Skip to main content

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NATO ASI F,volume 3))

Abstract

Many Life Cycle Cost (LCC) Models treat costs as “point estimates“ or “most likely” predictions of what actual costs will be many years in the future. Actual costs, however, are not exact, but are subject to considerable uncertainty. This paper examines an analytical method for aggregating LCC component and subsystem costs so as to produce a total cost prediction and the uncertainty around it. The technique has been applied to aircraft and space based radar costs.

Four problems of LCC prediction will be given. Recent work by McNichols (1979) solves the first two problems. This paper describes a solution for the third problem.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • CRAMER, H. (1946).Mathematical Methods of Statistics. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, Massachusetts.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • FISHER, G. (1971).Cost Considerations in Systems Analysis. American Elsevier, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • IGNIZIO, J., J.N.D. GUPTA, and G. McNICHOLS (1975).Operations Research in Decision Making. Crane-Russak, New York.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • KENDALL, M. G. and S. STUART (1967).The Advanced Theory of Statistics. Hoffner Publishing Co., New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNICHOLS, G. (1975). Independent Parametric Costing: What? Why? How?Proceedings, Spring Conference of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. AIIE, Norcross, Georgia.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNICHOLS, G. (1976).On the Treatment of Uncertainty in Parametric Costing. Report T-330, ONR Program in Logistics, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNICHOLS, G. (1979). Treatment of Uncertainty in Life Cycle Costing.Proceedings, Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium. IEEE, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNICHOLS, G. (1981). Cost-Risk Procedures for Weapon System Risk Analysis.Proceedings, Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium. IEEE, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • PATTON, G. (1969). First Order Approximation of Cost Variance and Its Value.Proceedings Fourth Annual DoD Cost Research Symposium. Office of the Comptroller of the Navy, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • PEARSON, E. (1963). Some Problems Arising in Approximating Percent Probability Distributions, Using Moments.Biometrika. 50 95–11.

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • SMITH, D. (1971). A Taylor’s Theorem-Central Limit Theorem Approximation: Its Use in Obtaining the Probability Distribution of Long Range Profit.Management Science18 B-214–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SOBEL, S. (1965).A Computerized Technique to Express Uncertainty in Advanced System Cost Estimates. The MITRE Corporation, TR-ESD-65–79, Bedford, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • THIELE, T. N. (1903).Theory of Observations, London.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • TSOKOS, C. (1972). Probability Distributions: An Introduction to Probability Theory With Applications. Duxbury Press, Belmont, CA.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1983 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

McNichols, G.R. (1983). Uncertainties of LCC Predictions. In: Skwirzynski, J.K. (eds) Electronic Systems Effectiveness and Life Cycle Costing. NATO ASI Series, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82014-4_31

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82014-4_31

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-82016-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-82014-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics