product life cycle cost management riadenie nákladov životného ...

interesting for the buyer both in terms of the purchasing price and in terms of operationaland logistical costs as well as recycling or disposal costs.In the future manufacturers of machinery and equipment will have to assume a greaterdegree of responsibility for activities related to the life cycle of their products, not onlyduring the manufacturing and sales stages but also during the stages following productdelivery and installation. In a situation where the sum of operating, maintenance, redevelopment,repair and disposal costs associated with some products is often many timeshigher than the cost of procurement, a cost analysis targeted at product use is constantlygaining in importance.Product life cycle cost analysis is always needed where there are various problemsolving alternatives and a decision must be made as to which alternative is more favourable.The analysis may be used in many situations. For example, it may concern assessmentof possible ways of using the product in operation, maintenance policies and logisticssupport solutions, product design configurations, ways of product manufacturing, waysof product distribution and transport and ways of its disposal and recycling, (Fabricky1991).If product cycle costs are to be used as a system development parameter, it is necessaryto design and implement a programme that would make it possible to define theactivities necessary for setting the cost objectives and their fulfilment. It is necessary toidentify who will carry out the analysis, who will be responsible for utilisation of theoutcomes of the product life cycle cost analysis, how the database for estimating productlife cycle costs will be established and maintained, what will be the ways of reporting theresults of the analysis, how the necessary corrective measures will be initiated, etc.3. THE DATABASE FOR PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSISOne of the key success factors in life cycle management is the availability of informationabout the technical, market and economic parameters of the product life cycle. Itis clear that there is commonly a mismatch between the information available and thatrequired. This gap between the need for information and its availability is the widest at theinitial stages of the product life cycle. The development of the difference between demandfor information about product life cycle and its availability in the course of the product lifecycle is well illustrated by Figure 2, (Westkaempfer, Niemann and Dauensteiner, 2001)and (Westkaempfer, 2002).The success of the product life cycle analysis depends on the availability of suitabledata concerning a range of areas and activities that relate to the product life cycle. Theseare, for example, data that are associated with product design and development, pre-manufacturingactivities, the manufacturing of the product, its use, maintenance, recyclingand disposal. Companies normally have various extensive cost-related data. However,their use for the life cycle analysis tends to be problematic. In most cases there is notthe required amount and structure of the data, they are not relevant or appropriate for theproblem being solved, and they are not comprehensive. It is also common for data to bemaintained in several isolated information systems without the possibility of their interconnectionat system level.ACTA FACULTATIS TECHNICAE, XVI, 2011 (1): 35–4337