Life cycle cost versus life cycle investment – a new approach

The paper proposes a model for the life cycle of physical assets that includes the maintenance policy, because it has direct implications on the equipment’s Return On Investment (ROI) and Life Cycle Cost; the developed model can be applied to any type of physical asset. The model is called Life Cycle Investment (LCI) instead of the traditional Life Cycle Cost (LCC). The paper proposes a new methodology based on the modified economic life cycle and lifespan methods by including the maintenance policy using maintenance Key Performance Indicators (KPI), namely Availability, based on the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). The benefits (profits) that result from the asset’s Availability must be balanced with the initial investment and the variable maintenance investment along its life, which has relation with the maintenance policy and the ROI.