For the investment decision for new production equipment it becomes more and more common to guarantee the total amount of life-cycle-costs (LCC). In the research project "LoeWe", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), methods are developed to minimize life cycle costs in the development, operation and recycling phase. Exemplarily the development of an innovative vertical turning machine demonstrates various strategies to minimize LCC. Exchangeable technology modules extend the economic life and monitoring of selected machine components help to avoid unplanned service standstill. A LCC navigator optimizes the balance of purchasing and consequential costs.