An Application of a Generalized Life Cycle Cost Model to BOXN Wagons of Indian Railways

The objective of this paper is to apply a methodology developed for effective implementation of life cycle costing (LCC) in design and procurement of repairable products/systems to railway wagons. From its origin in defense equipment in US in 1960s, the application of life cycle cost concept has now been extended to other areas of private and public sectors too. This is because the customers are now considering not only the initial product costs but also the cost implications associated with the entire life span of a product. This emerging trend in global markets is gradually forcing the product manufacturers to estimate and optimize the product LCC with reference to performance, safety, reliability (R), and maintainability (M). The life cycle cost of a repairable system is closely coupled to its reliability and maintainability and therefore a careful consideration to the R & M parameters in the product design stage is quite essential from the LCC viewpoint. Taking into consideration these aspects a generalized modeling methodology has been proposed to estimate the life cycle cost of repairable products based on R & M principles. Life cycle costing in railway industry has traditionally been focused on the prediction of investment of railway vehicle. But, today’s mass transit market has rapidly been changed and the suppliers are now forced to treat the LCC of entire railway system. Indian railways are the principle mode of transport for raw materials for steel plants, finished steel from steel plants, coal, oil, iron, cement, petroleum products, fertilizers and food grains in India. To serve this purpose BOXN wagons are used by Indian railways. The BOXN wagons typically have a life span of 35 years and being a repairable system experience multiple failures over their life span. In this paper, a generalized model for LCC of repairable products has been proposed and is applied to BOXN wagon of Indian railways and the results obtained are presented. The methodology presented herein is expected to provide some useful guidelines to the railway industry to predict and analyze the life cycle cost of railway vehicles.