Title: Operations and support cost model for new product concept development
Abstract: Predicting the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of a proposed new product during its concept development phase is required for two reasons. First, it is necessary to demonstrate to either a potential customer (e.g. Government financed programs) or to corporate management that the cost of owning the new product and its value to the owner justify further development. Second, LCC is the basis for trade studies between various engineering alternatives that must be made early in the program in order to avoid wasteful research in nonproductive areas. The most significant portion of LCC is usually the Operating and Support (O&S) cost and yet this is the most difficult cost to predict. Operating and support costs include all costs incurred by their owner between initial purchase and discard or salvage. These costs must be predicted by parametric methods and inflated and/or discounted to their applicable years by means of Engineering Economic Analysis techniques. Separate models must be made for each engineering alternative and the costs converted to a common base (i.e. "now" dollars) for comparison. Martin Marietta, working under contract to the U.S. Navy's Advanced Antiair warfare Working Group (AAWG), has developed a simple O&S cost model to solve this complex problem. The model consists of a three dimensional matrix using LOTUS 1-2-3 software on an IBM PC or PC compatible computer. The model is flexible and detailed enough to be useful in many diverse applications and simple enough to be exercised quickly and at minimum cost.
Publication Year: 1986
Publication Date: 1986-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 21
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot