Two-stage optimization model for renewing warranty considering warranty deadline

Renewing warranty can provide customers with better service,and thus help manufacturers to gain market opportunities.In engineering practice,the cost for replacement is usually higher than the cost for maintenance,hence manufacturers often face huge challenge to reduce the warranty service cost.With consideration of the warranty deadline,we propose a two-stage optimization model for renewing warranty.In the first stage,a renewing warranty with deadline(RWD)policy is implemented,where the deadline represents the cumulative uptime threshold.When the cumulative uptime exceeds the deadline,the product will be minimally repaired and kept to the residual warranty period.When RWD is expired,the replacement warranty with limited repairs(RWLR)policy is applied.Under the free replacement and pro-rata warranty policy,the corresponding two-stage cost optimization model is established from the manufacturer’s perspective,the aim is to minimize the cost rate and obtain the optimal warranty period.A numerical example is provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed model,and the sensitivity analysis is also carried out.

A customized extended warranty policy with heterogeneous usage rate and purchasing date

To increase customers'satisfaction and promote product's competitiveness,a customized extended warranty(EW)policy is proposed,where the diversities in both the usage rate and purchase date are considered.The marginal approach is applied to describe the product's two-dimensional failure in terms of age and usage,respectively.Moreover,minimal repair is adopted to restore the failure,and the virtual age method is applied to depict the effect of preventive maintenance(PM).On this basis,an optimization model is established to minimize the maintenance cost and warranty cost from the manufacturer's view,and multiple factors are taken into account,including the PM's intensity and its period,and EW's interval,etc.A numerical case study is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.The results show that by considering the product's usage rate and the purchasing date of EW,the number of failures as well as the cost of maintenance and warranty can be reduced effectively.