Ettore Settanni

Toward a computational structure for life cycle sustainability analysis: unifying LCA and LCC

PurposeA widely used theory of the computational structure of life cycle assessment (LCA) has been available for more than a decade. The case of environmental life cycle cost (LCC) is still less clear: even the recent Code of Practice does not specify any formula to use.MethodsThis paper does not aim to resolve all the issues at stake. But it aims to provide an explicit and transparent description of how to calculate the life cycle cost (in whatever way defined), and the value added across the life cycle.Results and discussionThe expressions obtained can be fed into the formulas for eco-efficiency, so that an explicit and reproducible eco-efficiency indicator can be calculated.ConclusionsThe results are useful for developing life cycle sustainability analysis, combining LCA, LCC, and social LCA.

Combining Life Cycle Assessment of food products with economic tools

Abstract: The economic counterpart of LCA, known as Environmental Life Cycle Costing (LCC), is of increasing concern for LCA practitioners. Just like LCA, LCC may concern food products. Yet, the literature provides few applications of LCC to food products and, more generally, to nondurable products; moreover, the methodologies adopted vary significantly within the available studies. Other examples of combined environmental–economic tools for the assessment of food products include applications of Input–output Analysis along with Material Flows Analysis (MFA) and LCA. These combinations aim at studying the way materials and substances flow through the economy and applications in these fields are well-established ones. The main results achieved by such diverse combinations of tools are discussed here, especially those which are of managerial relevance. An effort will also be made to highlight the peculiarities that may be taken into account in future applications, when carrying out economic analysis concerning food products combined with environmental analysis.

System Modeling: A Foundation for Costing Through-Life Availability Provision

Under performance-guaranteeing contracts, such as availability-based contracts, the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have become increasingly concerned with understanding and managing the cost of their commitment to deliver specific results to customer through-life. However, current approaches to cost estimating hardly offer more than sheer claims of the existence of a link between cost and organizational performance – no matter whether products, services or product-service-systems (PSS) are at stake. This paper presents an intermediate step towards a computational structure explicitly linking cost and performance for PSS. A PSS is represented formally as a system combining assets and activities delivering the results OEMs are committed to through-life. Inter-temporal aspects of PSS provision which typically define the successful delivery of an asset’s availability are taken into account. Network formalism and principles derived from Input-Output Analysis are employed to base PSS cost estimation on a representation of a PSS as a ‘system’.

An Input–Output Technological Model of Life Cycle Costing: Computational Aspects and Implementation Issues in a Generalised Supply Chain Perspective

Material and cost flows play an important role within manufacturing systems in setting the structural interdependences among a supply chain of production processes. Environmentally-extended input–output analysis provides a computational structure that takes these interdependences into account. This is interesting for many applications within supply chain analysis and business processes analysis, especially as far as cost accounting is concerned. This chapter addresses the emerging issue of incorporating costs into life cycle assessment as a premise to outline a concept of life cycle costing based on an input–output technological model. This model is common to both physical accounting and cost accounting. It allows product costing and resource planning to be carried out while taking into account issues concerning inter-organisational cost management, multi-product systems, closed-loop recycling, pollution abatement processes, and the production and disposal of waste. Such a framework can also be employed in order to evaluate what effect different design solutions are likely to have on both the material flows, and even the associated whole-of-life costs.

Applying a non‐deterministic conceptual life cycle costing model to manufacturing processes

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to introduce uncertainty analysis within an environmentally extended input‐output technological model of life cycle costing. The application of this approach will be illustrated with reference to the ceramic floor tiles manufacturing process.Design/methodology/approach – Input‐output analysis (IOA) provides a computational structure which is interesting for many applications within value chain analysis and business processes analysis. A technological model, which is built bottom‐upwards from the operations, warrants that production planning and corporate environmental accounting be closely related to cost accounting. Monte Carlo methods have been employed to assess how the uncertainty may affect the expected outcomes of the model.Findings – It has been shown, when referring to a vertically‐integrated, multiproduct manufacturing process, how production and cost planning can be effectively and transparently integrated, also taking the product usage stage into account. The ...

A Case Study in Estimating Avionics Availability from Field Reliability Data

Under incentivized contractual mechanisms such as availability-based contracts the support service provider and its customer must share a common understanding of equipment reliability baselines. Emphasis is typically placed on the Information Technology-related solutions for capturing, processing and sharing vast amounts of data. In the case of repairable fielded items scant attention is paid to the pitfalls within the modelling assumptions that are often endorsed uncritically, and seldom made explicit during field reliability data analysis. This paper presents a case study in which good practices in reliability data analysis are identified and applied to real-world data with the aim of supporting the effective execution of a defence avionics availability-based contract. The work provides practical guidance on how to make a reasoned choice between available models and methods based on the intelligent exploration of the data available in practical industrial applications.

To cost an elephant: an exploratory survey on cost estimating practice in the light of product-service-systems

Businesses now contracting for availability are regarded as part of a paradigm shift away from the familiar ‘product and support’ business model. The main difference being that such businesses eventually commit to provide a service outcome via product-service-system. The research presented in this article investigates how current cost estimating practice relates with the idea of having as the point of focus for the analysis a product-service-system delivering service outcomes, rather than a product. Since the topic is in its infancy, an exploratory survey was designed and circulated via the Internet among practitioners with the aim of looking for initial patterns, ideas, and hypotheses, rather than to confirm existing ones. The picture that seems to emerge is that respondents would not necessarily see the representation and modeling of a product-service-system as being a precondition to estimate the cost of the service it provides. In line with most academic literature, respondents would rather consider the cost of providing a service via product-service-system as conceptually equivalent to the cost of the in-service stage of a durable product. Although not allowing for generalization, this research reveals paths that may be worth exploring further.

Applying forgotten lessons in field reliability data analysis to performance-based support contracts

Abstract Assumptions used in field reliability data analysis may be seldom made explicit or questioned in practice, yet these assumptions affect how engineering managers develop metrics for use in long-term support contracts. To address this issue, this article describes a procedure to avoid the pitfalls in employing the results of field data analysis for repairable items. The procedure is implemented with the aid of a simplified example based on a real case study in defense avionics and is streamlined so that the computations can be replicated in other applications.

An Approach to Evaluate Alternative Process and Supply Chain Opportunities Enabled by Sustainable Chemical Feedstocks

This research has received funding from the EPSRC under Grant Reference No. EP/K014889/1, Panel Name: “EPSRC Sustainable Chemical Feedstocks”, Project Full Title: “Terpene-based Manufacturing for Sustainable Chemical Feedstocks”, Project Duration: 2013–2018.

Addressing Uncertainty in Estimating the Cost for a Product-Service-System Delivering Availability: Epistemology and Ontology

Recently there has been increase in the number of manufacturing firms offering service packages in support of their products, through performance-based or availability contracts. The delivery of “advanced services” by product-service-systems (PSS) is a knowledge-intensive socio-technical system in nature. Nonetheless, the challenges associated with addressing uncertainty in the context of estimating the cost of a PSS delivering availability need to be overcome. We present a system-based approach and discuss the uncertainties in modelling cost for a PSS. The aim is to demonstrate the limitations of using only quantitative analysis for modelling the uncertainty in estimating the cost of providing an advance service. Building on the epistemological foundation, we then discuss uncertainty in the context of ontology modelling and conclude with final remarks and directions for future research.