Abstract. In knowledge economy and information age, the full life cycle cost management mode opens up a new way for the traditional cost management with its unique perspective. In this article, on the basis of discussing the theory and connotation of product life cycle cost management, we put forward that we should pay more attention to the product life cycle cost management strategies while managing the cost vertically and horizontally, and then construct the product life cycle cost management strategy framework.
An Overview of Product Life Cycle
The Theory of Product Life CycleProduct life cycle refers to the whole process including self-inoculation, generation and extinction of the product [1] .The theory of product life cycle was firstly put forward by Harvard University professor Raymond Vernon in 1966 in the "the International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle ".Vernon hold that product life is the marketing life of a product , which is the same as people's lives experiencing the cycle of formation, growth, maturity and decline. For the product, it goes through the cycle of development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. So the product life cycle was defined by him as the product's market life, the process of a new product from being created to enter the market to being eliminated by the market. This is the initial definition of product life cycle from the perspective of market. With the development of economy, people found that the product life cycle can also be understood from the view of the product itself. Therefore, product life cycle also refers to the whole process of product formation to demise, including product planning, development and design, production, usage and disposal [2] .
The Cost Theory of Product Life CycleProduct life cycle cost is an important concept in the theory of product life cycle. The theory originated from a research on the cost control of military materials which conducted by the U.S. Defense Department in the early 1960s.At that time, the U.S. Defense Department required material suppliers to design and develop the provided supplies according to the certain specifications and standards and the cost of product should achieve the lowest sum in the whole life cycle, in order that they can obtain the necessary military supplies and control the expenditure of national defense. Based on the product life cycle perspective, this cost management has opened up a new idea for traditional cost management. After 1960s, with the widely used of information technology and the emergence of new economic environment, such as the diversification of social demand, reduction of product life cycle and differentiation of market, the market emerged a large number of electronic products and other high-tech products. What a unique feature for high-tech products is the quite high use-cost and disposal cost. Therefore, when consumers purchased the products which they want, they would use the lowest costs standard to decide whether the products worthy to buy or not. In ord...