It is a practical tool to find out how initial material costs, on the one hand, and long-term maintenance costs, on the other, influence the economics of material selection over the entire design life of a product.

A basic attribute of stainless steel is the ability to provide long-term performance with a minimum of downtime and cost associated with maintenance. As a result LCC is of particular importance to the stainless industry. Whilst the mathematics of LCC can be quite complex an IBM or compatible PC program on floppy disk has been developed. This can be easily applied to most examples.

Article explains the methodology of LCC and provides a typical case-study.

A concise definition of LCC and comments on its importance to many business decisions.

Specialty Steel Industry of North America Life Cycle Costing Application Usage Form.