Life Cycle Cost - A Tool for Development of Sustainable Products and Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

Life cycle costing (LCC) is often used to assess different technological processes in many manufacturing sectors, such as the automotive, railway, mining, energy, building construction, chemical, and consumer goods sectors. LCC is different from the traditional cost accounting system which reports cost object profitability on a calendar basis (i.e., monthly, quarterly and annually), whereas life cycle costs are the sum of all funds expended in support of the item from its conception and fabrication through its operation to the end of its useful life. Although many different methods of LCC are known, they are not widely implemented and little is known about how practising LCC improves life cycle management (LCM), especially if LCM is considered in three dimensions of sustainability, such as economy (LCC), environment (LCA), and social (SLCA).

Furthermore, the costs generated during the technology operation period can be significant, especially maintenance, repair and replacement costs, therefore they should be taken into consideration during the decision-making process, namely through a Life Cycle Cost Analysis. One key element of long-term maintenance is the identification and optimisation of the life cycle costs of investments as part of purchasing decision-making. The predictability of costs and the profitable use of technology can be enhanced by using the techno-economic LCC model, which can be used to predict life cycle costs as part of maintenance management and investment planning.

Original research, theoretical and experimental, case studies, and comprehensive review papers are invited for possible publication in this Special Issue. It will also consider computational techniques, probabilistic methods, and mathematical optimisation techniques that are expertly blended to support the analysis of multicriteria decision-making problems with defined requirements.

We invite submissions from the areas of engineering, natural sciences, public policy, law, social science, business and economics. Relevant topics to this Special Issue include, but are not limited to the following subjects:

• Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) as an assessment tool used in industrial technology;
• LCC analysis as an engineering economic analysis quantifying the differential costs of alternative investment options;
• Stochastic processes in the life cycle cost prediction;
• Remaining useful lifetime and maintenance costs of the operated technical facility;
• Environmental and economic life cycle efficiency;
• Sustainable production and consumption;
• Prediction and optimisation of durability, reliability and operating costs;
• RAMS analysis for transport systems;
• Analysis of the warranty period in terms of safety, reliability and cost of use.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jaroslaw Selech
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Karol Andrzejczak
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stanisław Młynarski
Dr. Katarzyna Joachimiak-Lechman
Guest Editors

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