Simplicity and Elegance in Creating Warranty Coverages- Hierarchal Structures             

Let's face it: warranty coverages are becoming complex.  Coverages vary not only across numerous products, but also within the structures of the product. With the current global emphasis on quality, many manufacturers express that quality vision through their warranty policies and coverages.  These policies and coverages can widely vary between products, and extend deep into the core of the product, down through the assemblies, components, or parts. Some manufacturers have even chosen to pass along the warranties of their suppliers to the customer, adding another layer of coverage complexity.

A unique solution to managing product coverage is the use of hierarchal building blocks.  By building simple coverages at the lowest level of component, and then adding them to the next level in the structure, the management of multi-component coverages becomes easier to understand and modify.  

Coverage:  2 years parts and labor except compressors with 1 year, and hydraulics at 5 years

You start by defining simple policies for the level 1 items, then adding them (just point-and-click) to the level 2 item.  The coverage now extends throughout the product, except for the compressor and the hydraulics which have their own coverages.   By extending the hierarchal building blocks, sophisticated coverages can be constructed from low-level simple policies.  This method also applies to the reimbursement terms where you can establish parts prices, labor amounts, and other charges.  

These multi-level coverages can then be applied to products, entities (fleets, special customers, etc.), serial numbers, and even brands.  To build a special coverage for a particularly large customer, you simply copy the old coverage to a new name, modify the simple policies, and then apply that coverage to the customer's name.  Now it is not only easy to structure your coverages; it's also easy to assign them to the correct entities and products.

By laying a solid foundation of hierarchal building blocks, you can now easily build on and manage the higher levels of the structure.  The solution's coverage modification and assignment features prevent the usual add-on risks of manual entry errors and missed coverages.