Life-cycle costing: Insights, oversights, foresights

The potential benefits of performing Life Cycle Costing (LCC) are well documented in the extant literature. However, there are many practical and methodological challenges that limit their reliability and adoption for building project evaluation. The aim of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art of LCC in buildings and to map-out the methodological and practical challenges in LCC approach. The paper details a critical analysis of the modelling approaches, building-types and data sources used in the LCC modelling.

Our study argues that existing LCC modelling techniques are generally static and are not flexible enough to incorporate decisions taken over the life of the buildings. The impact of disruptive technologies like Big Data, BIM and virtual prototyping, hold a real potential to enhance the accuracy of LCC methods and enhance their usefulness over the lives of building assets.

Specifically, we observe that LCC is a complex subject. It thrives on the assumption of hypothetical variables and drives decisions that affect an unknown or unknowable future. This paper, therefore, seeks to provoke a critical discourse and rethink of existing methodological approaches to LCC in an attempt to develop approaches that might be better at capturing the data required in LCC of buildings. In addition, we advocate for Big Data as a frontier to improve the processing, visualisation and synthesis of data in LCC modelling. In conclusion, we articulate the insights, oversights and foresights that underpin life-cycle costing in buildings.