Lifecycle Affordability Decisions

SpaceX as aerospace manufacturer and space transport service technology company work along to make reusable rockets, their long term plan is to make spaceflight affordable routine. Elon Musk, as CEO, is involved in every step of decision making as he has mentioned in interviews. The rocket's engine has undergone a number of improvements, and to increase its efficiency and power, a number of parts has been reduced. The redesigning process involves several decisions, such as in-house or out-source production. This research provides a practical framework for contractors, suppliers, and manufacturers to build a more reliable, affordable, and low cost supply chain. As a result, the objective of my dissertation is to explore how managers can extend the useful life of their assets and reduce their total cost of ownership. The main research focus for this dissertation is lifecycle affordability (LCA) for capital intensive products when post production costs are significantly higher than production costs. Lifecycle cost is often not considered by firms in a product, service or asset when making acquisition decisions. Firm's acquisition are mainly based on the initial cost of the product. Decision making without considering the entire lifecycle cost of a product impacts the firm's profitability, revenue, pricing strategies, and competitiveness. Evaluating the trade-offs between all the costs involved in the product lifecycle can help firms to have an estimation of costs before making any acquisition decisions. To address these challenges, lifecycle affordability (LCA) considerations can enable firms to focus their decisions on their long-term investment process rather than trying to save on initial cost of purchasing a product. This dissertation presents the following research question: how has lifecycle affordability been represented in supply chain research to date? And what are constructs of lifecycle affordability? To address this research question, the dissertation is comprised of three separate essays. The first essay conducts literature review method to provide a framework for lifecycle affordability that reduces the total lifecycle cost while maintaining the reliability and efficiency of the capital equipment, and identify existing research gaps and future LCA research ideas. The second essay is constructed on a survey-based method and investigations how homeowners' lack of understanding lifecycle cost, and long-term affordability affects their dissatisfaction with the home purchase. A regression model is developed to study the factors that explain Homebuyers' lack of understanding cost, and affordability considerations. The third essay developed an agent-based model (ABM) to study small medium businesses (SMB) when the business organization and the community is hit by a disaster. The objective of the study is to investigate the resiliency and lifecycle affordability management of the community and the small medium businesses