Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

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