Life Cycle Costs Analysis Report: Woolworths Case Study

This report provides an analysis of the life cycle costs associated with Woolworths, a prominent Australian retail company. It begins by identifying the engineering problems faced by the company's maintenance engineers, such as technical competency issues due to extensive store networks and inventory management challenges. The report then explores the needs and expectations of stakeholders, including customers and employees, and how Woolworths aims to meet these expectations. It examines the scope of Woolworths in achieving stakeholder satisfaction and the level of documented systems for maintenance development. The report further discusses the importance of leadership commitment and support, the longevity of the life cycle cost cycle for maintenance, and the identification of gaps in the current practices. The conclusion emphasizes the effectiveness of the life cycle process in maintaining profitability, suggesting the application of alternative tools, such as the NPV model, to support business stability and innovation. The report also provides specific recommendations for Woolworths to maintain its positive position in the Australian market through the application of life cycle costs.

Running head: LIFE CYCLE COSTS
Life cycle costs
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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LIFE CYCLE COSTS
Table of contents
About the company....................................................................................................................2
Problems of maintenance engineers...........................................................................................2
Needs and expectations of the stakeholders...............................................................................2
The scope of Woolworths to meet the expectations...................................................................3
Level of a documented system for maintenance development..................................................3
Commitment and support from leadership.................................................................................3
Longevity of Life Cost Cycle for maintenance..........................................................................3
Identifying gaps in the current practise......................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
Suggestion and recommendation...............................................................................................4
Reference....................................................................................................................................5

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LIFE CYCLE COSTS
About the company
Among the famous companies in Australia, Woolworths is rated as a high-end retail
company that contributes to about 80% of the success that in the Australian retail market. The
company is famous for providing services that include groceries, magazines, DVDs, and
household products (Woolworths.com.au, 2018).
The purpose of this assignment is to identify the problems faced by the maintenance
engineers and the manner in which Woolworths uses the life cycle costs to value the
longevity of its products.
Problems of maintenance engineers
As observed by Rivera and Azapagic (2016), Woolworths faces engineering problems
in the form of technical competency. The reason behind this is that due to its large number of
stores, the company struggles to maintain its inventory thereby, reducing the technical
competency of the business. The reason behind this being an engineering problem is that the
engineers of the company do not have the proper skill to continue with the managing of the
inventory.
Needs and expectations of the stakeholders
The stakeholders play an important role in the progress and expansion of a company.
Similarly, in the case of Woolworths, the satisfaction of the stakeholders provides
opportunities for an increase in the market. The needs and expectation of the stakeholders
vary with the characteristics and power of the stakeholders. For example, customers need and
expect good quality of products while the employees of Woolworths need and expect proper
motivation and work environment (Driessen, Arts & van Houtum, 2017).

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LIFE CYCLE COSTS
The scope of Woolworths to meet the expectations
The scope of Woolworths can be identified by its aim. Woolworths aim at
maintaining customer satisfaction along with the satisfaction of the employees. Therefore, it
is necessary for the company to ensure that the needs and demands of the stakeholders are
maintained in a manner that can provide proper financial gains for the company.
Level of a documented system for maintenance development
Woolworths can apply the life cycle cost method to ensure that the maintenance of the
company can be maintained. Simonen (2014) stated that the documentation system could
help in understanding the requirements of the stakeholders and at the same time ensure that
the legal procedure of the Government is maintained. The development can be maintained by
complying with the legal documents of the market.
Commitment and support from leadership
In order to ensure that the expectation of the stakeholders are met and mitigate the
problems faced by the engineer, the leaders of Woolworths need to undertake the
responsibility to ensure that the commitment of the employees is maintained (Stark, 2015). At
the same time, it is also necessary that the leaders provide support to the employees in terms
of taking innovative decisions such as re-creating a food or household product.
Longevity of Life Cost Cycle for maintenance
The application of life cycle cost for maintaining products is used to plan, design and
implement the assets of a company (Hellweg & Canals, 2014). Therefore, it can be said that
the longevity of the life cycle costs in Woolworths can be calculated until the proper
execution of a particular product. This decreases the life cycle cost of the company and
hence, its competitors can replace the products from the market.

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Identifying gaps in the current practice
After analysing the competency of Woolworths, it can be said that the inventory of
the company provides a proper analysis of the gap in its practice. The maintenance of the
inventory of the products provides an opportunity to analyse the gaps that exist in the current
production of the company. Therefore, the application of tools such as the NPV model can
help Woolworths continue with a proper business proposition.
Conclusion
Therefore, a conclusion can be made based on the implementation of the life cycle
process. The cost incurred by the company is effective for maintaining the profitability
Woolworths. The critical success factor of Woolworths can be in the form of applying
alternative tools and systems that can help in the maintaining the stability in terms of finance
and productivity of the organisation. Hence, recommendations can suggest about the
application of alternative tools for development.
Suggestion and recommendation
The application of NPV tool as an alternative approach can help Woolworths to
continue with the business in a steady manner. Woolworths can calculate the current value to
ensure the manner in which innovation can be maintained in the company. The value gained
by the company can help in the implementation of life cycle costs and ensure that
Woolworths maintain its positive hold in the Australian market.

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LIFE CYCLE COSTS
Reference
Driessen, J. P. C., Arts, J. J., & van Houtum, G. J. J. A. N. (2017). Optimal commonality and
reliability: a life cycle costs perspective.
Hellweg, S., & Canals, L. M. (2014). Emerging approaches, challenges and opportunities in
life cycle assessment. Science, 344(6188), 1109-1113.
Rivera, X. C. S., & Azapagic, A. (2016). Life cycle costs and environmental impacts of
production and consumption of ready and home-made meals. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 112, 214-228.
Simonen, K. (2014). Life cycle assessment. Routledge.
Stark, J. (2015). Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (Volume
1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.
Woolworths.com.au. (2018). {{metaController.metaData.title}}. [online] Available at:
https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 13 May 2018].