Whole Life Costing (WLC)

WLC takes account of the total costs of making or purchasing and then owning (or leasing), operating, maintaining and managing the requirement (including its end of life, whether that involves de-commissioning, disposal or re-sale) over a specified period of time.

Please login here to Download PDF (1222kb)

Information about Whole Life Costing (WLC)

This guide, one of a series, sets out to present, in an integrated fashion, the principles and practice of Whole Life Costing (WLC), together with CIPS views on the subject. CIPS is expressing beliefs on WLC as it is a best practice tool for evaluating options for any substantial procurement.

Return to Strategy and Policy topic.

Related concepts

Relationship Management

As the world becomes more competitive, firms are increasingly seeking more innovative ways to create value and improve their levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Find out more

Electronic Commerce and e-Business

The generally accepted method of electronically exchanging structured documents between trading partners used to be via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), but this has now been largely...

Find out more

Purchasing Policy and Process Design

Purchasing policy and process design Procurement policies are often seen as sets of rules governing practice and procurement processes, rather than the foundations upon which strategic...

Find out more