Title: Product warranty: modelling with 2D-renewal process

Authors: Dinu Corbu, Stefanka Chukova, Jason O'Sullivan

Addresses: Key Center for Ethics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. ' School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. ' Analyst at Dunnhumby, London, UK

Abstract: The study of product warranty is of interest to manufacturers for several reasons. Paid claims are a cost of doing business and a liability incurred by the manufacturer at the time of sale. For these reasons, estimating and forecasting warranty expenses is of interest. Also, warranty data provides information about the durability of products in the field and, therefore, is of interest to engineers. Here we emphasise two-dimensional warranties, like automotive warranties, that guarantee free repairs subject to both age and mileage limits. We aim to evaluate the average warranty expenses under a two-dimensional non-renewing free replacement warranty policy using real warranty data. We derive a numerical procedure for the evaluation of the two-dimensional renewal function and use it for the warranty cost analysis. In addition, we test whether the available data can be considered as coming from a two-dimensional renewal process.

Keywords: 2D renewal process; two-dimensional renewal function; warranty cost analysis; product warranty; automotive warranty data; automobile industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRS.2008.021065

International Journal of Reliability and Safety, 2008 Vol.2 No.3, pp.209 - 220

Published online: 01 Nov 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article