Conveyor belt
'whole life cost' calculator
What is 'whole life cost'?
‘Whole life cost’ (also known as 'total cost of ownership') is a simple but highly effective conveyor management tool. The calculation program below is designed to help buyers and operators evaluate and compare the sum total of direct and indirect costs of a conveyor belt in order to obtain the best value for money.
Industrial conveyor belts are critical, complex components. They are also very costly and the market for them is extremely competitive. It is extremely common to see huge differences in the selling prices of apparently identical specification conveyor belts. At the same time, differences of up to four or five times in terms of working life are equally as common. Consequently, calculating and comparing the true cost of a conveyor belts based on their working life and/or output is therefore the most accurate form of evaluation.
Apart from the purchase price, there are a great many other costs that are often not taken into consideration when comparing one conveyor belt with another. These 'below the line' costs include the labour and material costs incurred in repairing the belt (including the splice joints) during its lifetime; the cost of removing the old belt; the installation of the new belt including splicing plus the estimated costs of lost output caused by stoppages while repair and replacement work is being carried out.
Ways to measure lost output vary from one operator to another. The financial department is usually a good place to seek guidance including cost figures based on achieved output per hour. They should be supportive of any plan to calculate true costs and reduce expenditure, which buying on the basis of 'whole life cost' invariably achieves. Alternatively, production/site managers usually have productivity (tonnage) targets. These can be broken down into hours/days and weeks.
