TRACK: Safety/Reliability
Life cycle cost analysis is widely regarded as a useful tool when comparing material of construction alternatives for new equipment. Despite that, it can be hard to find specific guidance on everything that should be included and how to determine some of the inputs for comparing CPI equipment options. The goal of this talk is to provide a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to conduct this assessment, with discussion points to provide clarification as needed. Examples of topics that are covered in depth are how to determine a failure frequency and how to account for the lost production margin from unplanned downtime within the analysis, if at all. Safety and sustainability are explored in some detail as well within the context of conducting the LCCA. After discussing how to complete the LCCA itself, some advice on how to use the results of the LCCA to compare projects is provided. Finally, some publicly available LCCAs are referenced and briefly discussed to illustrate the concept in practice.