A holistic approach to Life Cycle Management at Rijkswaterstaat

Life cycle thinking takes an increasing role in both construction projects and in asset management. The term "Life Cycle Management" (LCM) is introduced as a principle for the management of Life Cycle Performance (LCP), Life Cycle Risks (LCR) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) in a dynamic environment. Rijkswaterstaat is a Dutch government agency responsible for both new construction projects and the asset management of existing national infrastructure. Many examples of "life cycle thinking' can be found in all processes at Rijkswaterstaat. However, there are many different perspectives on life cycle thinking. Slowly all these separate processes become increasingly integrated in a holistic manner. Life Cycle Management could be a binding approach to bring together all these different perspectives. Full scale implementation requires a challenging cultural change too. This paper summarizes different life cycle perspectives at Rijkswaterstaat, each in a different stage of development, and evaluates the possibilities for integral Life Cycle Management.