Summary: A survey was conducted to determine how civilian Government agencies were implementing life cycle costing (LCC), a procurement technique for evaluating the total cost of a product over its useful life. The General Services Administration's (GSA) accomplishments and steps GSA should consider to further promote the use of this technique were highlighted.
The efforts by GSA to adopt LCC techniques have been centered around gaining knowledge and providing training necessary to launch a more extensive working program with GSA as well as in other civilian agencies. These efforts include: (1) experimenting with procurements of high energy consumption items in coordination with the Experimental Technology Incentives Program; (2) establishing workshops for civilian agency procurement personnel to develop a working knowledge and basis for formalizing LCC in civilian agency procurement; (3) soliciting Federal Supply Service regional offices to suggest items for life cycle procurement; and (4) awarding a contract to develop a product improvement system.
