Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Seventeenth Annual Product Warranty Report: For a variety of reasons, claims and accruals continue to grow in the vehicle sector and shrink in the electronics sector. But sales have grown faster, so the overall share of manufacturing revenue going towards warranty expenses remains below 1.5%. Warranty reserves, meanwhile, came close to setting a new high water mark late in 2019, after years of declines.
April 16, 2020
Warranty Claims & Reserves, Part 2: The electronics sector tends to have shorter warranties than other sectors such as vehicles. Yet their warranty costs have ranged all the way up to four percent of sales. And while the average size of their warranty reserves is on the small side, some industry segments keep very large balances.
February 13, 2020
Worldwide Aircraft Warranty Report: With warranty expenses that exceed a billion dollars annually, the manufacturers of airliners, business jets, and propeller planes are a major sector within the warranty industry. And over the past decade, they have learned how to reduce warranty costs while increasing revenue, as demonstrated by their declining claims and accrual rates.
July 20, 2017
Electronics Warranty Report: Although not as pronounced as in the automotive industry, and not as unseen as in the aerospace industry, there is definitely a gap in the high-tech sector between the warranty expense rates of OEMs and their suppliers. Makers of computers, telecom equipment, and medical devices have much higher warranty costs than disk drive or semiconductor manufacturers.
April 20, 2017
Aerospace Warranty Metrics: Unlike in the automotive sector, the aerospace OEMs and their suppliers split warranty expenses more equally, and have similar expense rates. But while the suppliers have been reducing their warranty costs lately, the OEMs are not.
September 20, 2012
Medical & Scientific Equipment
Warranty Report: Though there is a strong seasonal pattern that drives their warranty costs up in the summertime, companies in this sector have generally been able to reduce those costs from year to year. Even the companies making warranty-intensive X-ray and laser equipment have been cutting costs in recent years.
May 12, 2011
Telecom & Medical Equipment Warranties: While Motorola sets the pace in the telecom equipment warranty sector, no one company dominates medical equipment warranties. In fact, if anything, the medical and scientific instrument makers are known for consistently low rates of warranty spending.
April 2, 2009
General Motors' Warranties: The world's largest automaker is running out of cash, and if a government loan doesn't come through soon, bankruptcy may follow. As the largest U.S.-based warranty provider, GM's fortunes may have a Lehman-like ripple effect throughout the entire manufacturing sector. Then again, maybe a court-supervised opportunity to reorganize is just what the company needs?
November 13, 2008
Telecom Equipment Warranties: Claims are up slightly and accruals are down slightly, as are total warranty reserves. But within the telecom sector are a handful of companies that have seen warranty costs fall significantly in the past five years.
October 9, 2008
New Home & Appliance Warranties: At the midpoint of 2007, sales are falling faster than claims can be reduced, driving claims rate percentages upwards for many companies in the building trades. But unlike in the automotive or computer industries, claims in this sector were always rather evenly distributed among new home builders and their suppliers.
September 25, 2007
Warranty by Industry Sector: While claims grew by 4.9% to $25.1 billion in 2004, warranty's slice of revenue actually shrank a bit as sales grew faster. In some industry sectors, both dollars and percentages actually fell, but computer and automotive OEMs still process the vast majority of all warranty claims.
May 10, 2005