ABSTRACT
Life cycle costing analysis is broadly applied as a tool for decision support in regard to maintenance planning for civil engineering structures, whereby the expected total cost is advocated as the objective function to be minimized. The present paper takes the new perspective of considering the problem from a budgeting allocation problem where the aim is to optimize the allocation of budget for the purpose of maintaining the operation of the considered structures. Budgeting can be considered as a societal resource allocation which should be optimized from a broader organizational viewpoint. The amount of budget required for a facility or a portfolio of facilities may not be the same as the expected cost, since the lack of budget may cause consequences as a consequence of postponed maintenance. The justification for requiring more budget than the expected cost is given taking basis in the maximization of the net benefit. Whereas all the consequences associated to the project must be taken into account in the life cycle costing analysis, it is important to distinguish the financial costs which must be paid, e.g., repair cost or inspection cost, from the user costs which represent the follow-up consequences, i.e., opportunity losses caused by the loss of the expected functions of facilities or due to the effect of postponed maintenance. This is because only the costs to be paid are related to the budget. The present paper proposes an approach to determine the optimal amount of budget and the optimal maintenance decisions, considering these two types of cost. The maintenance planning of a RC structure portfolio illustrates how the proposed approach may be implemented in practice.
