Decision Making in Life Cycle Management - An Analytical Approach

30 July 2026 | Systecon AB

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How do you make sure your systems meet operational requirements without driving cost too high? This article sets out the fundamentals of Life Cycle Management (LCM): a data-driven approach to balancing availability performance and Total Ownership Cost (TOC) across the life of an aircraft, ship, train, or power plant. It shows how modeling and simulation deliver the decision support needed at every phase, even when data is limited.

Abstract
How do you make sure that availability & performance of your systems meet operational requirements, and that the cost for achieving it is not too high? Throughout the life cycle of an advanced technical system, like an aircraft, ship, train or power plant, countless decisions are made which have major impacts on both overall performance and total ownership cost. Understanding how each decision contributes to both cost and readiness is critical.

Surprisingly often, such decisions are based on gut feeling only, or on very limited analyses. One reason may be that it is perceived to be too difficult and/or time consuming to get proper decision support. Lack of qualified data and uncertainties in early phases are seen to make it impossible to conduct meaningful research. In most situations however, decision support is not focused on providing exact answers, but rather on choosing the right direction going forward. Therefore, even analyses based on rough estimates, approximations and analogies can make the difference between failure and success.

This paper outlines the fundamentals of successful Life Cycle Management, a method to monitor your systems towards fulfilling operational needs at the lowest possible Total Ownership Cost. The paper discusses critical decision points in different phases of the systems life cycle and suggests an approach to use modelling and simulation software to answer key questions and provide the required decision support.

Introduction
Procurement and ownership of advanced technical systems such as aircraft, ships, trains and power plants are associated with huge investment costs, high complexity and substantial costs for operations and maintenance over the life cycle of the system.

Early decisions regarding concepts, requirements and choice of supplier will impact the Total Ownership Cost (TOC) more than anything else. Unfortunately, these decisions ...