How can I optimize the benefits of my asset warranties? a.k.a. Saving money on asset maintenance!Most new, rebuilt, or remanufactured assets will carry some level of warranty against defects or failures. Significant savings can be realized by maximizing the benefits of these warranties by either recovering costs your organization has incurred performing warranty repairs or by avoiding incurring the costs by having the vendor or manufacturer perform the repair.
In the June 1, 2011 blog titled ‘Triggering Item Warranties in Maximo for Transportation’, we described how to manage item or spare part warranties. Today we will focus on managing asset warranties.
Warranty coverage that is specific
to an asset is defined in Maximo for Transportation’s Asset Warranty Contracts (Tr)
application. This can be defined as full
coverage (every component and part on the asset is under warranty) or as
component coverage (a specific component of the asset, say the engine, is under
warranty).
If you are in the process of planning work or repairs, you will be notified of a possible warranty situation. Such things as work orders, work order tasks, purchase request lines, purchase order lines, planned labor, planned materials, planned services, etc. are validated for warranty. If your organization is not authorized to perform the warranty repair, you now have the opportunity to engage the vendor or manufacturer to perform the repair and avoid incurring the cost of the repair yourself or voiding the warranty on the asset.
If your organization is authorized to perform warranty repairs, you can proceed with the work following the appropriate warranty repair procedures to insure you are not at risk to void the warranty. Actual labor, materials, and services consumed to perform the warranty repair will be identified by Maximo as possible warranty situations. Once the work is complete, these can be used as the basis for a warranty claim to help you manage the process of recovering any costs you have incurred while performing the warranty repair.
Let's look at some examples.
This organization is not authorized to perform warranty work so the manufacturer is contacted and performs the repair at no cost.
This is recorded on the Maximo work order as a warranty repair providing detailed information on the assets repair history and history on the activities related to the asset’s warranty.
Everyone is happy as the asset is now repaired and your organization avoided incurring the cost of the repair!
This organization is an authorized warranty repair depot for this manufacturer, so the work order is approved and the repairs are performed. As labor, materials, and services are issued or purchased for the work order, they will be validated for possible warranty and flagged accordingly.
Once the work is complete, the warranty officer or shift leader can quickly generate a warranty claim based on the warranty repair information in the work order (no duplication of data entry) and process to recover funds expended. When reimbursement is received from manufacturer, the work order and asset are credited for the cost of the warranty repair.
Once again, everyone is happy. The asset is repaired and the manufacturer pays the bill, not your organization! |