Originality/value -An examination of different scenarios and different approaches for manufacturers' product support strategies.

We describe a methodology for making the decisions associated with the concurrent engineering of a product and its downstream field support. We adopt, for the overall metrics for evaluating these decisions, long-run system availability and life-cycle cost. The decisions that constitute the concurrent engineering effort can be categorized into three phases: designing the product; designing the manufacturing and logistics systems; and setting operations-control policies for parts production and field support. As an enhancement to well-established methods of coordinating decision makers in concurrent engineering and sharing data across different phases of design and deployment, we have developed a methodology that simultaneously makes the decisions that constitute these phases. This methodology is based on a dynamic programming model of these decisions which is robust and efficient when compared to manual methods of coordinating the concurrent engineering effort. We recommend its use as a decision support mechanism, not as a substitute for interaction among design-team members.

This thesis is aimed to initiate implementing sustainable building construction in the kingdom of Bahrain, i.e. Building-Integration PhotoVoltaic (BIPV) or Wind Energy (BIWE). It highlights the main constrains that discourage such modern concept in building and construction.

A major goal for managers of electric power networks is maximum asset performance. Minimal life cycle cost and maintenance optimization becomes crucial in reaching this goal, while meeting demands from customers and regulators. This necessitates the determination of the optimal balance between preventive and corrective maintenance in order to obtain the lowest total cost. The approach of this paper is to study the problem of balance between preventive and corrective maintenance as a multiobjective optimization problem, with customer interruptions on one hand and the maintenance budget of the network operator on the other. The problem is solved with meta-heuristics developed for the specific problem, in conjunction with an evolutionary particle swarm optimization algorithm.

In this study, performance experiments and economic analysis of a horizontal ground source heat pump (GSHP) system have been performed. The horizontal GSHP system connected to a test room, Elazıg (38.41°N, 39.14°E), Turkey, was designed and constructed for space heating. The heating and cooling loads of the test room were 2.5 and 3.1 kW at design conditions, respectively. The performance was determined experimentally under real operational conditions. The experimental results were obtained from 7 November 2002 to 3 May 2003 in the heating season of 2002-2003. A detailed cost analysis was presented and payback periods when substituting for different local fuel/power sources were determined. The GSHP system was compared to conventional heating methods (electric resistance, fuel oil, liquid petrol gas, coal, oil and natural gas) in the economical analysis using an annualised life cycle cost method. It was shown that the GSHP system offers economic advantages over the mentioned first five conventional heating methods. However, it is not an economic alternative system to natural gas.

The manufacturing, delivery and support of service contracts in defence aerospace industry require a high financial investment. It is essential that the customer has the financial ability to procure and support the contract from the conceptual and manufacturing phase to the end of the project given the budget constraints. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that affect customer affordability of defence contracts and develop a customer affordability assessment framework which is implemented as a software prototype system. Two major quantitative factors and twelve qualitative factors were identified, out which seven factors (identified as the major factors) were included within the customer affordability system. Following the identification of factors and development of measures for each, suggested actions to improve customer affordability were also proposed. The research methodology combined both case study and literature review approach with industrial collaboration in the customer affordability system development. The customer affordability system was validated through collaboration with industrial partners and a case study from defence sector and the results showed that the customer affordability system was capable of providing a good assessment of customer affordability.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate tractor maintenance practices and costs in Nigeria with a view to making replacement decisions and for overall farm budgeting. Design/methodology/approach -The information was obtained via a structured questionnaire. Tractor owners were grouped into three categories: government agricultural settlements, established farms, and individual farms. Data used for analysis were collected from 60 farms located in major farming centers of the southwestern part of Nigeria. The report includes the formulation of repair equations, which relate tractor repair cost as a percentage of initial purchase prices to cumulative hours of use. Life cycle costs of three commonly-used tractors were also estimated. The derived equations, which showed that the repair costs per hour increased with hours of use, were used to obtain the life cycle cost of each tractor model in different tractor owners' farms. Findings -The proposed equation was found to be the best fit with coefficient of determination (R 2 ) ranging from 0.992 to 0.996 for tractors in the three user categories. The trend observed in the life cycle costing of the three common tractors gave the general picture of when to replace each of the tractors based on the strategies being adopted by the tractor owners. Practical implications -The results of this study would serve as baseline information to tractor owners regarding optimum use of tractors for minimizing repair and maintenance cost per hour and for making replacement policy. It would also be helpful to government and other agencies for future planning in the provision of tractor services to the farmers at relatively lower repair and maintenance cost. Originality/value -Proves that a reduction in repair costs by careful operation and adequate maintenance could result in a significant reduction in tractor ownership costs.

Proliferating information systems (IS) application development backlogs and everescalating business demands for applications software have resulted in a constant search by IS organizations for paradigms and tools that accelerate the pace of software development. Along with rapid application development (RAD), technologies such as CASE, object-oriented development, client/server computing, and flexible middleware are being hailed as potential solutions to the software crisis . Although industry experience with these paradigms is mixed, the benefits of such technologies are acknowledged-at least with regard to improvements in development productivity and application delivery times .

Several alternative vehicle and fuel options are under consideration to alleviate the triple threats of climate change, urban air pollution and foreign oil dependence caused by motor vehicles. This paper evaluates the primary transportation alternatives and determines ...

Aluminum (Al)/air batteries have the potential to be used to produce power to operate cars and other vehicles. These batteries might be important on a long-term interim basis as the world passes through the transition from gasoline cars to hydrogen fuel cell cars. The Al/air battery system can generate enough energy and power for driving ranges and acceleration similar to gasoline powered cars.

The EcoEffect method of assessing external and internal impacts of building properties is briefly described. The external impacts of manufacturing and transport of the building materials, the generation of power and heat consumed during the operation phase are assessed using life-cycle methodology. Emissions and waste; natural resource depletion and toxic substances in building materials are accounted for. Here methodologies from natural sciences are employed. The internal impacts involve the assessment of the risk for discomfort and ill-being due to features and properties of both the indoor environment and outdoor environment within the boundary of the building properties. This risk is calculated based on data and information from questionnaires; measurements and inspection where methodologies mainly from social sciences are used. Life-cycle costs covering investment and utilities costs as well as maintenance costs summed up over the lifetime of the building are also calculated. The result presentation offers extensive layers of diagrams and data tables ranging from an aggregated diagram of environmental efficiency to quantitative indicators of different aspects and factors. Environmental efficiency provides a relative measure of the internal quality of a building property in relation to its external impact vis-a`-vis its performance relative to other building properties.

This study presents a life-cycle cost analysis using detailed load profiles and initial and operating costs to evaluate the economic feasibilities of constant-air-volume (CAV) and variableair-volume (VAV) air-conditioning systems. The present-worth cost method for life-cycle cost analysis is applied to a sample building located in Adana, Turkey which can be conditioned with CAV or VAV systems. In the analysis, two different uses of the building (as a school or as an office center), two different operating scenarios for air-conditioning system (scenario 1 and scenario 2) and two different economic measures (developed and developing economy) are considered. It is found, for all the cases considered, that although initial cost of the VAV system is higher than that of the CAV system, the present-worth cost of the VAV system is lower than that of the CAV system at the end of the lifetime due to lower fan-operating costs.

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites or advanced composite materials are very attractive for use in civil engineering applications due to their high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, corrosion resistance, light weight and potentially high durability. Their application is of most importance in the renewal of constructed facilities infrastructure such as buildings, bridges, pipelines, etc. Recently, their use has increased in the rehabilitation of concrete structures, mainly due to their tailorable performance characteristics, ease of application and low life cycle costs. These characteristics and the success of structural rehabilitation measures have led to the development of new lightweight structural concepts utilizing all FRP systems or new FRPyconcrete composite systems. This paper presents an overview of the research and development of applications of advanced composites to civil infrastructure renewal at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). ᮊ

Due to their light weight, high stiness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios, and potentially high resistance to environmental degradation, resulting in lower life-cycle costs, polymer composites are increasingly being considered for use in civil infrastructure applications ranging from the retro®t and rehabilitation of buildings and bridges to the construction of new structural systems. This paper outlines the need for such materials, describing a variety of applications ranging from seismic retro®t of columns to the fabrication of new light-weight bridge decks for renewal. Aspects related to the development of novel hybrid bridge structural systems are described that would lead to a new genre of bridge structures that eciently combine functionality and aesthetics in a way previously not possible with conventional materials. Challenges and recent developments related to materials and processing methods, as well as issues related to life-time durability related to this cost-sensitive environment are discussed, and it is shown that solutions derived for this area will provide signi®cant advances in other application areas. Ó

Physical assets form the basic infrastructure of all businesses and their effective management is essential to overall success. It has thus become essential to plan and monitor assets throughout their entire life cycle, from the development/procurement stage through to eventual disposal. Life cycle costing* is concerned with optimising value for money in the ownership of physical assets by taking into consideration all the cost factors relating to the asset during its operational life. Optimising the trade-off between those cost factors will give the minimum life cycle cost of the asset. This process involves estimation of costs on a whole life basis before making a choice to purchase an asset from the various alternatives available. Life cycle cost of an asset can, very often, be many times the initial purchase or investment cost (

L’articolo si propone di analizzare dal punto di vista giuridico il concetto di economia circolare. Si descrive l’evoluzione del concetto nel diritto europeo (settimo programma di azione ambientale; primo pacchetto sull’economia circolare del 2014; secondo pacchetto del 2015). Si propone l’idea che l’elemento caratterizzante dell’economia circolare sia quello di interconnessione o di sistema. Si provano a ricostruire secondo questa prospettiva le fasi dell’economia circolare in relazione alla produzione di prodotti di consumo (progettazione, specifiche tecniche; certificazione) e il ruolo del potere pubblico (incentivi, tasse e divieti). Si evidenzia che gli appalti verdi possano costituire un importante banco di prova per l’economia circolare.

The overall objective of the maintenance process is to increase the profitability of the operation and optimize the total life cycle cost without compromising safety or environmental issues. Risk assessment integrates reliability with safety and environmental issues and therefore can be used as a decision tool for preventive maintenance planning. Maintenance planning based on risk analysis minimizes the probability of system failure and its consequences (related to safety, economic, and environment). It helps management in making correct decisions concerning investment in maintenance or related field. This will, in turn, result in better asset and capital utilization.

Materials selection is a multidisciplinary activity, which integrates a large number of knowledge fields and professional domains. In fact a material selection decision should capture not only the functional performance required for the application but should also consider the economical and environmental impacts originated all along the product life cycle. In this paper a life cycle engineering (LCE) approach is proposed to support material selection, integrating the performance of the material for the specific application in technological, environmental and economical dimensions throughout the duration of the product. The methodology proposed compares a set of candidate materials and, through the aggregation of the three dimensions (technical, economical and environmental), identifies the ''best material domains''. These ''best material domains'' are presented in a ternary diagram, which allows a global comparison of the candidate materials and supports an informed decision as regards the selection of the ''best material'' according to different business scenarios and corporate strategies. The methodology was applied to a case study aiming the use of new metallic materials (high strength steels and aluminium alloys) for an automobile fender currently made of mild steel and the evaluation of potential benefits as regards the global performance of the material.

Appropriate deployment of technological innovation contributes to improvement in the quality of healthcare delivered, the containment of cost, and access to the healthcare system. Hospitals have been allocating a significant portion of their resources to procuring and managing capital assets; they are continuously faced with demands for new medical equipment and are asked to manage existing inventory for which they are not well prepared. To objectively manage their investment, hospitals are developing medical technology management programs that need pertinent information and planning methodology for integrating new equipment into existing operations as well as for optimizing costs of ownership of all equipment. Clinical engineers can identify technological solutions based on the matching of new medical equipment with hospital's objectives. They can review their institution's overall technological position, determine strengths and weaknesses, develop equipment-selection crite...

A B S T R A C T This paper presents methodology to evaluate size and cost of PV power system components. The simplified mathematical expressions are given for sizing of PV system components. The PV array size is determined based on daily electrical load (kWh/day) and number of sunshine hours on optimally tilted surface specific to the country. Based on life cycle cost (LCC) analysis, capital cost (US$/kW P ) and unit cost of electricity (US$/kWh) were determined for PV systems such as stand-alone PV (SAPV) and building integrated PV (BIPV). The mitigation of CO 2 emission, carbon credit and energy payback time (EPBT) of PV system are presented in this paper. Effect of carbon credit on the economics of PV system showed reduction in unit cost of electricity by 17-19% and 21-25% for SAPV and BIPV systems, respectively. This methodology was illustrated using actual case study on 2.32 kW P PV system located in New Delhi (India).

A methodology to estimate the cost implications of design decisions by integrating cost as a design parameter at an early design stage is presented. The model is developed on a hierarchical basis, the manufacturing cost of aircraft fuselage panels being analysed in this paper. The manufacturing cost modelling is original and relies on a genetic-causal method where the drivers of each element of cost are identified relative to the process capability. The cost model is then extended to life cycle costing by computing the Direct Operating Cost as a function of acquisition cost and fuel burn, and coupled with a semi-empirical numerical analysis using Engineering Sciences Data Unit reference data to model the structural integrity of the fuselage shell with regard to material failure and various modes of buckling. The main finding of the paper is that the traditional minimum weight condition is a dated and sub-optimal approach to airframe structural design.

The performance of hospital buildings depends to a large degree on the efficiency of maintenance execution. The research objectives were to examine the efficiency of maintenance under alternative maintenance policies and alternative sources of labour (outsourcing vs. in-house). The research focused on main-tenance of hospital buildings as a model for multi-system buildings operating in dynamic environments. The research used a systematic field survey followed by an in-depth statistical analysis. Four key performance indicators (KPIs) were developed. The first, the building performance indicator (BPI), indicates the physical-functional condition of buildings. The second, the manpower sources diagram (MSD), reflects the efficiency of using in-house labour vs. the outsourcing of labour. The third, the maintenance efficiency indicator (MEI), is based on the annual costs of maintenance, the building age coefficient and the building occupancy coefficient. This indicator reflects the efficiency of usage of the resources (labour, outsourcing, materials and spare parts) in maintenance. The fourth indicator deals with the organizational structure of the maintenance division. The proposed KPIs integrate four aspects of hospital facilities management: performance management, composition of labour, efficiency of main-tenance operations and organizational effectiveness. Efficient execution of maintenance management of hospital buildings may be obtained by the simultaneous implementation of the aforementioned KPIs. The proposed indicators may be adapted to other types of facilities, such as office buildings, industrial plants and infrastructure.

Remarkable improvements have occurred recently in the maintenance management of physical assets and productive systems, so that less wastages of energy and resources occur. The requirement for optimal preventive maintenance using, for instance, justin-time (JIT) and total quality-management (TQM) techniques has given rise to what has been called the total productive-maintenance (TPM) approach. This study explores the ways in which Nigerian manufacturing industries can implement TPM as a strategy and culture for improving its performance and suggests self-auditing and bench-marking as desirable prerequisites before TPM implementation.

Most commonly, production cost is the main cost factor in construction and is often set to the minimum, which does not necessarily improve the lifetime performance of buildings. However, a higher production cost might decrease total life cycle cost (LCC). It is important, therefore, to show the construction client in the early design phase the relationship between design choices and the resulting lifetime cost. Today, LCC calculation is used extensively for industrial products to minimise production cost and increase profit. Clearly, there are significant differences between an industrial product and a building from the life cycle perspective. The main differences are the life of a building and the lack of industrialisation in the building process, especially during construction. These factors make calculating LCC for a building difficult early in the design process. This paper presents a state of the art analysis in the area of LCC for construction. It offers a structural overview of theoretical economic methods for LCC analyses and their restrictions as described in the literature. The paper also reveals the primary data which are required to carry out a LCC analysis and discusses limitations in the application of life cycle costing from the client's perspective.

Il saggio si propone di esaminare il tema degli appalti verdi alla luce dell’approvazione del correttivo al codice dei contratti pubblici del 2017. Si evidenzia che a seguito di tale intervento si sia realizzata una vera e propria rivoluzione perché le amministrazioni hanno un vero e proprio obbligo e non più, come in passato, una mera facoltà di concludere contratti verdi. La contrattazione pubblica diventa in tal modo uno dei più importanti strumenti economici per la tutela dell’ambiente. Si analizza conseguentemente il sistema normativo che trova il suo momento centrale nei Criteri ambientali minimi (CAM) e il ruolo dell’ANAC nel reprimere i casi di mancato rispetto dei CAM.

Ten LCC-oriented environmental accounting tools suggested as useful in environmental decision-making have been identiÿed. However, their implementation in the building industry seems to be limited, which opens up for a conceptual discussion. The purpose of this article is to discuss theoretical assumptions and the practical usefulness of the LCC approach in making environmentally responsible investment decisions. LCC's monetary unit and extended scope may speak in favour of using LCC but LCC fails to handle irreversible decisions, neglects items that have no owner and does not consider costs to future generations. Moreover, LCC does not take into account the decision makers' limited ability to make rational decisions under uncertainty. LCC's practical usefulness is constrained by its oversimpliÿcation to a monetary unit, the lack of reliable data, complexity of the building process and conceptual confusions. To handle these inconsistencies in future development of environmental decision support tools three research solutions are proposed. ?

Increased biodiesel production is being proposed as one solution to the need to ease the impact of increased demand for crude oil and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Despite this, biodiesel has yet to reach its full commercial potential, especially in the developing countries. Besides technical barriers, there are several nontechnical limiting factors which impede the development of biodiesel such as feedstock price, production cost, fossil fuel price and taxation policy. This study assesses these by undertaking a techno-economic and sensitivity analysis of biodiesel production in Malaysia, the second largest producer of crude palm oil feedstock. It was found that the life cycle cost for a 50 ktons palm biodiesel production plant with an operating period of 20 years is $665 million, yielding a payback period of 3.52 years. The largest share is the feedstock cost which accounts for 79% of total production cost. Sensitivity analysis results indicate that the variation in feedstock price will significantly affect the life cycle cost for biodiesel production. One of the most important findings of this study is that biodiesel price is compatible with diesel fuel when a fiscal incentive and subsidy policy are implemented. For instance, biodiesel price with subsidies of $0.10/l and $0.18/l is compatible and lower than fossil diesel price at crude palm oil price of $1.05/kg or below. As a conclusion, further research on technical as well as nontechnical limitations for biodiesel production is needed before biodiesel can be fully utilized.

Manufacturing and production plants operate physical assets that deteriorate with usage and time, thus, maintenance actions are required to restore the assets back to their original predetermined operational conditions. But since, organizational resources are limited and scarce. The objective of an effective maintenance program is to minimize total cost of inspection and repair, and equipment downtime. In this paper, we describe a new multicriteria optimization framework for deriving optimal maintenance schedules for preventive maintenance which considers availability, maintenance cost and life cycle costs as the criteria for optimization. The Simulink toolbox of the Matlab has been interfaced with Genetic algorithm for optimization. After getting solution, Stochastic Petri nets has been used to model the system and find out the effect of optimized maintenance schedules on system performance. The application of the proposed framework has been discussed on a practical case of a paper plant.

Cogeneration is proved to be one of the promising energy management techniques, which offers an efficient method of producing electricity and useful thermal energy from a common source. In the present study various cogeneration options for a plywood industry in south India with power export is analyzed. It is found that the industry has a good potential for cogeneration. Three schemes such as steam turbine gas turbine and combined cycle are evaluated on the basis of Annualized Life Cycle Cost (ALCC). The steam turbine based cogeneration is found to be the best option as it has the least ALCC. The comparison was based on lean gas as fuel but the industry can save the fuel cost by utilizing the waste wood available which enhances the scope and economic feasibility of cogeneration. It is found that the proposed scheme can provide a tremendous saving in the annual operating cost compared to the existing facility with a payback period of 2.6 years.

The large growth in the wind power industry in the past years mainly focuses on a growing market and the development of large turbines and offshore farms. The high technical availability of wind turbines comes with a greater need for frequent maintenance. Current maintenance planning is not optimized, and it is possible to make maintenance more efficient. Condition monitoring systems (CMS) could resolve the growing wind power industry's need for better maintenance management and increased reliability. Such systems are commonly used in other industries. CMS could continuously monitor the performance of the wind turbine parts and could help determine specific maintenance timing. This paper presents a life cycle cost (LCC) analysis with strategies where CMS improved maintenance planning for a single wind turbine onshore and a wind farm offshore. Case studies are based on real data from Olsvenne2 at Näsudden (Gotland, Sweden) and Kentish Flats, in the U.K. The main conclusion is that CMS benefits maintenance management of wind power systems. Improvements can be especially shown for offshore wind farm maintenance planning.

This paper presents a quantitative solution that minimizes the life cycle cost of a product by developing an optimal product validation plan. Dependability constitutes an integral view of a product's reliability, availability, maintainability, quality, and safety. The methodology developed in this paper incorporates several dependability-related activities into a comprehensive probabilistic cost model that enables minimization of the product's life cycle cost. The model utilizes the inverse relationship between the cost of product validation activities and the expected cost of repair and warranty returns. The model emphasizes the test duration and sample size for the environmental qualification tests performed in a product validation program. The overall stochastic cost model and its minimization are done with Monte Carlo simulation in order to account for uncertainties in model parameters. The model is demonstrated on an automotive electronics application. The results of this work provide application-specific optimal product validation plans and evaluate the efficiency of a product validation program from a life cycle cost point of view with an emphasis on the cost of validation and product warranties. r

A roadmap has been established for development of ATW Technology. The roadmap defines a reference system along with preferred technologies, which require further development to reduce technical risk, associated deployment scenarios, and a detailed plan of necessary R&D to support implementation of this technology. The potential for international collaboration is discussed which has the potential to reduce the cost of the program. A reference ATW plant was established to ensure consistent discussion of technical and life cycle cost issues. Over 60 years of operation, a reference ATW plant would process about 10,000 tn of spent nuclear reactor fuel. This is in comparison to the current inventory of about 40,000 tn of spent fuel and the projected inventory of about 86,000 tn of spent fuel if all currently licensed nuclear power plants run until their license expire. The reference ATW plant was used together with an assumed scenario of no new nuclear plant orders in the U.S. to generate the deployment scenario for ATW. In the R&D roadmap, key technical issues are identified and timescales proposed for the resolution of these issues. A key recommendation is that, in the first year of any ATW program, trade studies intended to lead to confirmation of technology choices and optimization of design be conducted. These studies will then be used to define future R&D. International collaboration will be important in this endeavor.