What process involves assessing the total costs associated with a product over its entire life?

The correct answer is the process known as whole life costing. This approach involves evaluating the total costs of owning and operating a product throughout its entire life cycle, from initial procurement through to disposal. Whole life costing seeks to provide a comprehensive financial picture that includes not just the purchase price, but also ongoing operating expenses, maintenance costs, and end-of-life disposal costs. This holistic perspective is critical for making informed procurement and investment decisions, ensuring that organizations understand the long-term financial implications of their choices.

Lifecycle assessment primarily focuses on environmental impacts across a product's life stages rather than the total economic costs. Cost-benefit analysis typically evaluates the economic efficiency of projects or investments by comparing the benefits to the costs, but it does not specifically focus on total costs over a product's lifetime. Value engineering is a method aimed at improving the value of a product by examining functions and reducing costs without affecting quality, but it does not comprehensively assess the total costs over the product life cycle. Each of these processes serves distinct objectives and does not encapsulate the broad financial assessment associated with whole life costing.