Workshops

Please click on the links below to learn more:

Workshop A: Developing an Integrated, Data-Driven Strategy for Warranty and Post-sale Support
Workshop B: Quantifying the Impact of Warranty and Quality on Your Financial Bottom Line
Workshop C: Advanced Statistical Methods for Warranty Data Analysis
Workshop D: Adopting a Scientific Approach to Warranty Accrual Forecasting
Workshop E: Forecasting and Maximizing Parts Recovery from Warranty Returns
Workshop G: Leveraging Warranty and Post-Warranty Programs to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Competitive Advantage
Workshop H: Ensuring the Success of Your Extended Warranty Program

Pre-Conference Workshops: Monday, September 15, 2008

8:00am - 11:00am Workshop A: Developing an Integrated, Data-Driven Strategy for Warranty and Post-sale Support

7:30 Registration for Workshops A

Measuring performance is all well and good, but controlling performance and managing customers through accurate information is the best stance for successful service and business management. In this workshop we will review how best practice service operations obtain data about their operation to measure success against Warranty and Service Level Agreements and manage their operation by the use of accurate and timely information.

Gaining end to end visibility is essential in creating an effective integrated cost effective Warranty and Post Sales support strategy. Participants will learn how to:

What are the outcomes that the customer really values and what are the relevant metrics
View customers from a new angle as potentially promoters of the business
Understand why solutions, services and products now have to be seen as a single offering (Brand)
What are the real drivers of the business and how to get to the data that measures the drivers
What are the new skills that service personnel need to demonstrate at the customer interface
Design possible end to end processes

How you will benefit from this workshop:

Increase customer loyalty
Capture the right measures and not waste time and resources on useless data gathering exercises
Gain insights into the critical success factors when integrating warranty and post sales service
Utilize warranty as a way of building long term relationships with your customers by working together as partners.
Reduce internal costs and increase flexibility of offering
Consider and learn from how leading edge companies utilize warranty world-wide to improve brand loyalty

Steve Downton
Director
DOWNTON CONSULTING

11:15 am - 2:15 pm Workshop B: Quantifying the Impact of Warranty and Quality on Your Financial Bottom Line

11:00 Registration for Workshops B and C (Lunch will be served)

In today’s market, warranty requires a very systematic view, and action requires a higher level of mathematics. Many legacy systems are not robust enough to provide the level of detail necessary to make important product and warranty decisions required in business today. This workshop will illustrate the impact of warranty analytics and quality on a company’s financial reporting, management, and brand. By attending this session, participants can leverage warranty data to make better financial and operational decisions.

Participants will learn how to:

Deep dive into the sources of higher-than-normal claims, so you can pinpoint problem areas and take corrective action
Learn how systems can automatically detect emerging issues before they make it to the top-issue list. Learn how to find the “fastest movers”
Quantify the impact of increased product quality on warranty costs
Minimize the cycle time between problem identification and product design correction
Leverage data mining from various customer touchpoints to identify early warning signs
Re-engineer internal processes for faster movement of critical information

How you will benefit from this workshop:

Obtain senior management buy-in for increased resources for warranty improvement
Improve product/brand quality and customer service
Reduce the number of recalls, by narrowing the recall to only affected product
Increase productivity for business analysts and professionals
Improve your negotiating position with OEM based upon service history and product performance
Accurately forecast warranty costs to protect against financial risk and optimize financial reporting based on current models and claims

	Dr. Vadim Kozyrkov President ACULOCITY

11:15 am - 2:15 pm Workshop C: Advanced Statistical Methods for Warranty Data Analysis

11:00 Registration for Workshops B and C (Lunch will be served)

This workshop discusses statistical methods used for the analysis and forecasting of warranty claims and the associated cost. Particular attention is paid to the models offering meaningful engineering inferences from warranty data. Also addressed are certain important practical aspects of warranty data collection and analysis, such as, for example, data "maturation" phenomenon. The discussion is illustrated by case studies from the author’s corporate and consulting experience.

Participants will learn how to:

Extract engineering inferences from warranty data for the sake of continuous product improvement.
Avoid potential warranty costs by early detection of emerging reliability concerns.
Optimally allocate spare parts through the assessment of anticipated warranty repairs in calendar time.
Predict required warranty reserve.

Dr. Vasiliy Krivtsov
Senior Staff Technical Specialist in Reliability & Statistical Analysis
FORD MOTOR COMPANY

2:30 pm - 5:30 pm Workshop D: Adopting a Scientific Approach to Warranty Accrual Forecasting

2:15 Registration for Workshops D and E

Traditional processes for determining warranty reserve allocations have been highly manual, cumbersome and error-prone. The good news is that best practices and available information technologies can redefine the way warranty reserve forecasting is performed. An organization can extract data from its present operational systems, apply sophisticated modeling and forecasting techniques to this data, and generate forecasts that are significantly more accurate than what manual methods and spreadsheet programs can achieve. Some companies report that automated optimization routines reduce their error rate from more than 20 percent to 5 percent, or better.

Participants will learn how to:

Measure the impact of inaccurate warranty forecasting on your bottom line
Use sophisticated modeling and automation to develop better estimates
Optimize warranty accruals and revenue recognition while managing risk tolerance

How you will benefit from this workshop:

New methods for warranty tracking
New assessment methods for estimating the warranty liability
Accurate accruing for the warranty liability
Understanding of the impact of different warranty terms
An automated and accurate approach for forecasting the warranty liability

Greg Link William Eliason
Warranty Solutions Architect Global Warranty Finance Manager
SAS INSTITUTE SUN MICROSYSTEMS

Peter Dillman
Solutions Architect - Forecasting & Analytics Practice
SAS INSTITUTE

2:30 pm - 5:30 pm Workshop E: Forecasting and Maximizing Parts Recovery from Warranty Returns

2:15 Registration for Workshops D and E

Be it a like-kind exchange transaction, or a loaner return, or a recall, or a return of a non-repairable for analysis, or a warranty consignment return, a supplier must focus its effort on efficiently and effectively managing the return. Once material is returned, there must be a systemic effort to squeeze every last cent out of them.

This workshop will discuss the “block and tackle” efforts that will enable you to reduce the “float’ of impaired materials by 80% within a two year period and in turn minimize warranty costs and maintain high levels of customer fill rates.

Participants will learn how to:

Organize to maximize returns on a timely basis
Make it customer friendly to return materials
Reward and “punish” customers for returning materials
Deal with the challenges of returns from foreign sites
Forecast the rate of return for different transaction types
Financially report the “canning” of returns
Note the different conditions and configuration that must be captured when reusing recovered parts

How you will benefit from this workshop:

Improve forecast accuracy of material warranty expenses
Reduce overall asset investment in support of warranty program
Minimize warranty expenses
Minimize out-of-period customer supplemental billings for returns

Ron Giuntini
Founder and Principal
OEM PRODUCT-SERVICES INSTITUTE (OPI)

5:45 pm - 8:45 pmWorkshop G: Leveraging Warranty and Post-Warranty Programs to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Competitive Advantage

5:30 Registration for Workshops F and G (Dinner will be served)

This workshop will provide guidelines, tools and examples for using your organization’s warranty and post-warranty programs to differentiate its products and services, improve customer satisfaction, and gain competitive advantage. Simply running an efficient services operation is not good enough; you also have to know how to promote what you’re offering to the marketplace in order to gain competitive advantage. Learn what you need to know to compete as a market leader among peers.

Participants will learn practical and effective tools to:

Differentiate their services offerings in a highly demanding marketplace
Improve customer satisfaction and competitive advantage
Collect data/information for developing targeted marketing campaigns
Monitor their success in leveraging warranty and post-warranty programs
Compete as a market leader in their targeted marketplace

How you will benefit from this workshop:

Transform your warranty and post-warranty programs into a marketing advantage
Establish your product and service offerings as market leaders
Improve existing levels of customer satisfaction and retention
Improve customer relationships and partnerships
Run your services operations more effectively

William K. Pollock
President
STRATEGIES FOR GROWTHSM

Post-Conference Workshops: Wednesday, September 17, 2008

5:15 pm - 8:15 pm Workshop H: Ensuring the Success of Your Extended Warranty Program

5:00 Registration (Dinner will be served)

With margin pressures and heightened consumer expectations, every manufacturer must look at incremental revenue streams and customer relationship management initiatives. An extended warranty program can serve both needs – if it is properly engineered and implemented.

Participants will learn how to:

Use extended warranties as competitive differentiator
Maximize the revenue potential while enhancing the customer experience
Determine what resources are required for successful implementation
Develop and launch an effective program
Determine when and if a partner is needed to achieve critical mass
Understand the national regulatory landscape for extended warranties
Identify legal issues that need to be addressed How you will benefit from this workshop:
Produce incremental revenue
Offer a competitive advantage
Generate increased customer satisfaction and retention

Bill Stuart
Founder
STUART & ASSOCIATES

[ Register Now] · [ Next: Conference Day One ]