What is LCC?
The powerful combination of stainless steel's attributes is what makes it the material of choice in many uses. Unfortunately, one of the biggest obstacles to the specification of stainless steel in certain application is the ongoing misperception that it's more expensive in comparison to other, initially cheaper options.
In the short term, that may be the case considering upfront costs but it's durability and ease of maintenance compensate for the sometimes higher initial purchasing costs; and it is often least expensive choice in a lifecycle cost comparison.
It's ability to provide long-term performance with a minimum of downtime and cost associated with maintenance is determined by calculating the material's lifecycle costing (LCC), which is of particular importance to the stainless steel industry. LCC is a technique developed for identifying and quantifying all costs, initial and ongoing, associated with a project or installation over a given period.
The technique uses the standard accountancy principle of discounted cash flow, so that total costs incurred during a lifecycle period are reduced to present day values. This allows for a realistic comparison to be made of the options available. As far as material selection is concerned, LCC enables potential long-term benefits to be assessed against short-term expediency.
Materials costs are assessed with their related implications, such as initial outlay, maintenance and its frequency, downtime effects and production losses, repair and replacement costs, and other operationally-related costs such as manpower and energy consumption.
Sassda has developed a world-first app for stainless steel's ability to ensure far lower overall LCC.
The benefit of this App available on the Google Play (Android) Store and in the Apple iStore, is that it allows for the real-time calculation of the LCC of stainless steel via an easy to use, pre-programmed calculator. This requires the entry of key top-line data, followed by the simple click of a ‘Calculate’ Button which in turn generates a breakdown of the relevant costs and the ability to e-mail this to the relevant recipients.
