Warranty Week Newsletter Archives

HVAC Equipment Warranty Report: The big news is that after years in which most of the top HVAC companies were part of much larger conglomerates, now we have two new "pure play" industry members after the latest round of spin-offs and divestments.
May 28, 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

Semiconductor Warranty Report: Companies that make the tools and equipment used to manufacture semiconductors and printed circuit boards spend more on claims, set aside more accruals, and shell out a larger chunk of their revenue on warranty expenses than do their customers who make the actual devices. But the companies that make the devices keep more warranty reserves on hand than do the companies that supply them with tools and equipment.
May 9, 2019

HVAC & Appliance Warranty Report: The appliance makers have higher warranty expense rates but the HVAC makers spend more. They also maintain warranty reserves that are much larger than the appliance companies, because the warranties on their products have longer durations.
June 21, 2018

Aerospace Warranty Report: Unlike the automotive industry, the manufacturers of commercial airplanes do not have higher warranty expenses than their suppliers, and do not spend a larger percentage of their sales revenue on warranty claims. But just like those land-based vehicle makers, airplane and helicopter manufacturers have been cutting their warranty costs for more than a decade.
April 26, 2018

Apple's Warranties & Service Contracts: Although it is one of the world's largest warranty providers and extended warranty administrators, both programs used to be even larger. Using figures from Apple's just-published annual report, we estimate the size of each.
November 9, 2017

Automotive Supplier Recovery: Factors such as recessions and recalls seem to have as much influence as efforts by OEMs to recover larger reimbursements from their suppliers for warranty expenses. But no matter which factor contributes the most, the ratio between their parts of the total still seems to range between 80% and 90%.
August 25, 2016

Aerospace Warranty Report: Unlike the computer and automotive industries, the aerospace OEMs do not pay a vastly greater share of industry warranty expenses than do their suppliers. However, like their parts and component suppliers, they tend to provide longer warranties and keep larger reserve balances than manufacturers in other industries.
April 14, 2016

Auto Parts Supplier Warranty Report: Suppliers of engines and transmissions keep larger warranty reserve balances and pay higher warranty expense rates than do suppliers of other automotive components. But those other suppliers have done a better job of cutting their warranty expenses over the past decade, though they've lost ground recently.
April 7, 2016

Homebuilder & Supplier Warranties: Unlike in the automotive industry, where the OEMs have compelled their suppliers to pay a larger share of warranty costs, the homebuilders are reducing their share by selling fewer new houses. It's the building material suppliers who have learned how to cut warranty costs by reducing their expense rates.
September 11, 2014

Appliance & HVAC Warranty Report: While we group them together, they're actually very different. Appliance makers pay higher warranty expense rates but for shorter durations. HVAC makers keep larger reserves on hand but they have to, given their longer-lasting warranties.
April 10, 2014

Mining Equipment Warranties: Most of the larger manufacturers of drilling and digging equipment are in many more industries besides mining. They make everything from medical instruments and food handling equipment to road paving equipment and diesel generators. So it may not be possible to analyze them as a single group.
June 27, 2013

Dell's Extended Warranties: Though its hardware sales have flattened, the importance of Dell's extended warranty program continues to rise. While a few years ago it was twice as large as the product warranty operation, now it's four times larger. And it accounts for a rising percentage of the company's total revenue.
January 24, 2013

Warranty Management: Warranty management for manufacturing and sales organizations is becoming an intense focus area. Warranty spending by US-based companies surpasses the Gross Domestic Product of some nations. But warranty is an avoidable cost, if managed efficiently and judiciously. As warranty also involves customers directly, the larger imperative of organizational image is at risk. A prelude to warranty management is information stability, consistency and transparency.

The Chief Information Officer plays a pivotal role to iron out the initial impediments before laying out a smooth track for warranty management in any enterprise. This article brings out the different sources of warranty data, a collaboration model for warranty data, the business dynamics of multiple stakeholders with respect to warranty management and displays ways to assess and improve warranty information maturity.
November 14, 2007

Warranty Benchmarks, Part Two: Big companies really do pay more. The larger the manufacturer, the more warranty claims they pay. And in both the automotive and computer industries, OEMs tend to pay more claims than their parts suppliers.
October 31, 2007

Warranty Reserves by Industry: Longer warranties usually mean larger reserves. And in industries where warranties are getting longer, the ratio between claims and reserves is growing. But in some sectors, the need for earnings may be forcing companies to live with more risk and smaller reserves.
June 12, 2007