SERP (Service Evaluation and Repair Process) support comprises routine serviceability assessment of emerging vehicle designs in CAD months or years ahead of prototype availability. Using SERP methods, design improvements can be quantified in terms of improved cost of owneship value and avoided warranty expenditure, predicted by USE* engineers as a part of developing a business case to drive a design change. Between January 2006 and December 2009, the total value of predicted warranty avoidance compiled by USE* engineers to drive design changes across all customers exceeded US$200 million.

However, USE* have been keenly aware of well-founded objections to these predicted warranty figures and to test them, using warranty data from a customer’s product, USE* engineers recently completed an assessment of actual versus predicted warranty avoidance on an 07 model year programme - the first product that USE* has supported for which credible warranty data is available.

The results of the analysis showed that tangible warranty avoidance amounted to 70% of predicted.

This analysis is now an ongoing activity, with records updated as warranty data becomes available. However, as of now, this means that from the current US$235 million total of warranty avoidance predicted by USE* analysis between January 2006 and September 2010, USE* OEM customers might expect to reap an actual return of US$164 million - still an exceptionally good result and delivering an ROI on USE* services of over 2000%. Importantly, the analysis data will also be used to refine warranty avoidance predictions going forward.