Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Nineteenth Annual Product Warranty Report: While the erratic nature of accruals continued in 2021, claims totals remained stable. But warranty reserves hit a new record high late in the year, and expense rates briefly set a new low record early in the year. Manufacturer's warranty expenses are sorted into 18 industries and three major sectors: vehicles, electronics, and building trades.
March 24, 2022
Nine-Month 2021 Warranty Report: This year, product sales took off but warranty expenses didn't follow. The result is that early in the year, warranty expense rates dove to levels never reached before, before rising back to typical levels later on. And the cause of this dip wasn't the automakers. This time it was the computer manufacturers.
December 16, 2021
Warranty Expenses When Conglomerates Break Up: In early 2020, two diversified companies spun off product lines to become "pure plays" in specific industries. And now, seven quarters later, the warranty expense metrics of the five new companies, which were previously blended together, have diverged in very distinct ways.
December 2, 2021
Medical & Scientific Equipment Warranty Report: In the year of the pandemic, nothing seemed to happen as expected. Sales were up but warranty expenses were down, especially during the tumultuous second quarter. And some warranty expenses seem to have been shifted from early to late in the year, by both manufacturers and their customers.
April 1, 2021
Eighteenth Annual Product Warranty Report: When the pandemic began a year ago, shopping and work patterns changed radically, as many people found it hard to leave their homes or get to work. One would have expected a deep dive in warranty claims early on, but there was an even deeper drop in warranty accruals in the middle of the year, and a much higher makeup effort towards the end of the year.
March 25, 2021
Warranty Early Reporters: Because some companies end their fiscal years months before December 31, they also report their warranty expenses a bit sooner than most. So we've collected warranty expense data from 18 early reporters in 10 industries, representing about a third of the U.S. total.
February 4, 2021
First Quarter Homebuilder Warranty Report: Those who expected a free-fall because of the lockdowns are likely to be pleasantly surprised how non-dire the data looks so far in early 2020. Then again, reports from the second quarter, which ends next week, are expected to show more extensive damage, in spite of all the partial reopenings.
June 25, 2020
Appliance Warranty Expense Report: While the HVAC industry is known for its long warranties and low warranty expense rates, the household appliance industry is known for its volatility. In 2019, claims fell and accruals rose, but the big news is the jump in expense rates seen in early 2020, caused by a recall in Europe.
June 4, 2020
Semiconductor Warranty Report: After a sudden jump in claims in 2018, warranty expense rates took a jump early last year. But by year's end, both the amount of money going towards warranty costs as well as the percent of sales it represented were back down to normal ranges. But warranty reserves haven't been this low since 2009.
May 21, 2020
Worldwide Aviation Warranty Expense Report: Warranty accruals were up last year, but warranty claims continued to fall. It's still too early for the cost of grounding of the 737 Max to show up in the data, but why are Boeing's warranty costs always much larger than Airbus? Meanwhile, Bombardier and Dassault saw significant spikes in their warranty expenses last year, while Gulfstream and Embraer saw slight declines.
October 10, 2019
WCM Pre-Conference Workshops:  Warranty professionals heading to Orlando for the 15th annual Warranty Chain Management Conference could arrive a day early to attend any of six different workshops on topics such as fraud detection, claims handling, customer satisfaction, and how to launch or expand a commercial or consumer service contract program.
February 21, 2019
Early Look at Year-End Warranty Data: The Hewlett-Packard family of companies has filed their annual reports, as have a few others such as Deere and Navistar. While companies whose fiscal years end in December are just beginning to publish their warranty expense reports this week, many others with different fiscal years have already released the data.
February 14, 2019
WCM Workshop Schedule: Six half-day classes on topics of interest to warranty professionals and service contract practitioners are scheduled for Tucson in early March, during the day before the beginning of the main conference.
February 16, 2017
Early Look at Annual Warranty Data: About half the big companies have now reported their year-end 2014 warranty expense data. And while little has changed for most of them, a few are now getting back to normal after seeing expense rates soar in 2013 and earlier last year.
February 19, 2015
Chrysler's & Tesla's Warranty Adjustments: Compared to GM and Ford, their recent mid-course corrections to their warranty expense rates are modest. But for others, the relative size of these adjustments compared to regular accruals can be an early warning indicator of trouble ahead.
November 13, 2014
Extended Warranty Conferences: As the old saying goes, two's company, but three's a crowd. With the Warranty Chain Management Conference a fixture in the spring, two conferences are competing to become the industry's preferred event in the early fall. This year, they were three weeks apart, but next year, there's only three days between them.
October 16, 2014
Appliance & HVAC Warranties: Expenses are down in early 2014, partially because of lower product sales and partially because of effective cost-cutting programs. But GE is leaving the business and the other top manufacturers are among the best cost-cutters. So expenses are likely to keep falling.
September 18, 2014
Early Warranty Data: While only a few dozen of the hundreds of warranty reporting manufacturers have filed their year end 2008 financial reports so far, very few of these early filings reflect the turmoil one would expect, given the gloom of recent headlines. Are these early filers the exceptions? Or are things really not as bad as they seem?
January 29, 2009
Early Warning Standards: Decades ago the AIAG helped set standards for electronic commerce when it developed new data interchange standards. Now it's doing similar work with warranty data communications standards, looking for ways to reduce delays, improve accuracy, and cut warranty claims costs.
March 14, 2006
Mark Your Calendars: Both pre- and post-show events now surround the WCM conference in early March, plus there are now additional warranty events to consider attending in February and June.
January 18, 2006
Warranty Webinar: Early warning systems allow manufacturers to detect emerging issues before they become major liabilities. In a roundtable discussion, experts suggest the best strategies for implementing these systems, and how to use them to reduce warranty cost, boost product quality, and increase customer satisfaction.
October 4, 2005
Early Warning Systems: The benefits, we suspect, are huge. But so are the costs. In an era when investments in new computer software must show a return or else, what will be the ROI for warranty analytics?
June 7, 2005
Warranty Conference,
Part Two: Members of the AIAG detailed their effort to create an early warning system that uses new warranty data communications standards to improve product quality.
March 15, 2005
Warranty Intelligence Software: How does one launch a warranty software company that attracts John Deere and Whirlpool as early customers? And how does one attract the CIA as both an end user and an investor? Perhaps it takes equal parts skill, spunk, and luck.
May 11, 2004
Is the TREAD Act Working? It may still be too early to say for sure, but recent auto safety-related announcements have been filled with specific quantitative data about warranty claims and failure rates. Could it be that the TREAD Act's Early Warning Reporting system is really doing its job?
March 16, 2004
Controlling Warranty Costs and Exposure: Using Early Warning Systems,
Warranty Becomes a Board-level Issue
January 5, 2004
Don't TREAD On Me: Automakers and consumer advocates argue over public disclosure of early warning report data.
April 14, 2003