Life cycle costing of a milling plant: a case study in Italy

The scope of this study is to perform an economic analysis of a food system-a milling plant-through the Life cycle costing (LCC) approach. To be more precise, this paper illustrates the evaluation of the total cost of a stainless steel rollermill by means of an analytic model developed under Microsoft Excel (TM). The model takes into account the key cost components of manufacturing and using the milling plant throughout its life cycle (i.e. initial acquisition cost, operating cost, maintenance cost and end-of-life cost). The details of the computational procedure and its application are provided for all cost components of this food technology. The LCC analysis carried out on a 15, 30 and 45-year time horizon allowed the cost associated with the entire life cycle of the system to be identified and quantified. The set of analyses conducted shows that, although the initial acquisition cost remains unchanged, the operating and maintenance costs increase significantly over time, dominating the total cost. In turn, the most influential component of the operating cost is electricity, while for maintenance cost, prevention and planning activities play an increasingly important role with the increase in the duration of the lifetime. This study provides a clear and comprehensive view of costs over the entire plant cycle and helps to identify the most relevant cost components.