Exploring the synergies between Life Cycle cost / Whole Life Cost and Building Information Modeling: A Systematic Literature Review

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is a cost estimating approach for project and asset planning and delivery that considers the direct and indirect costs incurred over the entire life cycle of an asset. This approach can be expanded to the concept of Whole Life Cost (WLC), which additionally considers externalities and benefits. WLC can demonstrate the financial impacts, both positive and negative, of a project on its environment, in other words it can show its complete value. Despite its potential, the approach is still perceived as complex because, among other things, access to data can be difficult and the approach is still not supported by a standardized methodology. Building Information Modeling (BIM) could be used to address these issues as both WLC and BIM are deemed complementary. BIM provides WLC with better data management, improved calculation accuracy and visualization of project impacts. In return, WLC improves project understanding, decision making and reinforces life cycle thinking. This paper aims to study the potential synergies between BIM and WLC through a systematic literature review. The identification of these synergies helped form a frame of reference to better understand the opportunities that this combination can offer. Future studies would be needed to explore the application of BIM and WLC at different project scales and identify the context in which the combination of BIM and WLC is the most beneficial.