Different Costing Systems

Running Head: COURSEWORK

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[Name of the Writer]

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Introduction

Today, due to the economic situation of the world companies prefer to adapt different costing systems in order to survive in the market of severe competition. It needs constant preparation before launching their products in the market. The product life cycle is the time from when the idea of creating is conceived, the manufacture, and delivery to the consumer, to his disappearance or extinction in the market. The way, you can define the “life cycle costing of products” is the accumulation or identification of all the activities taking place throughout the life cycle of a product, costs that corresponds to an article, and all the time it lasts this in effect until its demise (Castleton et.al, 2010, pp. 1582).

It is often said that sustainability in buildings represents an additional cost, something like an extra or a luxury for which occasionally someone may be willing to pay. Just so you could have a building that spend less energy, water and materials that generate less waste and less polluting gases, etc. However, in recent years, a variety of studies show otherwise reduce the environmental impacts of buildings is economically viable, by design criteria, material selection, alternative facilities, etc. (Gustavsson et.al, 2010, pp. 230)

Discussion

Part 1

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Models of WLC- Image retrieved from http://www.iasdm.org/journals/index.php/ijaec/article/viewFile/141/81/1054

Whole-life costs consider all costs associated with the life of a building, from inception to construction, occupation and operation and disposal. The cost method that includes the pre-operative stages of production, this includes the stages of design, research and development, as these activities have an impact on the cost structure of the company in the long run (Kibert, 2012).

During the design stage in concert with the environmental analysis and detailed knowledge of the costs that affect all players in the product life cycle. It allows decisions comprising economic items that otherwise are not allocated to the project. This analysis facilitates the integration of economic and environmental approaches such as pillars and values ​​of business, developing innovative business models, based on the product or service as a single system throughout its life cycle and consequently generating new habits (Kibert, 2012).

Whole-life costs for a building include:

• Procurement costs (including design, land acquisition, equipment, construction etc).
• Refurbishment and Maintenance costs.
• Operational costs (including one-off costs linked with the project like change management).
• Disposal costs (Kneifel, 2010, pp.333).

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Image retrieved from http://www.building.co.uk/Pictures/web/a/r/p/0cost_660.jpg

BIM is also called modeling building information. It is the process of generating and data management of the building during its life cycle using dynamic modeling software buildings in three dimensions and in real time, to reduce the loss of time and resources in the design and construction. This process produces the Building Information Model (also abbreviated BIM), which encompasses the geometry of the building, spatial relationships, geographic information, and quantities and properties of its components (Leaman et.al, 2010, pp. 564).

The life-cycle assessment (hereinafter the LCA), is one of the most suitable to assess the environmental impact of any product or service methodologies, and therefore can be applied to a material or construction solution, or on a building or group of buildings. It is obvious that there is an interaction between all stages of the life of a building: design, construction, use, maintenance and disposal of the building. Therefore, a reduction of investment in the construction phase may lead to increased investment in the stages of use and maintenance of the building (Marszal et.al, 2012, pp. 154).

Currently, the LCA methodology is accepted as a basis on which to compare materials, components and alternative services. The methodology of general application is fully standardized by the UNE EN ISO 14040: 2006 and UNE EN ISO 14044: 2006, and consists of 4 interrelated steps:

• Defining objectives and scope.
• Inventory analysis, where all incoming and outgoing energy and material flows are quantified system during its lifetime, which are extracted or emitted into the environment.
• Assessment of impacts, where classification and evaluation of the results of the inventory is performed by relating their findings with environmental effects observable through a set of categories of impacts (cumulative primary energy, global warming potential, water footprint, etc.)
• Interpretation, where the results of the previous phases are evaluated together, in line with the objectives defined in the study, to establish the final conclusions and recommendations. For this different techniques are included as sensitivity analysis on the data used, analysis of the relevance of the stages of the process, scenario analysis, etc (Singh et.al, 2010).

Traditionally in the construction sector they have been used materials of local character such as brick, wood, cork, etc, which resulted in reduced energy costs and environmental impacts. Also, there was an adaptation of building design to local climatic conditions, which affected the building quality and greater thermal comfort for occupants. Today, the massive use of materials of a global nature such as aluminum, cement, PVC, concrete etc.

A building that does not take charge of their environmental impacts, high energy expenditure for example, outsources its costs and makes the rest of society has to pay for them. Indeed, as the energy bill does not pay the total amount consumed (hence tariff deficits exist) or replacement cost of fossil fuels used (natural gas, coal, oil, etc.) (Singh et.al, 2010).

The structural systems are responsible for building systems that receive and support the actions occurred outside the building or structure. The horizontal structural elements: roofs, vaults, floors, or slabs, resting on massive factory systems or linear gantries comprise beams and pillars, transferring the shares to the foundation elements, and these to the field (Marszal et.al, 2012, pp. 154). The materials used in the execution of building structures are mostly concrete and steel, finding in the case of rehabilitation works and some unique examples where the use of land plants, Brick prescribed in configuring load-bearing walls, wooden slabs, and some repair works polymeric materials such as resins and carbon fibers or other (Singh et.al, 2010).