Procurement & Supply Chain / Sourcing
Total Cost of Ownership TCO (aliases: life-cycle cost, whole-life cost, cost of ownership)
The full lifetime cost of a purchase, not just the price, but everything it costs to acquire, operate, maintain, and dispose of.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
The scope of the lifecycle and how future costs are handled.
In the Metric Library
- The full fork, both definitions worked all the way through
- The trap that makes the number lie, on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: ISM (Total Cost of Ownership) · APICS/SCOR · GAAP/ASC