Warranty Management and Product Manufacture

D. N. Prabhakar Murthy · Wallace R. Blischke

Jan 2006 · Springer Science & Business Media

About this ebook

Purchasers of manufactured goods demand assurance that the purchased product will perform satisfactorily over its expected life. Warranties play a vitally important role in providing this assurance, in two ways. Firstly, warranty terms can provide a promise of protection in the event of a product failure. Secondly, effective warranty service can assure customer satisfaction in the event of a warranty claim. Successful use of both of these requires proper warranty management.

The authors of Warranty Management and Product Manufacture have developed "Stage-3" warranty management, that views warranties from a strategic perspective, beginning with a warranty strategy that is linked to technical and commercial planning from the very start of the product development process.

The aim of warranty management is to achieve the overall business objectives by focussing on both product performance assurance as well as ensuring customer satisfaction, the ultimate goal of warranty management. Warranty Management and Product Manufacture provides guidelines for achieving this goal.

Written by two of the world’s leading experts in warranty management, this monograph details the most up-to-date thinking in this key area of product manufacture. It will be an invaluable guide for managers in product development, production and marketing as well as graduate students in business and operations management and industrial engineering.

About the author

D. N. P. Murthy is the Professor of Engineering and Operations Management in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Queensland and a Senior Scientific Advisor to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has held visiting appointments at several universities in the USA, Europe and Asia. His current research interests include various aspects of technology management (new product development, strategic management of technology), operations management (lot sizing, quality, reliability, maintenance), and post-sale support (warranties, service contracts). He has authored or co-authored 15 book chapters, 140 journal papers and 130 conference papers.

Wallace R. Blischke was a member of the faculty of The Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, for 27 years. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the Marshall School and Consultant in Statistical Analysis. His specialities include design of experiments, data analysis, reliability, quality assurance, design of sample surveys, estimation theory, and management science. He is co-author of two books.