Concept: Reuse Costs
The cost of reusing an asset directly impacts its value.
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Main Description

Reuse Cost

The best way to get value from reuse is to lower the costs of reuse. Of course this anticipates that the asset is reusable. The items that generally lower the reuse costs include:

  • Assets that are quicker and easier to comprehend
  • Asset complexity that is minimal for the target consumer
  • Asset size that is moderate
  • Documentation quality that is high

These items are typically addressed in the Asset-Based Development Processes, specifically Asset Manufacturing.

From the research of Gaffney and Durek, as well as Poulin, we arrive at a conceptual formula that illustrates when the payoff occurs for the investment in a particular asset. From this conceptual formula we see that lowering the cost of reuse will have a significant impact on the number of times an asset must be reused in order to achieve payoff, as shown in the following image.

Formula of payoff threshold.

This means that it is generally acceptable to increase the costs of producing an asset IF those costs translate into lowering the reuse costs, and thereby achieving a return on investment sooner rather than later.