Life Cycle Management and Infrastructure

Supply Chain Management Theory and Case Study

The process of constructing and maintaining of the immense and integral networks of infrastructure which are vital to the support and survival of municipalities and nations invariably relies upon the cooperative efforts of private enterprise and public entities to ensure that key elements such as a project's budgetary and scheduling concerns are addressed in an with economy and efficiency. Throughout the last century both private and public concerns were willing to work together in a collaborative way via the public-private partnership (PPP) model, a system which enables municipal governments to institute the issuing of bonds to produce financial support which is necessary for interstate highways, hydroelectric power plants, and the core components of infrastructure in the modern age. In a jointly authored article titled "A life-cycle risk management framework for PPP infrastructure projects," which was published within the Journal of Financial Management Of Property & Construction in 2008, the link between life cycle risk management framework theory and PPP-based infrastructure development is explored using a combination of research review and case study methodologies. As the authors state in the article, "to ensure the success of PPP infrastructure projects, it is important for all partners to manage the risks from a project life cycle perspective, in which risks are identi-ed and assessed in the earliest possible project stage and are allocated to the parties who are in the best position to control them," (Zou, Wang & Fang, 2008), and this assertion is then supported by citing a number of examples from across the spectrum of infrastructure design. Throughout the paper readers are reminded of the essential aspects of PPP-based infrastructure implementation through the lens of life cycle management theory, and the authors make a strong case that "the importance of putting efforts on a continuous life-cycle risk identi-cation and allocation is never overstated within different sectors such as transport, technology, water, prisons, health, welfare, and urban regeneration" (Zou, Wang & Fang, 2008).

Another scientific study which deftly applies the fundamental aspects of life cycle management theory to the realm of infrastructure design is titled "Life-Cycle Management of Construction Projects Based on Virtual Prototyping Technology," and the jointly authored article which was published in the Journal of Management In Engineering in 2010 provides a clear template for both public and private interests to follow. The authors argue that the traditional model of infrastructure design and implementation is fundamentally flawed based on a lack of life cycle management integration, before making the case that "owing to the different characteristics of projects or industries, the phases of project life cycle are different from each other & #8230; it has been proposed that the available life-cycle phases of conceptual, planning, testing, implementation and closure should be applied to projects" (Guo, Li & Skitmore, 2010). According to literature reviewed by the authors in this article, a foundational aspect of infrastructure design in the modern age must be the application of a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) during the planning and implementation phase of complex projects. The authors assert that the LCSA now the most productive method of assessing an infrastructure project's likelihood of failure in terms of cost, schedule and effectiveness, a theory which they base on the importance of using scope control to assess a project's functionality.