A recent report from Aberdeen group on Warranty Management included a Case Study on Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America, Inc (MCFA), a current customer of 4CS iWarranty. 

Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. (MCFA) is a leading manufacturer of forklifts in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Latin America.  The company manufactures and distributes three distinct brands- Mitsubishi Forklift trucks, Cat® lift trucks and Junghenirich® warehouse products- from its Houston headquarters.  With the industry's most extensive dealer network in North, Central and South America, the company provides customers with quality products that range from warehousing to industrial applications and are backed by industry-leading customer service.

Four years ago, MCFA was challenged with creating a legacy warranty management solution, which required the manual transfer of information through multiple channels within the organization, adversely impacting both technology and process capabilities. Only some warranty claim information could be captured electronically and the solution was not user-friendly for internal or external stakeholders.  All claims were printed; hard copy changes were noted and then manually input into a database.

The warranty claims processing systems led to lost data, long processing windows, and unnecessary data capture.  About 10% of the data stored was discarded as the claims analyst identified that the particular data was not relevant to their respective coverage area. The lack of quality data caused the company to miss out on opportunities to maximize resources throughout the organization as non-value added actions consumed the warranty process because of the need for additional staff to input the data.

To boost productivity, MCFA deployed a warranty management solution which transformed the warranty process from a manual undertaking to an automated workflow.  A number of functionality changes transformed MCFA's ability to improve data quality and claims processing, including the ability to have workflow control of the solution within the functional business unit as opposed to an IT department, making changes as identified in real-time and providing a user-friendly interface that could be effectively leveraged by both internal stakeholders and customers.  These three main attributes allowed MCFA to customize the solution and provide a quality warranty claims experience to its customers.  Additionally, the new process allows the company to quickly take direct customer feedback and then incorporate those recommendations almost immediately.  Prior to the implementation of this warranty management solution, customers often demanded a better and easier warranty work flow and the ability to receive feedback while a claim was in process.  Automation of the system provided the perfect solution for all users.

As a result of transforming the warranty process, MCFA has seen improvements in both profitability and overall workforce efficiency.  The company has been able to reduce its warranty claims personnel by over 50%, allowing it to shift resource to other areas of the company.  MCFA has more than tripled the quantity of claims processed automatically, and has seen a 75% decrease in the time to process claims.  These improvements have helped MCFA navigate a poor economy while still offering quality service and warranty claim resolution to the customers.

MCFA continues to identify opportunities to expand the level of automation with the warranty claims process work flow, providing the opportunity to reallocate valuable resources to other aspects of the business in order to continue to drive revenue streams throughout the company.