Mechanical Engineering

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AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN-TO LIFE-CYCLE CRITERIA FOR LOWERING WARRANTY COSTS AND IMPROVING OWNERSHIP EXPERIENCE THROUGH THE USE OF A NEW "BINARY DECISION MODEL" AND APPLICATION OF A "WARRANTY INDEX"
(2009) Ireland, William C.; Christou, Aris; Reliability Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Financial challenges facing the automotive sector require identification of new opportunities for quality improvement. A new Design-To Life-Cycle-Cost strategy is introduced that applies a unique "Binary Decision Logic Model" that classifies corrective action opportunity into Life-Cycle categories. The intended result is to lower a manufacture's warranty costs and improve ownership experience. This is done by setting Design-To goals in a Life-Cycle way for Reliability and Serviceability. The sample space for data to drive this change of process is found in an existing warranty system with data elements consisting of failure occurrence, failure symptom, mileage, part cost, and labor cost. One can investigate new factors, such as the "Warranty Index," that parses the corrective action in favor of lowering part costs or labor costs found in a typical service event. The data considers opportunities over mileage and time domains to improve vehicle quality over the Life-Cycle.