The italian term Ingegneria Economica (which we can roughly translate as "economics for engineering") was introduced in 1987 and is used in Italy as an extension of Cost Engineeering with the aim to promote a more systematic and integrated approach to the management of the costs associated to any engineering activity.

Actually, the Ingegneria Economica is a discipline whose scope and primary interest is represented by the relationships between technical and organizational aspects and facts and their connections to economical and financial manifestations.

Total Cost Management is the systematic methodological approach to effectively and efficiently manage the relationships between technical and organizational aspects and facts and their connections to economical and financial manifestations.

Even if it is neither possible, not valuable, to translate in Italian the term Total Cost Management, it is certainly useful to give an accurate connotation of its three components:

• TOTAL
  It is associated to a proactive and structured approach based on an extensive involvement of all functions at all levels (Strategic, Tactical and Operational) specifically tailored for each type of organization
• COST
  Represents all the economic resources needed to create value for an organization and its stakeholders
• MANAGEMENT
  It is the systematic use of methods and techniques to Plan, Do, Check and Assess (PDCA) and their effective application to each phase of the Life Cycle of a business, product, asset, project or process aiming to minimize the costs and maximize the value (profitability)